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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. I hope you're all well,

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and I hope you're all keep him busy. And yeah,

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it's finally the weekend, the first weekend of December. So

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who's going in the allotment or who's getting ready for Christmas?

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That is the question of in the garden should I

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say as well? But yeah, are you getting ready for Christmas?

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Are you out writing your list for Father Christmas? Or

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he is spending it in doors staying warm and dry,

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or are you mad like me spending it in the allotment.

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So yeah, as always, we're going to be giving you

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a Christmas joke of the day. For those that don't

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see them online, this is another place where you can

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listen to us. So I'm lucky for you or looking

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for you, whichever way. So today's Christmas joke is why

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did the gardener plant mint at Christmas? Why did the

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gardener plant mint at Christmas? Because he wanted a mint

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to wonderland? Why did the gardener plant mint at Christmas?

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Because he wanted a minto wonderland? There you are, That's

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the best you're going to get, and there'll be plenty

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of while to come all the way up to December.

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So I hope you're enjoying these daily Christmas jokes. So

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what are we talking about today? Well, in yesterday's episode,

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we talked all about the key tasks of getting your

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allotment prepared and ready for a year ahead. I hope

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you found it useful and I hope it gave you

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some enthusiasm and encouragement into getting your gardens and allotments done.

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So what are we going to be doing at the

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allotment this weekend? For us down at the allotment, that

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is a question. Let me share with you what our

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plans are for our allotment and if it encourages you

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to do a bit in your garden or allotments, that's

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what I want to hear from. So, yeah, what our plans. Well,

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I need to go out and get some more bird

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feed as they are rummaging through throughout my bird feed

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eating loads, which is a good sign. It shows that

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I'm feeding the birds and encouraging them. But obviously the

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squirrels are taking some, they're eating it, and I've seen

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a rap down at my allotment as well, so they're

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eating it as well. So I'm feeding all the wildlife

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down there, and obviously I'm feeding the cat as well,

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which we've got down at my allotment. But yeah, I'll

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be filling up all my bird feeders and getting them

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ready for the winter because we have had a bit

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of cold weather, but not a load, so the ground

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isn't that much frozen, so birds can still get worms

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and stuff from out of the gardens. But obviously looking

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after the birds, especially when it's cold and they can't

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get anything out of the ground, it keeps them going

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and obviously feeding them certain bird feed gives them energy

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as well throughout the winter months, which is what they want.

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The next main job down at the allotment this weekend,

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well last weekend, I only went down on Sunday because

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I was out celebrating work Christmas parties. But yeah, last weekend,

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what I did was I rearranged all my loganberry bush

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and tied it in a better position so it easier

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to get down around where my strawberry beds are. And

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I also tied up or my new BlackBerry canes as well,

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what have been growing this year. Because obviously the next

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year's blackberries will grow on the canes which grew this year,

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and the same goes for logan berries. That the logan

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berries will grow on the new canes this year, So

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it's a case of tying them up and supporting them

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and getting them all in place ready for the year ahead.

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So I did that very delicately because I didn't want

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to break any of the canes or damaging any of them.

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And they're all tied to my fences and support so

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they're all sorted. So my main job this weekend it's

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going to be sorting out around where my strawberry beds

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are and tiding them all up, and I'm going to

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be trimming back any of the old leaves are on

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and what are dying off, or any disease leaves to

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stop them from like getting diseased and spreading throughout the

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winter months. So I just give them a good trim

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over the winter, and I'll obviously cut off any runners

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what are growing and plant them up into the ground

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and make sure they're well watered, which obviously there will

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be at this time yet, especially with the amount of

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rain that we've had recently, so it's just a case

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of keeping the watered into the ground to make sure

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that they take. But yeah, we planted about an extra

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two hundred strawberry plants the other month of my a

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lotment because last year I didn't get a good crop,

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so I've replaced a lot of the plants. I filled

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tons of gaps in which we're all over in my

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black membrane, so they're all spaced out equally. So we

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planted absolutely loads of strawberries. So I'm hoping for a

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fantastic crop next year because my crop this year was abysmal.

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I wasn't happy with it. Either the plants didn't do

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very well or the birds ate them, so we need

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to keep an eye and possibly protect them better next

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year from any and squirrels from eating them next year.

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So we're gonna have to look into possibly making a

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little structure or some netting over them to stop anything

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from coming down and getting them. So we're going to

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be tiding all them up. We're also going to be

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tied in all the paths around my strawy bed area

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so that it's easy to get round and get down

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the side of the bed so that I can reach

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over and sort all them out. We're also going to

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be emptying my carrot bed. What I planted. I started

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off while with it. I sewed all my carrots in

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this raised planter in my greenhouse and they all started

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growing because they're high off the ground so the carrot

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fly won't get them. And I thought, oh, I'm going

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to get some decent carrots this year. I forgot to

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water them throughout the year, didn't I. I just put

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them in the corner and forgot about them and didn't

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water them. So I'm not expecting miracles from these carrots.

