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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 i'd 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. Well, I've been saying it

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for days, we've not had no more rain. And guess what.

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While I was at the allotment, I posted a photo

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this morning, say night, it's a beautiful day. Get out

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in the garden, get your jobs done, and it started raining.

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Of all the days for it to rain while I'm

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actually at the allotment when I need to be getting

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my work done down there. However, it didn't stop me,

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as obviously I want to start doing all my shed

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up over winter on the inside, so I went inside

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for half an hour and did some tidying up in

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there while the rain passed. It didn't stay forlong the rain,

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but at least we've had a bit of rain. So

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it does help with the garlic and the onions what

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are in the ground at the moment, to keep them

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watered and get them growing well. So yeah, we just

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need a bit more rain, but hold off on that

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because people have been telling me that snow is forecast

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this week. Will we get some snow? Who knows. But

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I've been looking at the temperatures and it's going to

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get down to about minus one at night, zero degrees,

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so it is going to start getting colder. And yeah,

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the temperatures are going to be around five or six

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degrees in the daytime, so it's going to start feeling

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a bit more nippy. It's not going to feel like

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what it's feeling like now. It was absolutely gorgeous down

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at the a lot this morning. It weren't even that cold.

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I couldn't believe what temperatures were having in November. It

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is bizarre, but it was the perfect day for getting

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lots done down at the lotment. Even though we had

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a bit of rain. It didn't stop me for long.

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So what have we been up to down at the

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plot today. Well, I went to my parents' house first

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for my coffee and to catch up with them because

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I going to see them at weekends. So I went

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round to theirs and my dad said to me, oh,

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I've been I put one of your bird feeders back

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up the square sewet block one, and it says but

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on the floor there was a sewet block in plastic,

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as if like I had not taken it out of

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the plastic, And I went, well, I'm sure I took

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it out of the plastic when I put it in

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the sewet block. I wouldn't put it in in the plastic.

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So I went down to the allotment after I'd been

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to preparents, and all the sewet blocks had gone from

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out of my polytunnel. They must have been about twelve,

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so they'd all gone. And I just looked around the

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polytunnel and outside and they were wrappers all over the place.

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So something's had them, something's enjoyed all my sewet blocks.

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So yeah, I couldn't put the sweat blocks up today,

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but I managed to put all my bird seed all

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my nuts, all my sewet bawls and my sewet pellets

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as well. So I got quite a lot of bird

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seed and food put up, but I couldn't put my

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sueat blocks up. But like I said, with won a

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prize on a competition, so I think I'm going to

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be getting some suet blocks sent to me. So I'm

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looking forward to them coming and to put up on

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my allotment on my in my trees and on my

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bird feeders. So what else have we been up to today? Well,

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yesterday I said to you that I like to spread

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my jobs out over the weekend so that I get

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them all done and stuff like that. I don't give

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myself two bigger jobs to do, but I try and

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get them all completed by the end of the weekend. Now,

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the job that I wanted to do today was to

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cut back all the brambles around my food trees, round

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my rub barb because my roobarb is my prime spot.

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Because my mum makes me crumbles all the way through

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the year, which is absolutely fantastic. And I usually chop

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these back once a year and they'll usually stay back

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for about a year and then I do them again

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at the end of each year. So I thought I'll

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get started on that today and get it all cleared

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and finish it off tomorrow. Well I got it all done.

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I couldn't believe it. I worked by socks off today

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and I've hurt myself some points. I cleared it all

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in one day. I must have had the momentum to

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get going today and kept gardening. But yeah, I was

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saying that I'd probably end up with loads of funes

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in being scratched to death, but I actually did all right.

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I just made sure I kept chopping the brambles into

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small pieces, popping them in my tub to throw away,

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and I hardly got scratched at all. The gloves were

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really thick, so the porns didn't go through, which were

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absolutely fantastic. So I'm not in any pain whatsoever from

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cutting all the brambles back. So they're all chopped back.

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I've cleared back any old fruit that had fallen on

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the floor, cleared some of the leaves up, tidied it

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all up. There's still a lot of leaves left to

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drop off my food trees, so we'll still be clearing

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that up in a few more weeks time. But the

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bulk of it is all done, all the brambles cleared,

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which was gonna be a massive job, so I've ticked

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that off, so I need to find an other job

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to do tomatow down at the allotment. So tomorrow I

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think I'm just going to be concentrating on tidying my

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paths up and clearing a bit more at the top

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of my allotment. So hopefully we'll find some jobs to

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do around there. I'm sure we'll find plenty. I don't

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want to exactly start doing stuff in my shed yet

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because I don't usually do stuff in my shed on

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Polytunnel unless it's raining, because it's a waste of time

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being in the shed when it's actually nice outside. I

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feel like I need to do all the outside jobs

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while it's decent, and then doing the shed when it's

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not very nice, when it's chucking it down or when

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it's awful. But yeah, we're moving fast. Our plot is

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going to look absolutely fantastic next year, fingers crossed. That

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is the plan anyway, But I would have to try

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and make it a bit more less maintenance next year, because,

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like I say, I'm only down there twice a week now.

