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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 Allotment. 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. Well, it's Friday. The weekend

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is upon us. Everybody, Thank you, and yes, we are

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looking forward to being back down at the allotment. Fingers crossed.

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We have some decent weather and fingers crossed, we can

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get lots done. But it doesn't really matter because I'm

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going to be inside the shed, possibly doing the new

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makeover in there, so stay tuned for updates on that.

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So what are we talking about today? Today? We are

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talking about turning the success, turning your failures into success stories.

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That's what we're going to talk about today, turning your

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failures into success stories. Now, I've had many failures on

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my allotment over the last sixteen or twenty years that

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i've had it, and I still continue to get failures.

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Even though I give all these tips and advice out,

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I'll still continue to get failures a year after year. Now. Obviously,

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some of the failures I have are with like carrots.

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I never managed to grow any carrots very well. Or

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I'll saw my seeds and I'll forget to water them

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in the law end up dying, or are plant loads

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of seeds and I never plant them outside, so they

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end up dying in my shed then. And the biggest

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failure of all time, which I'd never learned about, is

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putting seed and writing the names of the sea stuff

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I've sown on labels and putting them in the trays

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so that I know what I've planted, because I'll end

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up growing corshats, marrows, squash, and melons and they'll all

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look the same plant and then I won't realize what

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I'm planting out until it's actually grown produce on it.

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So yeah, I have That's one of my biggest failures,

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and the same grows for brassacres. Like your cabbage, your cauliflower,

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your broccoli sprouts. They all look the same when they

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get growing, but you don't know what they are until

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they actually produce on them. I'm sure a lot of

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you are prone to that failure. But yeah, there's certainly

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lots and lots of failures. And one of the biggest

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failures is my DIY failures. I talked about this a

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lot and that I absolutely loved they but I'm rubbish

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it and things will collapse or one of the biggest

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failures was I was. I just put up some new shelving.

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I potted all my tomatoes up, my cucumbers up, my

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peppers up. They were all in individual pots. I'd spent

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a fortune on compost, and we'd sorted them all out

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into all the varieties and everything like that. We'd even

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label them up. Can you believe it. I'd labeled them

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all up as well, but I only put a label

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in the front one and all the ones behind it

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at that variety, if you get me. So, I'd done

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all that, and I was recording some footage for my

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YouTube channel or Instagram, and thankfully the camera wasn't on it.

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It was on me, but I was just filming it

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and I just heard this massive crash and no on

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this video, like no, no, no. All my shelving collapsed,

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all my vegetables got mixed up, all the varieties got

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mixed up. I was absolutely devastated. But from them failures,

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you can create success from them, and some of the

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stuff you learn from, especially like we're putting labels in

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seeds and stuff like that. I am good at better

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at doing stuff like that and keeping on top of it.

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But obviously it goes back to writing a log book

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as well. Like I've mentioned in the past, is that

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at this time of year, I like to buy a

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log book and at the beginning of January, I'll start

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writing down all my seeds and when I planted them,

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when I've sewn them, how well they've grown, which ones

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haven't grown, which ones have failed, which ones did rubbish,

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which ones were absolutely delicious. And it's good to look

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back on the success and the failures, and obviously the

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success for ones, you go back and you do them again,

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and if they're a failure, then you've learned from that

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and you try a different variety of produce. So without failures,

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you don't get success down at the allotments. And I

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always get loads of failures with vegetables and stuff like that.

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And I'm open and honest when I'm sharing my videos

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around and stuff like that. I'll show what's done absolutely rubbish,

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which I've done terrible that, and I learned from that,

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and I try a different method or a different way

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of growing something, and I'll learn from it and hopefully

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get better produced the year after. And I think that's

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what sometimes stems down to the issue when you're watching

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these gardening shows, etc. With celebrity people, is that they'll

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just show all the best bits, and people can be

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preconceived in thinking that it's easy to do things, easy

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to grow, easy to maintain, allotments are simple because they

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only ever see the best pictures of allotments or things

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that they've harvested or done well with. And obviously it's

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not an easy job. It's there can be a lot

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of failures. And I see so many people come down

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onto the allotment and start an allotment and they dig

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it all over in the first year, or hire a

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JSEB to scrape all the top off and to clear

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all the weeds and everything, and then within another three

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months it's back tall again because they think, oh, they

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didn't realize that all the wheeds will grow back, or

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once it's all tidy and cleared, it's easy to maintain.

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But it's certainly not. It's not an easy job gardening,

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and that's why obviously, like I like to be honest

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and say of all the failures I've done. I'll even

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show photos or videos of failures that I've had and

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how bad it's been. And like this year, we've not

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had a good year of growing. Certain things have done

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fantastic growing, probably the best produce that they've had for

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certain produce. But yeah, you get so many failures, and

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that's why we need to share with each other the

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success and the failures of produce, and then people will

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understand that it isn't an easy job when you're gardening,

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when you came in for producing, going down and weeding

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every single day. So there's many failures and success stories

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out there. So like I always say is that if

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you don't have failures, you won't have success. And with

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every failure, you have one success. So make notes of

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things that don't work in the past, and then you'll

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learn from it to grow your produce next year and

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write down all the successes as well, because then you'll

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do the same the year after and try again. Sometimes

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you're write down the successes and try the same variety

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of the year after, and then they'll be absolutely rubbish,

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and then where do you stand. But yeah, there's certainly

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lots and lots of failures out there, and hopefully we'll

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have lots of success next year. And hopefully I warm

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a year next year, because it wasn't a nice summer,

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so we had a lot of failures. But like my cucumber,

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I used to grow them in with polytunnel and I

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couldn't manage to keep them watered all the time. But

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I grew them outside this year for the first time ever,

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and the best produce that I've ever had, the most

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harvested I've ever had off my cucumbers. It was absolutely astonishing.

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So I've learned something from this this year. I'll try

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that again next year, and knowing my look, it won't work.

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But yeah, there is lots of failures out there, and

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if you don't get failures, you'll never learn. That's what

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I always say. So I hope you've enjoyed this podcast today,

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and as always, make sure you come back for tomorrow's

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episode because tomorrow we'll be talking about everything that we're

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getting up to at the Allotment this weekend. So until

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

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gardening with everyone. Thank you for joining me on this

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episode of Gardening with Ben. I hope you've have found

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some useful tips and inspiration for your own gardening and

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allotment journey. If you have enjoyed today's episode, please make

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sure to follow and subscribe to the podcast so you

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never miss a new episode, and if you have a moment,

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I'd love for you to leave a review and share

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the podcast with fellow gardening enthusiasts. Your support helps us

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grow this community and continue bringing you great content. You

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can also follow us on social media on every platform

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for all Gardening with Ben for daily gardening tips and

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today happy gardening, and until next time, remember, keep smiling,

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keep shining, and keep gardening with them,