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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 for another brand new episode.

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Well it is Sunday today and I'm recording this on

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Saturday night, and wow, it is absolutely horrendous the weather.

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It's not as horrendous as what other people have had

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it so obviously, I'm based in Sheffield, which is more

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inland than on the coast where Wales is at Liverpool

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and Blackpool and all that area, so I'm not on

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that side of the coast. I'm in the middle of

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the country and the wind has been awful. We've had

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drential rain. It's been absolutely awful today, and I'm really

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really dreading driving onto my allotment tomorrow because I'm scared

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that my shed might have blown away, collapsed, pieces might

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have flown off it, my polytunnel might have ripped. And yeah,

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I'm really not looking forward to going down to my

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allotment tomorrow. Fingers crossed. It's all stood still and survived,

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but we'll have to wait and see and hopefully keep

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them fingers crossed and hopefully that you have not had

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much damage as well in your gardens and your allotments,

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and hopefully you will be able to recover from this

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bad storm. And that's the thing. We have to get

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used to this. Around winter time, we get these storms

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and we just have to keep as fingers crossed and

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legs crossed and hope that we don't get too much damage.

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We're probably bound to get a bit of damage, but

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hopefully not alone. So we'll have to wait and see

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and see what it looks like tomorrow. So yeah, make

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sure you come to the next episode so that you

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find out how my allotment is standing and if it

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is still standing, and presume that it will actually be okay.

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So we'll hope and we'll pray that everything is safe.

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So today's episode is where we talk about what we

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have been up to down at the allotment today. Yes

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I did go to the allotment this morning, and yes

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I did get quite a bit done, but it was

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absolutely trential rain, so I couldn't stay outside and do

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any work outside like I wanted to. I wanted to

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do some jobs with a strawberry patch, but I couldn't

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get around to doing them because it was just awful outside.

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So I went in the shed, and obviously I listened

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to my own podcast giving me tips and advice on

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what to do in the shed at this time of year.

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So I've been doing quite a bit of tidying up.

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I've been throwing away any plants that were growing in there,

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what haven't taken or I've forgotten to water them and

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they've died. So I've been throwing all them away, clearing

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them all away, and putting all the compost into a bucket,

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which I'll use again in my beds and stuff. I

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never waste compost. I always dig it into the beds,

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the leftovers that I've got from my pots and stuff

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like that. So we've been tidying all them up. And

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also what I've been doing is I've been taking all

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the plants off of the shelves and I've got a

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load of plastic, really strong plastic like polytomal plastic which

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I got spared from years ago, and it would just

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shoved under one of my benches, and I thought, I'm

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going to use that to protect my shelving in my

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a lotment in my shed. So I've been cutting it

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all down and putting it on the shelving and then

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putting the plant pots back on it, which is quite

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time consuming because you have to lift every little plant

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pot off there and lift more back on again. And yeah,

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it's been quite a big job today. So I've done

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half of my shelving today, so hopefully tomorrow we're going

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to do the other half. The weather is still looking

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bad again tomorrow here in Sheffield, so it looks like

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rain again, so I'll probably be stuck inside the shed

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or I'll be repairing everything that's broken and damaged. But

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we'll see, we'll see how things are. So while I

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was in the shed as well, I was trying to

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work out what renovations I want to do inside it

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because like I said, I'm going to spruce it all

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up this winter and make it look nice for next year.

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And I've been looking at what colors to painting inside.

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At the moment, most of the wood is painted like

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a green color, and I want to change of color.

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I want to brighten it up and make it look

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more attractive, So I'm looking at painting it a nice

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letterbox red paint color. So that's my plan to paint

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all the wood up, playing all the metal up, and

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make it look nice for next year, and hopefully a

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lot brighter. But obviously we can't paint them at the

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moment because the wood is quite damp from all the

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rain and everything, because it just soaks through from the

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roof and everything down into the wood. It's not rotten

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or anything. It's pretty strong wood. But while ever it's damp,

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I can't be watering it at the moment, not watering

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it painting it. So I can't be painting it at

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the moment, so we're going to let it dry out.

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Usually we get like dry spells in January time when

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it's just cold and frosty and not raining, so maybe

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will get painted around them. We've just got to get

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wait for some decent weather to start painting inside it.

