Welcome to Gardening with Ben, the podcast where we dig into the soil of
our gardens and the depths of our green funds. I'm your host, Ben,
here to guide you through the joint of gardening, from sowing seeds to
reaping bountiful harvests. Each episode will explore tips, tricks and tails from the
garden and allotment, sharing insights from ourself and stories from our own back garden
adventures. Whether you're a seasoned gardener or just getting your hands dirty for the
first time, there's something here for everyone. So grab your brew and gardening
gloves and let's get growing. With Gardening with Ben. Hello and welcome to
Saturday Gardening, the podcast of green inspiration and advice, and Gardening with Ben,
your guide through the wonderful world of plants, flowers, vegetables, and
all things gardening. Whether you are a seasoned green form or just starting our
first pop plant, this is the place to share tips and tricks and joy
of growing. Today we're diving into gardening and allotments, exploring everything from basic
care to creative ideas for our garden space. So grab your gardening gloves,
pull yourself a cup of tea, and let's get our hands dirty in the
delightful world of gardening. Let's grow together with Gardening with Ben. So welcome
to this Saturday episode of Gardening with Ben. The podcast is a bit later
than usual in the day, but we have been busy today, and yeah,
we have been to the allotment today. Today was the first day that
I've actually managed to be able to get some work done down there after the
big cold spell that we've had. It's been absolutely freezing and apparently we've got
a storm coming tomorrow, so who knows whether I'll be able to get down
to the allotment or not, but fingers crossed I'll still be able to get
down and do some bits and jobs, because today I've just started with my
next project down at my plot, and that is sorting out all my allotment
beds, taking them all apart, realigning them all, straightening my path out
a bit better, and sorting out my flower boarders, which is going to
be a massive job. Even though it wasn't as cold today, it's still
been rock hard the soil, so I couldn't do any digging today and all
I've been able to do is manage to lift up some of my paving and
remove some of my allotment beds and dismantle them and get them ready for rebuilding.
And it's going to be a big job this part, as this is
my main plot that I'm working on. Now I've sorted out all around my
food trees, around my rood Bob, my strawberry plant area. I've sorted
all that out, sorted all my shed out, My polyto tunnel's all being
emptied and cleaned out, and now I'm onto my main plot. And we've
got till the end of March to get all this done, so we've got
plenty of time to get done. And once I've sorted out on a lotment
beds, then I'll be repainting all the wood on the plot to make it
look fresh and ready for the year, which'll take a long time. And
I really don't like doing the painting work. That is the worst job on
the plot. If that's the old job that you hate, let me know.
It's always good to hear what people think of it. But I do
that just to protect the wood and to make it last that a little bit
longer. Because some of the beds they've been built for like ten fifteen years
now and they're still going strong and they've not rotted, so giving them that
bit of pain to look after them really does help in preserving the wood.
So we got all that to do. So I went down to the plot
today and as I said, it was rock hard down there, so I
couldn't do anything digging down there, but I had a look around at the
jobs what I need to do. I looked at my roobarb to see if
if that was still okay from the cold weather, and nope, it has
been killed off. I've got lots of rhubarb shotes popping through, which is
very early for rhubarb. It shouldn't be growing till March time, but the
cold weather had killed it all off. So it's back into hibernation and hopefully
the shoots will start growing again when it starts warming up. But all the
spring bulbs are popping through the ground. I've got lots of bulbs starting to
show, which is a good sign. And yeah, that's all starting to
look good. So I can't wait to start getting some color down on the
plot once the bulbs are popping the heads through and showing their faces. And
I'm especially looking forward to seeing my tulips and high SEMs as they're my favorite
spring bulbs out of all the bulbs that you can get. And aliums,
who I do love alums with big, massive purple heads. If I could
have loads more aliums, I would do. But we keep buying spring bulbs
every single year and adding some more to our collection. And we've still got
plenty of space to add more spring bulbs. So that's going to be a
more expensive job next year to get all that sorted and get all them in.
But that's next year. Well, it's end of this year's job now
into the new year, aren't we. So I'll be planting all those around
November time and it'll soon be here before we know it. So we've got
them to do. And yeah, macarlic's looking our eyes. It's not looking
brilliant, but it's growing, so we'll see how it gets on. If
it doesn't do too well, I'm not too fussed. I just planted it
because I wanted to plant something and get it growing. So we'll keep an
eye on that and see how we get on. The vegetable that I do
want to grow well is my sweet corn. If my sweet corn grows fantastic.
