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Speaker 1: Welcome to Gardening with Ben, your go to podcast for

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all things green and growing in twenty twenty five. Whether

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you're a seasoned gardener, a budding enthusiast, or just curious

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about cultivating your own slice of nature, you're in the

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right place. Join me Ben as we explore practical tips,

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inspiring stories, and the latest trends in gardening to make

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your outdoor space bloom with life. From allotment adventures to

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

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

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up your sleeves, and let's get started on this year's

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gardening journey. Hey everybody, and welcome to Gardening with Ben

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for your twenty twenty five season of gardening podcasts. Here

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from me. We've got a new intro, we've got a

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new ending. So yes, we're ready for season five of

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Gardening with Ben. Who'd have thought I'd have been doing

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this for five years already. Wow, But I'm absolutely loving

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doing these podcasts for you, and hopefully we'll have lots

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more episodes for you to listen to this year. Talking

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about our allotment journey of twenty twenty five and sharing

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tips and advice along the way. Now, obviously today is

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the first of January. It is a new year, so

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we're going to talk about our gardening goals this year

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and what we plan on growing for twenty twenty five.

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What are our plans for down at the allotment and

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hopefully we'll have a successful bump a year fingers crossed

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and tours cross but yeah, hopefully we'll have lots and

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lots of produce down at the Allotment this year. Now,

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obviously I've been down to the allotment today. This episode

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is late been out as I want to talk about

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it fresh on twenty twenty five, so I've recorded here

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and then on the day. So yeah, we've been down

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at the allotment today and we've started tidying up my

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polytunnel now ready for this year. I've tidied all my

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shed out, that's all been tided Now is the time

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to sort out my polytunnel and once we've done that

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then we'll be back outside doing work in the allotment.

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So what are our gardening goals this year, what are

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we planning on growing again this year, and what new

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things are we going to be trying down at the allotment. Well,

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we're going to be trying a lot of new stuff

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this year, and we're going to be growing a lot

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of the old stuff that we usually do as well.

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There's stuff what's always successful, which I do well with

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every year. We'll definitely be growing our sweet corn again

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this year, and hopefully growing a lot more of it

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because I didn't have enough last year. I need even

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more sweet corn because it's absolutely delicious. We'll obviously be

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growing out beat root again this year, absolutely fantastic last

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year as our first time I've ever cooked it in

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an air fire as well. I cooked it like chips

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and they tasted absolutely delicious. So we'll be growing them again.

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Spring onions, lettuce, we grow iceberg lettuce absolutely fantastic year

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after you never had any issues with growing iceberg lettuce outside.

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We'll be growing our pumpkins again, hopefully get some bigger

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ones this year. They weren't massive this year last year,

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I mean, but hopefully it we'll get some bigger ones

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this year. We'll be growing our course yets again, doing them.

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We'll be growing our peas like we did last year.

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They did absolutely fantastic. We started them all off in

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seed trays first, and then when they were big enough,

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we planted them all outdoors and they grew absolutely fantastic,

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the best harvest that I've ever had in the time

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that I've ever had my allotment. But the peas this year,

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but last year. I keep saying this year, the last

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year were absolutely fantastic. So we'll be growing them again,

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runner beans again fantastic. Will be growing them potatoes doing

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the same method as last year. We grew them all

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in boxes, and we'll be growing them in boxes again.

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I don't plant them in the ground anymore because when

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I'm digging them up, I always end up stabbing them,

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or they'll be full of slugs or wire worm will

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have got them. And growing them in boxes, I've never

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had any issues with any of the potatoes have grown

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in them all grown successful. So we'll be doing that

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again this year. We'll be growing as onions, garlic. Hopefully

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we'll be growing our onions from seed and from set

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this year because I want to show you in videos

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how well seed grow and how well set grow and

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give you a comparison between them both. So stay up

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today with all that on our YouTube channel and Instagram

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and you'll be able to see which do better seed

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or set onions. And yeah, there'll obviously be different sorts

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of vegetables will be growing as well. We might grow

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some different varieties of certain stuff. We're going to try

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and grow a bit more cauliflower again this year. I've

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not been successful over the last couple of years, but

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we'll try and grow some cauliflower, some cabbages, and some

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sprouts as I've never really focused on them, but we're

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going to give them a good try this year. And

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I don't like sprouts, but you never know, I might

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like homegrown one. It might taste nicer, so we'll try

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sprouts again. We'll obviously be growing our peppers, as peppers

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didn't do very well last year. They were only fruiting

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towards the end of the year, which were around September.

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But we've already sewn our peppers. They're in and they're

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on my window, so hopefully getting them to Germany. Obviously

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you need about twenty four degrees for them to germinate,

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so we've got them on our window. Salt and make

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sure you get plenty of like you don't want them

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to grow legge, So we've got them growing. We've got

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onion seeds growing already. They're already in. We're growing chili's

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as well this year. First time in a long time

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that we've grown chili's, so hopefully we get some great

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crops from them. We're also going to be growing some

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auber jines. I'm going to try smaller jeans as well

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this year from seed, so stay tuned for see how

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well we get on with auber jeans or if you're

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listening in America, eggplants. But yeah, we're going to be

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growing auber jeans. And we're going to try corjettes again again.

