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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 for another brand new episode today.

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I hope you're all well, and I hope you're all

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recovering from the storm over the weekend and hopefully getting

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things tidy and back into ship shape and hopefully not

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too much damage down at your allotments and gardens. Well,

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what are we going to talk about today? Today we're

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going to talk about the best winter seeds to start

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growing at this time of year and giving you some

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ideas and tips and advisers on what sort of things

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you can grow, whether it be vegetables, flowers, herbs, whatever

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type of thing you want to start growing. If you're

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itching to get growing some things, we are going to

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give you some tips and advice on certain things that

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you can actually start growing at this time of year.

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So for vegetables, what vegetables are the best ones to

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grow at this time of year? Well, this has to

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be winter gem lettice. This hardly, This hardy variety we've

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stands low temperatures and thrives when sewn in an unheated greenhouse.

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Ord call fin directly sow seeds into grow bags and

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consider adding a sprinkling of fertilizer to promote optimal growth. So,

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if you've got an unheated greenhouse or cold frame and

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you're wanting to grow some fresh lettuce, try the winter

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gem variety as that can with stand the cold weather

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and it will keep on growing. So yeah, if you

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fancy some fresh salad leaves, winter gem lettuce is the

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way to go. Next up is spinach and kale, known

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as winter greens. These leafy vegetables are resilient in colder climates.

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Sowing them in December can lead to an early spring

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harvest as temperatures rise So if you're wanted something to

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be ready for the beginning of the year for first harvest,

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think about growing some spinach and some kale. Broad beans,

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sobroad beans directly into the ground now for an early

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summer harvest. They're harday and we can withstand winter conditions,

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especially when provided with some protection like clotters. But again,

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you can have to sew them straight into the ground,

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or you can grow them in pots first and then

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plant them out and yeah, protect, protect, protect. I started

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some off in pots in my shed. The squirrels got

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in and ate the lot of them, so yeah, make

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sure you protect them from pests like squirrels, rats, mice, pigeons, slugs.

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Because there's not much produce around at the moment for

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them to eat, they will come and eat anything, so

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make sure you protect them from that. Onions and shalots

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plant onion and shalots sets in well drained soil to

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establish roots before the deep winter. There were zoom growth

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as the weather warms, leading to bountiful late spring harvests.

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So yeah, if you wanted some onions and shalots, make

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sure you're getting the autumn winter vrieteris if you're growing

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them from sets now and get them in the ground

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and get them started that if you wanted to grow

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onions from seed, you can start those off at the

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end of December beginning of January and they'll be the

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ones that are ready for harvest come summertime. And the

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same goes again for peppers and chilis and auber jeans.

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If you're wanting good crops from them, you're going to

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be wanting to start them off around January time. So

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have a look around for those seeds and get thinking

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about growing them. So next up is flowers. What seeds

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can we grow from flowers at this time of year,

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so you can sew your sweet peas in pots and

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places to be in a coal fame or an unheated greenhouse.

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This early start allows for stronger plants and earlier blooms

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in the springtime. Now I've got loads growing in my greenhouse,

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absolutely loads. I started mine off about September time, and

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I trimmed them all back the other day to help

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them bush out as well and to produce strong plants.

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So I've trimmed all them back, so we will be

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planting all those out come springtime, and hopefully this year

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we're going to have a fantastic bloom of sweet peas

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down at the allotment. It's going to be absolutely astonishing.

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Fingers crossed they all grow. Next up is daffodils. December

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is an ideal times plant daffodil bulbs. Plant them in

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well draining soil to encourage us colorful display when spring arrives.

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And I know you can still get tulips in as well.

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Now if you haven't planted any tools yet, and most

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garden centers will be selling all their bulbs off at now,

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all the spring bulbs, So have a look around, see

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what's on offer and get them in the ground. You've

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got plenty of time and hopefully get some fantastic displays

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down at the allotment or garden. Next up is herbs,

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parsley and chives. Now, if you're to start some herbs off,

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you can start these off on a window sill and

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it's got to be nice, warm, sunny window sell whether

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they'll provide fresh flavors for your winter dishes and can

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be transplanted outside in springtime. So if you've got a

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window sell so if your seeds in a pot and

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get some parsley and some chibes growing, and like it says,

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come springtime, you can plant them outside and then they'll

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spread and they'll bush out and they'll produce more and

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more herbs for you to keep harvesting. So those are

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the seeds that we can grow at this time of year.

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And if you're itching to get growing some things, that

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gives you an idea of the certain things that you

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can get growing and hopefully it gets some great produce from.

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So let me know if you're going to be starting

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any seeds off. I'm going to be starting by onions

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off and my peppers, my jill is, my auber jeans

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off soon, getting all them started and hopefully get some

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things growing ready for next year. Next year, I'm going

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to try and do the best I can do on

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my allotment because of so, like I said, I work

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five days a week now, so I only get two

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days off. But I'm going to try and show you

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how you can actually get your keep on top of

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things and get things growing and hopefully get amazing produced

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from your allotments in just two days down at the

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plot a week and hopefully it's going to be amazing.

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So make sure you stay tuned for that, because we

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will be blogging it all as we're going along. We're

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producing more and more content these days for you to

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watch and listen to. As you know, the podcast come

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on every single day for you to listen to. I'm

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finding new topics to talk about every single day now.

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I found a website where I can get great topics

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to talk about so that I'm not just waffling on

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all the time. And I hope that you're enjoying all

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these new topics that we're talking about, and yeah, get

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involved as well. Feel free to send me an Instagram

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message and ask me if you want me to talk

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about a certain subject. I can't talk about composting because

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I don't know anything about composting. I don't really I

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need to start composting because it's getting expensive now. But yeah,

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there's certain topics that I don't know about and certain

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things that I'm not aware of. But I'm learning, like you.

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I'm always learning, and I'm learning so much more about flowers.

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And I'm keeping learning about flowers because that's the thing

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that I want to learn more and more about. Growing

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down at the allotment. So until tomorrow's episode, everyone remember

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keep smiling, keep shining, and keep Guardening with Ben. 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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and the 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 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 podcast.

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But fellow gardening huss your support helps us through up

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this community and continue bringing you great content. We can

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also follow us on social media on every platform called

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Gardening with Ben for daily gardening tips and other 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.