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But we're going to pull them all up and we're

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going to see what carrots we've got from them, so

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make sure you stay tuned for that YouTube episode. Because

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you know me, I'm very open and honest. I'll tell

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you if I've done rubbish, I'll tell you if I've

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done absolutely fantastic. I share the truth. I don't hide

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from it, not like some gardeners. They'll just say what

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we grew with these probably bought them in the supermarket

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and stuck them in the ground. But now we are

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upen and honest with how well we do with our growing.

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So we're going to be harvesting all them, and then

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possibly on Sunday, we're going to start with the renovation

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of my shed. And I'm excited for this because I'm

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rubbish at the IY. I've always admitted that I'm absolutely terrible.

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It looks awful and I do a rubbish job, but

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I enjoy doing it and it's good fun. So we're

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going to be renovating the inside of my shed this year.

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Like I said, last year, we spent the time on

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rebuilding all the outside, sort of all the structure out

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and everything like that. This year we're going to concentrate

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on the inside of the shed. Because I've got into

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making my YouTube videos quite a lot now and I

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absolutely love doing it. So I'm going to try and

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make a potting bench type thing where I can film,

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I can show what I'm doing with a good backdrop

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to it, so it looks professional somehow professional. One day

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I'll be professional. One day i'll be famous. Keep listening

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to these podcasts and maybe one day I will be

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But yeah, I want to have a nice backdrop to it.

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I want it to look fantastic and look like a

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proper little shed studio type thing. So I want to

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improve in my shed and do that. I also want

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to sort out all my shelving, tidy it all up.

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I'm going to paint all inside my shed, make it

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all look fresh and brand new. I've got wooden shelving

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at the moment, and it's fantastic. They're all cut to pieces.

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I can take them all off if I want to

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grow anything underneath them so that I don't un scroll

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the bench. That I can just take them off of

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the supports and take them out. But what I'm going

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to do is I'm gonna possibly paint them all and

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then I'm gonna put some polyofene over them. I've got

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a load of polyfene in my shed and I'm possibly

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gonna put polyofene over them so that when I'm watering

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my plants, it won't give the wood chance of rotting.

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If you get me, it's going to protect it so

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that the water will just run off and then the

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shed will grow. Not the shed will grow, the shelves

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will be protected for years to come and hopefully last

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plenty of years. So I'm going to do all that,

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and I need to sort out a lot of my

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plant pots so much, all my seed trays. I need

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to get them all cleaned out and ready and just

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sweep up and tidy up and burn any old wood.

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I need to start having bonfires. That's one thing I've

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not started doing yet. We need to start having some

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bonfires down there and getting rid of some of the

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old wood that got down there. So hopefully I'll be

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starting to do with the shed. But I will definitely

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be filming plenty of videos down there in the shed

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showing you all the transformation of what I'm getting up to,

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and you can follow along and see how well I

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get up to. So if you don't follow my YouTube channel,

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do give it a follower, and then you'll be able

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to see how well my shed is actually coming on.

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And another job one weekend once it's dry is probably

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to spray all my fruit trees. That's one thing I

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want to want to spray them all and get them

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all pretty much. I put like a winter wash on them,

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and I'll also put some sticky bands around them as

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well to stop any insects from crawling up and trying

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to damage the trees over the summer periods. So if

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you put them on over winter, it'll stop any insects

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from hibernating in it and laying its eggs and stuff

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like that. But yeah, that is one job I usually

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do every winter. But there's still a lot of leaves

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on my cooking apple tree. I'm guessing there'll be a

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lot more left come off it now because it has

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been windy today and awful when I've been recording this episode,

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so hopefully the leaves all dropped off, so I'll have

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to tidy all them leaves up as well and put

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them in my compost heap so that they start rotting down.

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So yeah, we've got a lot of jobs to do

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down at the allotment. Obviously, I'm going to film a

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allotment tour. I didn't put one out this week. I

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did record it, but I didn't put it out. It's

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a bit late putting it out now. That's a bit pointless.

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So I'm going to do an allotment tour next week.

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We'll start doing all the videos again. Obviously you're getting

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the daily jokes and yeah, we're going to get some

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more content delivered to you over on the allotment, So

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I hope you're looking forward to all that. I'm trying

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to get as much content out there as possible for

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you to watch and listen to these days, and I

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hope you're all enjoying it. I get a lot of

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good feedback about my podcasts, so I hope that you're

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enjoying all them. So if you're not following us, do

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give us a follow. Feel free to share it to Instagram, YouTube, YouTube,

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to Facebook, anything, share it to your friends. So until

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

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guardening with everyone. Thank you for joining me on this

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episode of Gardening with Ben. I hope you have found

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some useful tips and integration for your own gardening and

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a lotment journey. If you've 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 Mondays.

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

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and keep gardening with them.