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But I need to make sure that it can look

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after itself when I'm not at the allotment, and fingers crossed,

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we can work out a plan for that and hopefully

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get things still growing while I'm at work and staying alive.

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But we'll look into all that, but hopefully we'll be

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getting lots of stuff done. So yeah, I'm going to

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be back down at the allotment tomorrow and getting all

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them paths cleared and down the side of my plot,

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and hopefully, fingers crossed, I'll be filming a lot more

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content tomorrow, so it's done me a favor getting it

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all done today in one go, because Sundays I usually

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like to film all my YouTube content down there. I

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film my daily real questions down there, so hopefully I'll

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get all that filmed for you tomorrow. So I hope

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you're enjoying all the videos because we've been posting videos

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quite regularly now and these podcasts have been obviously posting

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them every day, and I'm trying to promote this podcast

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much as possible to get more and more people listening

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to it. So if you are a new listener, please

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do give me a follow and make sure you check

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out all the other episodes, and obviously these are now

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going out on YouTube as well, so I hope that

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you enjoy listening to my on YouTube if you're listening

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on YouTube. And We've got a lot of episodes to come,

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and I'm going to be a film recording quite a

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few episodes this weekend, save me doing them at night

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when I finished work. So yeah, but tomorrow's episode will

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obviously be talking about everything that we've done on Sunday

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down at the allotment and what jobs would managed to

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do and what we have found to do, and who

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knows what the weather might be like tomorrow. It might

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be snowing, it might be raining, or it might be

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hot and sunny. I don't think it'll be hot and

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sunny somehow, but yeah, but I'm always on the lookout

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for new ideas for my podcast videos, So if anybody

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has any thing that they'd like to cover, please do

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send me a message and I'll try and cover it

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in a podcast or a video. But I think that's

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everything that we're going to be talking about today. I'm

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just trying. I've been looking up as well when to

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start my peppers off, because I want to try and

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grow quite a few peppers next year. And I think

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last year I planted them around April May time and

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they weren't quite ready in time, so I'm going to

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be starting off. I've been looking at when's best to

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start them off, like whether i'd start them off in

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January or February time. That'll be when I get them started.

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But I'm going to look up into my methods of

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growing them because I follow another person online and they

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start all their seeds off in tissue paper rather than

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in a compost, and once they've germinated, then they'll plant

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them into composts because they'll know if they've germinated or not,

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which is a good idea. And obviously you can put

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into the final before you don't have to repot them

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out of the seed trails and stuff like that was

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to start growing. You can just put them straight into

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the pots that they're going to grow into. So yeah,

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I might look at different methods like that because compost

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is getting expensive now. I don't know if you've seen

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prices a compost, so the more I can save money,

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the better, really, But let me know in the comments.

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If you start your seeds off on tissue paper, it's

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a case of just keeping them damp and getting them

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to germinate that way. I'll probably not be able to

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do with the really small seeds like that, but the

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ones like courgettes and pumpkins and melons and peppers possibly

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try that way and we'll see how well they get on.

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I always love to do experiments when I'm gardening, trying

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different ways, different methods, seeing what works, seeing what doesn't work.

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And that's the whole fun about gardening, trying different experiments

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and seeing what works. So I hope that you come

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back to tomorrow's podcast and listen to it. Like I said, tomorrow,

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we're going to be talking about everything that we've done

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on the allotment today and what we've got up to,

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so make sure you stay tuned fast stay tuned for

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my weekly tour video as well on YouTube. I always

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post a weekly tour video now rather than monthly. It

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on a weekly basis so people can follow along with

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my seeing what I've been getting up to down at

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the plot and staying up to date with it. I

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don't go live down there anymore. I just like filming

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the videos, So make sure you stay tuned for the

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weekly tour video. If you're not following us on YouTube,

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do give us a follow and then you'll be able

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to see all my videos and what we have been

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getting up to rather than just my voice. But yeah,

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I hope that you're enjoyed everything. So until next time, everyone, remember,

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keep smiling, keep shining, and keep guardening with everyone. Thank

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you for joining me on this episode of the Gardening

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with Ben. I hope you have found some useful tips

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and integration 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. And if you have a moment, I'd

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love for you to leave a review and share the

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podcast with fellow gardening and beauty asks. Your support helps

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us grow this community and continue bringing you great content.

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You can also follow us on social media on every platform,

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or Gardening with Ben for daily gardening tips and mon days.

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Happy gardening, and until next time, remember, keep smiling, keep shining,

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and keep gardening with Ben.