Speaker 1: Welcome to Gardening with Ben. You'll go to podcast for
all things green and growing in twenty twenty five. Whether
you're a seasoned gardener, a budding enthusiast, or just curious
about cultivating your own slice of nature, you're in the
right place. Join me Ben as we explore practical tips,
inspiring stories, and the latest trends in gardening to make
your outdoor space bloom with life, from allotment adventures to
wildlife friendly gardening. I'm here to help you grow your
passion and read the rewards. So grab your gloves, roll
up your sleeves, and let's get started on this year's
gardening journey. Hey everyone, and welcome back to Gardening with
Ben for your Friday's episode. The weekend is finally here,
Thank goodness. It's time to enjoy the weekend. It's time
to get back in the gardens, and it's time to
enjoy being out in the fresh air again. If you've
been stuck inside all week, it's a savior when you
can spend time back in your garden, back enjoying what
you're doing. And I know I certainly do. I love
being back outside. I've being stuck inside all week. I
do love to be out in the garden, even if
I'm not doing anything. I just love to sit there
and enjoy being out in the fresh air. Now, I
do pop down to my allotment a couple of times
in the week, which I have done this week. And
while I've been down there this week, I've popped into
my polytunnel. I've checked that the water irrigation system still working,
which it is, thankfully. We're having to fill the wheel
have been back up every few days, but it's keeping
them wet, it's keeping them moist, and yeah, it's saved
water in them. And I've noticed that I've got a
sudden increase of tomatoes growing on my tomatoes plants. Whether
it's because I pinched the tops off them and they're
now starting to concentrate on growing the tomatoes maybe, or
it's down to the irrigation system. It's either one. Whatever
I've done, it made Martin Marts grow, So hopefully we'll
keep them fruiting all the way up to October, which
would be absolutely amazing. And I had a look at
my melon plants as well down there, and this small
little melon up we're there at the weekend. It's starting
to swell up pretty fast, so it's growing quite fast
in the polytunnel, which is absolutely amazing. Now I still
don't know what variety of these are. It's looking like
there could be possibly a watermelon because of the shape
of them. They're not like a ball shape, they're like
long and oval, so I'm guessing there could be watermelon.
So we'll have to wait and see and see what
we actually have grown down at the allotment. The thing
it's crossed it is a watermelon because I've never grown
watermelons before, so that will be a for me. And
if I get one off out of all the plants
that I've got, I will be absolutely amazed. So make
sure you stay tuned to see how well our watermelons
are doing. I keep sharing updates on my Instagram and
on my Facebook, so make sure you're following them. What
else have we been up to. We've checked on us
pumpkins today and yes they are swelling as well. All
this rain that we've had this week has done the
pumpkins absolutely fantastic and one of them is starting to
go or enjoy ready, so that's a good sign that
it is ripening. We just needed to grow a bit bigger.
It's about the size of a small football. At the moment,
it's not the size of a big football, but a
smallish football, so we do need it to expand and
grow a lot more and hopefully get a lot bigger.
We've also been out and bought August edition of Grow
your Own magazine. I've not opened it yet. I need
to a grand reveal, show what seeds are inside, and
see if we can use any of these far sowing
this month. We've also been to Moison's, where I always
have a sneaky look at all the reduced plants, and
never buy plants at full price. That is one rule
that I stick to. I always buy them when they're reduced,
and most often supermarkets will reduce plants because they don't
keep on top of watering. And today I have bought
some large caners, canners or however you say. I'm not
very good at pronouncing things, but yeah, we bought two
large canners. They were meant to be eight pound each,
but these were reduced to two pound, so I thought,
bar again, I'm getting them. So I've got them. No
idea what I need to do with them, because I'm
not good with flowers. But we'll have a read up
and we'll keep you updated on what we need to
do with them and how will they grow, and if
anybody else grows them out there, send me a message
on Instagram and let me know how to grow them,
because I would like to know. And hopefully I think
they do have flowers on them, so yeah, we'll see
if we can actually get them growing and get some
great beauty on them. So we've done that. What health
have we done this week down at the allotment. We've
not done much. Else, We've done some harvesting. We've been
harvesting our tomatoes, of course on a regular basis every
time I go down to the allotment this mar to
marts pic but I'm not complaining because they only last
me a couple of days and then I'm back down
to the allotment and harvesting some more. So they keep
me going and just the right amount of tomatoes for me,
not too many, not too or less, and I can
just keep on top of eating them all, which is
absolutely amazing. So that is basically what we have been
up to down at the allotment this week. Obviously, in
tomorrow's podcast, we're going to talk about our plans for
the allotment for the weekend, planning on doing and what
we're gonna hopefully get done. Oh that's another thing. Yes,
I've got to tell you this. I've also purchased a
new microphone for doing my videos with as well. It's
one of the DGI mics, which is apparently one of
the best ones that you can get for filming videos.
It's got noise reduction on it as well, so then
when I'm doing my videos in my polytunnel and you
can hear screaming and shouting from the park or the
wind and the rain, you won't hear none of that anymore.
So it'll be nice and clear and hopefully produce better videos. So,
as I always say, everything that goes from these podcasts
and from my videos goes back into my creation of
doing stuff for you guys, So thank you for those
that do listen to the podcast and everything. So it
all goes back to giving you more content, which I
absolutely love. If I could do this full time, I
certainly would do. So it makes sure if you listen
to these podcasts a million times a day and then
I'll be able to retire. But yeah, I do love
it so much and yeah, like I said, tomorrow's podcast,
we'll be talking about everything that we're hoping to get
done down at the plot. Hopefully we're going to have
a busy weekend down at the plot. This weekend, I've
got a lot of things planned and hopefully film a
lot of videos for you for Facebook and Instagram and
sharing more tips and advice with you will and obviously
recording more podcasts for the week ahead. I hope you've
enjoyed all this week's podcast. We have managed to get
one out every single day for you, so we'll try
again next week. So until next time, everyone, remember keep smiling,
keep shining, and keep gardening. We bet everyone, thanks for
tuning in to today's episode of Gardening with Ben. I
hope you've enjoyed our chat and picked up some tips
to help your garden and a lotment tried. Don't forget
to stay connected with me on all social media for
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button and join our growing community of garden lovers. Until
next time, everyone, remember keep smiling, keep Shining and keep
gardening with Ben