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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Gardening with Ben. You'll go to

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a podcast for all things green and growing. I'm Ben,

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your allotment guide and here to help you cultivate your

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garden and your passion for plants. Whether you're a seasoned

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gardener or just starting out, this podcast is for you.

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Each episode will dig into tips, tricks, and techniques to

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make your garden and allotment thrive from planting, sewing, and growing.

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We will share all the tips and add advice. We

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will also have regular episodes talking about what we have

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been up to on the Alltment. So sit back, grab

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a brew and enjoy today's episode. Hey everyone, and welcome

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back to Gardening with Ben for another brand new episode

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this week. Well, if you've not listened to my previous episodes,

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we talked about everything that we've got up to down

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at the Allotment on Saturday Sunday, We've braved the rain,

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We've gone down to the allotment and we have got

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some stuff done. So if you want to find out

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what I've got up to, make sure you'll listen back

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to them episodes. So in today's episode, we're going to

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talk about all the common mistakes. What gardeners do, and

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I certainly make many of them, and I'll certainly make

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plenty more of them. And with gardening, you're always learning

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every single day. There's always something new to learn when

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you're gardening, and I learned from mistakes. I don't mind

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making mistakes because obviously that's how you learn. And sometimes

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you fix the mistake, and then you make the mistake again.

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But you have to keep on trying and persevering, and

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you will then achieve great things down at your allotment

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and gardening. But the first we're going to talk about

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five different things down at the allotments. The five things

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most common on making mistake. Now, one of them is overwatering,

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and you can commonly overwater plants. Now, I didn't learn

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much about this until I actually worked at the garden

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center and they told me how to keep things watered

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and how to check to see if they stalk damp

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and stuff by checking underneath them to see if if

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they're wet underneath, because sometimes you can just stick your

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finger on top I think it's dry, but it's not.

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It might be wet deep down, and that is where

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the roots are, and over watering them obviously can cause

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root rot, which you obviously don't want. Now. One of

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the main things that can get damaged by overwatering is pumpkins, marrows, squash.

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If you're watering near the top of the plant, they

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can easily snap off from overwater and they can cause

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the rot and cause the plant to actually just snap

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off easy. One thing I learned about water gtering my

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squash plants like your causeiet, your marrows, your pumpkins, your

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zoochini if you're in America, that's what you call it,

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not causeiet, but yeah, one thing I learned about them

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is to plant a plant pot at the side of them,

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down into the ground, and when you're water in them,

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water into the plant pot and it waters straight to

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the roots, right where the water is needed and where

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the plant needs it and where it will suck it

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up from. I even chucked some like chicken pallets in

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it as well, so then I water straight into that

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and the chicken pallet feed will go straight to the

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roots and feed them that way. That's one way that

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I do look after my pumpkins and squash, And that's

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one little tip that I've learnt myself.

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Speaker 2: Really.

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Speaker 1: I just saw the video online of people planting plant pots,

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but they didn't show putting like a bit of food

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in it or something like that. So that is how

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I get great produce from that. So when you're watering,

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make sure that they are fully dry or that they're

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not too damp. When you're watering stuff. You don't always

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want stuff sat in water as again, satin water doesn't

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help them. It will just rot them because the water

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will just rot away the roots and then you won't

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have any good produce. So just keep them watered every

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few days and they should thrive pretty much. When I

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used to have stuff in my polytool growing, like my

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peppers and my tomatoes and my cucumbers, I used to

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have to water them every single day because it did

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dry out. The compost dries out so easy, and yeah,

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you have to water them every single day, but just

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be careful when over watering stuff.

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Speaker 2: Like when.

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Speaker 1: We had a drought the year after, I decided to

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plant all my tomatoes and my cucumbers outside because I

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knew I wouldn't be able to get down to the

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allotment to water them every day in the polytunnel, so

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I planted them outside because I knew that the ground

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holds water.

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Speaker 2: Pretty well, so I could water.

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Speaker 1: Them like every three or four days rather than every

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single day, and they absolutely thrived. My cucumbers have done

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best that they ever did last year, and it was

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the first time that I've ever grown them outside. So

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I am going to grow my cucumbers outside from now on.

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So onto number two. Ignoring soil health. Now, I didn't

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learn much about soil health for quite a few years

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down at the allotment. I just used plant stuff every

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single year. Didn't used to bother looking into my soil

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and seeing if it needed any nutrients and stuff like that. Obviously,

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you can get testers to see the pH and whether

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there's any nutrition in the soil and stuff like that.

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And obviously you can feed your soil as well as

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well as feeding your plants. You can feed your soil

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by adding nutrition from adding manure, adding special soil food

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and compost or leaf mulch, stuff like that to improve

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your soil and to improve your plants. If you don't

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look after your soil, your plants will fail and they

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won't do very well. So you need to start looking

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after your soil and use the winter time to improve

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that soil. The winter is the perfect time to do

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it and add in that manure and dig it in

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or layer it on the top of the ground, and

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then dig it in in the springtime to feed the

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soil and get the nutrition back and hopefully grow some

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fantastic produce down in your allotments and gardens. I still

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can't wait to get grown again next year. It needs

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to hurry up and get to springtime. So next up

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is planting without planning. Now I always.

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Speaker 2: Go on about this at this time of year.

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Speaker 1: I draw up a plan of my allotment and I

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write down where things are going to grow. I look

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at the shade on my allotment, where trees are, what's

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shady and what's not shady, what gets full sun all

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the time, and plant accordingly.

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Speaker 2: Earn.

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Speaker 1: Obviously you need to look at your spacing as well.