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But yeah, I'm going to be looking at hopefully sowing

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my onion seeds as well soon, and my peppers and

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my aubergine seeds, because usually start them off around January time,

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so I'm gonna be looking at getting all them started.

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My onions, I'll probably start off down in my shed

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because they should germinate all right, fingers crossed, hopefully they'll

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have enough warmth to get them to germinate. But my

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peppers and my aubergines, I'm going to start them off

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in my flat because I've never had a window sell

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in my own flat, and I've actually got a window

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sell here. So I'm going to start a few peppers

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off and a few aubergeans off hearing my flat so

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that I can give them that extra start and extra

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warmth to get them germinated. Because peppers will need like

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twenty five twenty six degrees to germinate, so they need

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really warm weather. So we're going to start them off

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at home and get them started. But the thing is

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when you're starting seeds off on your winterstill, you have

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to be careful of them being legge and getting enough lights,

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so you have to keep turning them around and everything

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like that. But yeah, once they have established, then we'll

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take them down into my shed and continue growing them

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down there at the allotment. But it's just giving them

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that extra boost and extra few months. It passed off

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started them off like March time and they've only just

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been producing through by the time it comes to the

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end of summer, so we're giving them a few extra

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months to get started and get established, to get them

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seeds growing down at the allotment. But yeah, I didn't

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actually do an awful lot all down at the allotment today.

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I fed missed cat, well missus captures say, I fed.

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She's always waiting as soon as I come down to

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my allotment. She's like waiting at the gate for me,

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and my dad started whistling her whenever he comes down

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to the allotment. But as soon as she is the

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cars come Shu'll run onto the plot and get in

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position ready to be fed with heid her on a

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daily basis, so she's well looked after and she's just

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a roague cat. But obviously she keeps the rats down

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and keeps the nie down, so it's good to have

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a little allotment cat wandering around. It's probably from one

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of the houses behind the allotment site, but she's often

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down on my allotment and I did see her rat

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the other day, so hopefully she managed to get it.

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So yeah, we've also got all those bird feeders to

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fill up as well. I thought there's no point filling

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them up today because the wind is absolutely awful. Some

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of the bird feeders were on the floor, and yeah,

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if I filled them up, they'd probably just blow off

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the trees again and all the seedard just blow all

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over the floor. So it's pretty pointless filling them up today.

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So hopefully when the wind dies down we can get

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them all filled back up again for the birdies. And yeah,

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I brought on my SD card from my wildlife camera.

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It's not got any good footage on it, to be honest,

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it's not taken any good shots of anything. So we're

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gonna have to look at repositioning that and sorting it out.

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Hopefully get some wildlife on it. That's what we want

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to see, some badgers, or want to see some foxes around.

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I just want to capture some nice footage of different

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wildlife down at my lotment because that's what I like

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to do. I like to encourage the wildlife to my plot. Yeah,

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the bad wildlife, some of them like rat's, mice and squirrels,

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but I love seeing all the wildlife down there, and

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every little thing that I can do to help them,

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I certainly will do. So Yeah, hopefully we will be

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back down at the allotment today when you're listening to

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this on Sunday, So hopefully we'll be back down today.

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Hopefully we'll be able to get some work done, and

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then tomorrow's podcast again we'll be talking about what we've

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got up to down at the allotment and what we've

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managed to achieve and hopefully get done, and hopefully i'll

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give you a report on if my shehad is still

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standing and my polytomal is still standing. So wait for

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that episode to drop on Monday morning. So I hope

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you've enjoyed today's episode, a little roundup of what we've

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been getting up to, and obviously storm dar hopefully everybody

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is pretty safe and hopefully not too much damage. So

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

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keep gardening with Ben. Everyone, thank you for joining me

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on this episode of the Gardening with Ben. I hope

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you have found some useful tips and inspiration for your

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own gardening and allotment journey. If you've enjoyed today's episode,

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please make sure to follow and subscribe to the podcast

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so you'll never miss a new episode. And if you

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have a moment, I'd love for you to leave a

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review and share the podcast with fellow of gardening enthusiasts.

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Your support helps us grow this community and continue bringing

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you great content. You can also follow us on social

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daily gardening tips and days. Happy gardening, and until next time,

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