I will be happy. If it didn't grow fantastic, I wouldn't be
happy. But we don't plant that till the end of March, the seeds
beginning of April, so we've got plenty of time before we start thinking about
the sweet corn. But yeah, I saw lots of down there, all
flying around. It's great to see the robbins out and about, and my
bird feeders are completely empty, so I've bought some more bird teat to take
down to the plot tomorrow. So that's one of my main jobs to mark.
I do love looking after the birds down at the plot. It's expensive,
it's definitely expensive, and obviously I can't watch them from my bedroom window
because my allotment's not near my house, so I only see the birds while
i'm down there. So but I do like to keep them fed and keep
them looked after, and especially now that the ground is rock hard, they
won't be able to get their worms out, so I've got to make sure
that we keep looking after them birds and encouraging them to come back. And
it's the bluet, it's that I'm definitely wanting to look out for as I
want them to move into my bird houses again, and I want them to
get some babies flying in there. And it's good that if you get some
bluet its living on your allotment, you can obviously get them eating all the
grubs and all the bugs and stuff off your fruit trees and stuff like that.
So it's good to have bluetits down at your a lotment. And it's
great to see. Like the first time that I had bluet its living in
my blue box, I just sat there and the amount of times is flying
in and out, in and out, in and out with all the little
worms and the creepy crawl is it's fantastic to see. And then when you're
watching them about to fledge and stuff like that, Oh wow, it's fantastic.
And We've got an allotment cat down there, and I'm like, try
to keep it away, like no, stay away, stay away. I
want these bluebirds blueteds to live. But yeah, it's great to see and
you can even chirping for the parents. They're really noisy when a bit you've
got baby blue it's in your boxes. But we'll see, we'll see if
we've managed to get some this year. Fingers crossed, we do so yeah,
I have been busy down at my plot today. I've not managed to
plant my seeds yet. I've still got them lined up to do my pepper.
My pepper seeds, they're one job that I do want to get done
in there a couple of days and get them growing. Because now that we've
got us tomatoes growing there, growing fine, my beef tomatoes, we want
to start getting our pepper seeds growing. So hopefully we can start those off
in the next few days. But fingers crossed, we will be down at
the plot tomorrow, come rain or shine. We can actually work inside my
shed if it is absolutely chucking it down and windy, and we can get
them seeds planted. And it's just something I love doing. I just love
getting out and about. I don't like staying in my flat all day.
I've got a bit outside in the fresh air, and it's good for the
mental health, like I keep saying in my episodes, being down at the
plot, so it's better than staying in and not doing anything. And that's
why I'm getting this enjoyment of doing these podcasts again because I can talk about
my gardening experience and what I'm getting up to around there. And the amount
of messages I've received from people listening to these podcasts. Wow, thank you
so much for all their messages. Please do keep sharing them with people and
sharing them to your Instagram stories and stuff like that. The more people that
listen to them, the better they'll take off. And like I say,
it all goes back towards my allotment everything that I get from these podcasts,
so it's a case of improving them and then we get little bits and bobs
from them, and then I can talk about them in this podcast and stuff
like that. So people do love to see what I'm doing. And one
of the main things on my list that I do want to get our hedgehog
homes down at the plot, so they're down on my list of things to
get at the moment, because I definitely do want to get some hedgehogs living
down in my plot, so we'll have to, hopefully fingers crossed be able
to order some soon. But that's just a little catch up of what I've
been getting up to down at the allotment today. Rather than talking about a
generic subject, I just like to talk about what I've been up to down
at the plot so that you can step up today and do any jobs that
I've been doing. So hopefully we'll be back down at the plot tomorrow and
I'll be able to talk about what I've been up to down at the allotment
and share it all with you, and hopefully you'll be able to join in
and with what I'm up to and let me know what you're up to down
at the allotment. It's always good to hear what people are doing, what
people are planting, as I'm always learning from other people the amount of posts
I look out, the amount of videos I look at, and stuff like
that. I just get my tips from everybody else. So sharing is definitely
caring in the world of gardening. So until tomorrow's episode, remember keep smiling,
keep shining, and keep gardening with Ben. Everybody until tomorrow. We'll
see you all later. And that wraps up another episode of Gardening with Ben.
Thank you for joining me in this journey. Remember every seed planted is
a step towards a greener world, and every day is a chance to grow
something beautiful. Keep nurturing your gardens and your souls. Until next time,
I'm gardening with Ben, reminding you to let your garden be your Sanctuary,
happy gardening, and see you in the next episode. Remember keep smiling,
keep shining, and keep gardening with Ben