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Speaker 1: Welcome to Gardening with Ben. You'll go to podcast for

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all things green and growing in twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 2: Whether you're a.

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Speaker 1: Seasoned gardener, a budding enthusiast, or just curious about cultivating

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your own slice of nature, you're in the right place.

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Join me Ben as we explore practical tips, inspiring stories,

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and the latest trends in gardening to make your outdoor

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space bloom with life, from a lotment adventures to wildlife

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friendly gardening. I'm here to help you grow your passion

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and read the rewards. So grab your gloves, roll up

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your sleeves, and let's get started on this year's gardening journey.

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Hey everyone, and welcome back to Gardening with Ben for

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a midweek episode. It's Wednesday, or any time is certainly flying.

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Hopefully we will be at the weekend pretty soon, and

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hopefully we won't have any snow this weekend. Hopefully we

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could actually get out in them guard and get out

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in them allotments, get some fresh air and enjoy being

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back in the garden or allotment again. I I managed

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to get down this Sunday only for a bit, just

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to feed the birds. But yeah, that's all I've been

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up to down at the allotment this week.

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Speaker 2: Well, I hope you enjoyed yesterday's episode, as.

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Speaker 1: We're talking about all about sowing your onion seeds rather

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than sets, and the benefits of them and whether they're

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any better than sets or not. So if you've not

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checked out that episode, go and listen to yesterday's episode

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and catch up on that one. We're certainly trying different

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types of podcasts now we're going to be talking about

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different things to sew, when to sew them, and talk

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about growing them as well. So I hope you're enjoying

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these podcasts. Well, today we're going to talk about another

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seed that you can sew now, which is perfect for

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sewing down really as onions obviously need that headstart. And

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the other one is peppers and chillis now usually on

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the seed packet you'll see like so around February and

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March time, but that's usually where it's a bit hotter.

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So I grew peppers last year and I sewed them

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in March, and it was too late. They were only

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just fruiting around September time and they didn't come to much.

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They didn't get big enough to be able to harvest

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them or do anything with them. So starting them off

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now get some growing faster and hopefully fruiting a lot

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quicker than they did before. So hopefully we'll get some

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good results this year. And there's many varieties of peppers

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out there. You'll obviously get your big supermarket type peppers,

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your red, yellow, orange, green peppers, and you'll also get

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like smaller varieties of pepper capsicum I think they're called.

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And obviously it'll get chilies as well. Chilies are pretty

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easier to grow because obviously you don't need to grow

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them to the big size of peppers. They just grow

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to the little size of chilies, and usually you get

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a lot more growing on the plant at the same time.

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So we're going to be trying to grow a variety

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of both of them this year. As I've not done

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chilis for quite a long time, possibly about ten years,

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so we're going to give chilies to try again this

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year and try some not too spicy. I'm not a

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spicy person, but I'm going to try some chilies see

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if we can get some growing. And like I said,

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now that I'm in a new flat, I can actually

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cook in it, and yeah, I can actually give experiment

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in trying to grow different stuff. So I'm going to

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try growing some chilies again this year, and we're going

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to grow some peppers. We're going to grow the standard

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type variety, possibly the smaller varieties that are caps come ones.

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We'll see how we get on with both of them.

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So if you're sewing them now, obviously, one way of

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doing it is actually going to the supermarket and buying

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the variety that you want to grow, as it's full

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of seeds, and it'll be cheaper than buy the packet

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of seeds. Trust By, you'll get absolutely hundreds of seeds

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inside of pepper. So sometimes it's cheaper to buy the

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actual produce and get the seeds out of them and

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have a look, scrape them out and dry them out,

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and once you dried out then you can sew them.

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Speaker 2: And they're pretty easy to sew. Usually I'll put a.

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Speaker 1: Few in a plant pot and pick out a few,

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some of the strongest ones and then pot them on

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and et cetera, et cetera. But the thing is we're

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growing peppers, obviously, we've got to remember they are a

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hot country food, as they're usually growing in like Spain, Brazil,

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places like that, so it needs hot weather, so you

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can't necessarily like grow them outside. If you get a

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lot of hot weather, maybe, but you need to think

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about growing them either in a polytunnel, in a greenhouse,

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in one of these makeshift greenhouses what are made out

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of plastic, but obviously make sure that the greenhouse is

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fastened down well because they do blow aways, so or

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in a conservatory. But if you're growing them in a conservatory,

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you've got to remember that they won't get pollinated because obviously.