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If in America zuchine, but we call it corget in UK.

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So I'm going to try some of those. But I'm

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wanting to get a soup maker, so hopefully we can

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grow plenty of edge to grow as for some soup,

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different varieties of soup. I might give leaks a try

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as well this year. See how well we get on

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with leaks. I'll never ever grow salerbate, so never ask

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me any tips on salerbrate because I have no idea,

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absolutely hate it. It's disgusting. So I'll never ever be

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growing salary. So we'll be doing that. We'll be growing

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as tomatoes. We'll be growing as cucumbers. As tomatoes will

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be growing outside again, small little moneymaker type ones, different

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colors yellow, orange, red, and maybe white. My dad grew

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white ones last year and they were nice, and possibly

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black ones as well, so we're growing them outdoors. We

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seem to do well. We're growing them outdoors every year.

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We'll also be growing are cucumbers outside this year, as

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I've grown them in the polyton on in the past,

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but last year I planted a quite a lot of

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plants outside and they were absolutely phenomenal, the best crop

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that I've ever had in years. So we're going to

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grow as cucumbers outside this year. We'll also be trying

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two different varieties of cucumbers what we've never tried before.

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We're going to try some apple variety ones and lemon

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variety ones. Now they don't taste like them, but they

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look like them, so we're going to be trying them,

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so stay tuned for how well we get on with

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them this year. But yeah, we're going to be trying

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all different sorts of vegetables this year. Fruit wise, will

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obviously be growing as strawberries. We've planted two hundred plants

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of those this year, so hopefully we get a good

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crop next year. We've got as plum tree, we've got

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as cooking apple tree, we've got us eating apple tree.

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We've got us pears. We've got as rhubarb. Hopefully our

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rubarb grows even better as it always does every year.

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The plants have been in sixteen years now and they're

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doing absolutely phenomenal and we get loads and loads of

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rhubob cumbles. I grow it, I give it my mum,

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she bakes it and I get the crumbles in return.

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So yeah, hopefully lots of crew crumbles. Blackberries we've got

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as faunless BlackBerry, absolutely fantastic. We've tied all that up,

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all the new growth. Hopefully we'll get loads on it

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again next year. This year, but the blackberries are bigger

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on the phone less than on wild blackberries, and obviously

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you don't get prickled as well, so fantastic. We've got

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as raspberries, we've got our blueberries. We've got as gooseberries.

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We grow lots of different varieties through I've probably missed

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some off, so I got all them to grow. And

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then flowers. We're going to go overboard with flowers this year.

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We're going to grow lots of different varieties of sweet peas.

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We've already got a load of sweet peas growing what

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we started in around September time, and we've trimmed all

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them back so that they bush out when they grow.

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The flowers might not be as big, but it'll produce

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more flowers on them, and I'm going to be ordering

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a load more sweet peas, all different varieties. I want

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to try lots of different varieties and sweet peace this year.

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We've also got loads of different varieties of poppies to

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try this year. We grew a few varieties last year

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and they are absolutely phenomenal. I didn't sew the seed

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in the ground. I saw them in trades first so

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that I knew where they were growing and I could

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plant them out to where I wanted them to grow.

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So we're going to try loads of different varieties of poppies.

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I literally went through Amazon and Church every packet of poppies.

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So yeah, hopefully we'll have a field of poppies this year.

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We're going to try a loads of different varieties of geraniums,

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different colors of them, same because for sunflowers, we're going

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to try all different writers of them. Last year, I

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just stuck to the standard ones, which were like the

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Russian tall ones, and this year we're going to try

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different colors again. I've done it in the past, like

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black variety, red variety, Teddy Bear variety, all different varieties

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of sunflowers. So my allotment is going to look absolutely

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phenomenal Fingers crossed this year. It is going to look

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absolutely amazing, So make sure you stay tuned for all this.

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I'm going to be sharing loads and loads of videos

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of everything this year down on the Allotment, so make

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sure you are following my YouTube channel on my Instagram

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and we're going to be sharing absolutely loads with you.

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So I'm excited for this year. I'm excited for growing

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down at the Allotment this year. I've got big plans

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for down there, for a beautiful display. And obviously I'm

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only working. I'm only off two days a week now.

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Last year I used to have four on four off

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so I could spend more time at the Allotment, but

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we're only having two days off and I want to

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show you how we managed to cope and do it

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in two days to keep on top of it all

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and obviously do all this social media at the same

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time as well for you. So I hope that you

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stay tuned, and I hope that you followed the progress

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throughout twenty twenty five down at the allotment, and I

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hope that you enjoy the journey and follow along with

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me and let me know if you're growing any of

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these things as well, send me a message on Instagram.

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I always respond to everyone. So until next time, everyone, remember,

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keep smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening with Ben. Everyone.

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Thanks for tuning into today's episode of Gardening with Ben.

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I hope you've enjoyed our chat and picked up some

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tips to help your garden and allotment. Don't forget to

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stay connected with me on all social media for even

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more gardening inspiration, updates and behind the scenes content. You

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can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Just search

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Gardening with Ben, hit that follow button or subscribe button

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and join our growing community of garden lovers. Until next time, everyone, remember,

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keep smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening with Ben.