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When you're planting plants. Don't try and cram too much.

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And I've done that in the past. I've got loads

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of plants growing, so I've just crammed them in and

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hoped for the best, because I don't like wasting plants

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that have grown. But if you don't leave enough space,

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and it's hard to weed in between the plants, and

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then the plants won't survive and they won't be able

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to get established and grow as well without the good spacing.

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So you need to keep plenty of space in between

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your plants to keep them weeded. It's best off to

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have less plants, keep them weeded, and then you'll get

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fantastic produce as well. So look into the space and

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also look at companion planting. I've not really learned much

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about companion planting. I need to learn about that. That

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is one thing that I need to start looking into.

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Like I know that there's the three sisters. If you

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plant like sweet corn, runner, beans, and something else as well,

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they were meant to help each other when growing them.

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But yeah, is different plants that you can plant near

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each other and they will help grow better plants. So

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have a look into companion planting as well, and so

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do I. I need to look into that. So maybe

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I'll do an episode on companion planting and then we'll

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both learn at the same time. I'm always learning with gardening.

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Whenever I'm doing these podcasts. I do like researching things,

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so I'm learning every single day and I think, oh,

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I'm going to do that, Oh that's happened to me.

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But yeah, you're always always learning with gardening, so neglecting

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seasonal timing. So you need to look into the importance

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of understanding planting calendars. You need to think of when

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you're going to start sowing your seeds at the right

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time of the year and planting out at the right

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time of the year as well. Everyone gets so excited

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at the beginning of the year when it starts getting warmer,

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like sometimes we can have a heat wave around Easter

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time and people start planting plants outside and thinking no, no,

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don't plant them outside yet because you can still get frost.

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That's the saying never cast a clout till May is out,

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and that is to do with the gardening that you

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shouldn't plant outside until May is gone because you can

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still get frost. If you're down south in the UK,

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possibly you'll be all right, but up north where I

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am in Yorkshire, you've got to think about when the

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frost has passed and when we won't get no more frosts,

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and keeping down the temperatures and the weather and have

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a look around when.

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Speaker 2: You should be planting stuff.

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Speaker 1: So never get too eager to plant stuff outside because

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if the frost comes, it can.

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Speaker 2: Just wipe the lot out.

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Speaker 1: So look at the calendar and think about when you're

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going to be growing stuff as well. Now the next one,

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the last one, which is the most important one of

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the lot. And I should listen to this, Yes, Ben,

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you need to listen to this. And this is forgetting

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to label plants. Hold your hands up, everybody who does

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it nearly every year, forgetting to label your plants.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I hold my hands up. I am a.

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Speaker 1: Plant labeler, for I get it. I'll stand up to

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that one. But yeah, you need to label your plants.

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And I've done in the past, like I've sewn all

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my seeds. I put my seed packets underneath the seed

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trays and then I water them all and the plant

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packet has become disintegrated and I can't tell what's growing there.

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And then you're looking at your carseats, you squash and

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your maths, and you're thinking which one's which, what varieties which?

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Oh no, and then you don't know what it is

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until it actually starts growing produce on it, what actually

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plant it is. It's like all the squashes look the same, right,

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your pumpkin barrower and corjiat. Then all your brassacres look

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the same, like your cauliflower, your cabbage, your cauliflower, your brustles, sprouts,

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they all the same. And you're thinking, no, what am

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I doing here? I don't know what I'm planting, and

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you think, no, I need to label them. I need

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to label So make sure you spend time and label

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all your plants up. And obviously you can make your

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own plant labels. It's cheap enough to do. Just use

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a milk carton, slice it up into strips and write

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down the name of the plant with a permanent marker,

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and then you can label your plants up. And if

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you ever see me doing a video and I've not

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labeled them up, make sure you commented it.

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Speaker 2: Ben, label your plants. Ben, label your plants.

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Speaker 1: I know I'll look forgetting them to do them again.

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But yeah, those are the five big made mistakes what

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you can make when you're gardening and allotment.

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Speaker 2: In And remember one thing that you've got to remember is.

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Speaker 1: That mistakes help you grow, just like your plants, So

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it doesn't matter if you make mistakes. I make mistakes

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all the time, and sometimes I learn from them. Sometimes

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I don't learn from them, And obviously a lot of

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times I share them with you, all the mistakes that

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I do. Because I'm on His Gardener, I'll tell you

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what I've done good and what I've done rubbish. But yeah,

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I do share everything with you. So I hope you've

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enjoyed that podcast for today. If you're new to this

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podcast channel, make sure you give it a light. Make

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sure you give us a follow. Click the bells so

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that you get notified when your podcasts come up, because

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it's coming up every single day at the moment. We

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usually put them on for about half six in the

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morning for you to listen to from the morning, so

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I hope that you enjoy these podcasts. I'm glad to

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be back every single day for you. So until next time, everyone,

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remember keep smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening with everyone.

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Thank you for joining me on this episode of Gardening

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with Ben. I hope you have found some useful tips

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in very sure for your own gardening and a lotment journey.

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If you have enjoyed today's episode, please make sure to

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follow and subscribe to the podcast so you'll never miss

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a new episode.

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Speaker 2: And if you have a moment, I'd love for you

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to leave a review.

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Speaker 1: And share the podcast with fellow of gardening enthusiasts. Your

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support helps us grow this community and continue bringing you

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great content. You can also follow us on social media

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on every platform for all gardening with Ben for daily

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gardening tips and mondays. Happy gardening, and until next time,

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remember keep smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening with them,