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Speaker 2: We won't be getting bees in there.

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Speaker 1: You won't be getting flies in there hopefully, so they

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won't get getting pollinated as easies. So you may have

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to help them with the pollination by getting a paintbrush

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and pollinating each flower and stuff like that. So if

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you wanted to grow them indoors, possibly pollinate them yourself.

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But if you've got an i place like a greenhouse

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or polyton or to grow them in, you could get

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some great crops from them. And obviously we've got our

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polyton also. I want to make use of the polyton

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a bit more this year and hopefully grow some peppers

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in there and hopefully grow some watermelons and other melons

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in there as well. We're going to give them a

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little try this year. So, like I said, if you

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want to grow some peppers, go to the supermarket by

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the pepper that you want to grow to scrape out

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all the seeds, dry them out, put them on like

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some kitchen roll or something. Let them dry for a week,

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and then sew them into some soil, and obviously, like

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I said, a few in each pot, cover them back

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with soil, water them, and then cover them over with clingfilm.

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Speaker 2: As that will work as a greenhouse. It will keep

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them moist, it will keep them warmer.

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Speaker 1: Peppers need about twenty five degrees to germinate, so there's

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no points to come in a greenhouse hoping that they'll germinate.

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Because that's why I started them off in March previously

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because I didn't have a window sell in my own flat.

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But now I've got a window sill at this one,

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so I brought them home. It's obviously nice and warm

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and toasted my flat. So they need about twenty five

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degrees to germinate. So once you got them to germinate,

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grow them to a decent size, then you can put

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them into individual pots, grow them on and then possibly

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around March time April time, take them back down to

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your altman or into the greenhouse it won't have to

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be heated, and continue growing them. And then obviously when

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it gets to like June time, you can actually grow

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them in the polytunnels and stuff like that. They won't

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need to be heated because they'll have plenty of warm temperature.

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Speaker 2: Fingers crossed. We didn't get much of a summer last year.

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Hopefully we'll get a good one this year.

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Speaker 1: Fingers cross we certainly need one, as we certainly didn't

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have a very good summer or possibly one of the

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reasons why the peppers didn't do very well at all.

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So they're pretty easy to grow, and like I said,

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if you're wanting to get good produce from them, and

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if you are struggling with bees and insects around, just

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pollinating yourself even if there is pollinators around, and you

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possibly may get more produced by doing that. And obviously

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the more you keep picking them, the more they'll keep producing,

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especially with chilis. Keep picking them off and you'll get

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more and more growing on them throughout the season and

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they could be fruiting up till October if we have

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decent weather, so they're very they'll produce absolutely loads chilies.

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So it's well worth growing a couple of plants. By

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saying a couple is don't grow growing like six because

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you'll be inundated. To trust me, when I first grew

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on previously, I had about eight plants because I didn't

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know what we were doing and getting bags full of

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bags full off every single week, and wow, I couldn't

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get rid of them. But yeah, we'll be growing a

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few plants down there. Knowing me, I'll still plant all

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the seeds and probably get hundreds of plants growing at

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the same time. But yeah, we're going to give them

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a try this year, growing some peppers and some chilies. So,

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like I said in yesterday's episode, obviously you can start

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onions now, and you can start peppers now. If you

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are starting them off on a window, so make sure

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they don't get legged, make sure they get enough sunlight,

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keep turning.

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Speaker 2: Them around, and keep them water.

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Speaker 1: Obviously, you don't want to be growing somewhere where they'll

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stretch and grow legging. They'll not be any good and

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then you have to start more seeds off and start

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from scratch again. So yeah, if you want to try something,

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get some peppers and chilies growing on a window sill

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and let me know how you get on. Let me

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know if you're going to be growing some peppers and

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chilies in your garden this year. Like I said, pretty

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easy to grow, and peppers aren't that easy, but the

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chilies usually are easy. So I hope you've enjoyed today's episode.

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As always, remember keep smiling, keep shining, and keep guarding

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with everyone. Thanks for tuning in to today's episode of

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Gardening with Ben. I hope you've enjoyed our chat and

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picked up some tips to help your garden and allotment pride.

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Don't forget to stay connected with me on all social

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media for even more gardening inspiration, updates and behind the

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scenes content. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

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Just search Gardening with Ben, hit that follow button or

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subscribe button and join our growing community of garden lovers.

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Until next time, everyone, remember, keep smiling, keep shining, and

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keep gardening with Ben.