Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Gardening with Ben. You'll go to
a podcast for all things green and growing. I'm Ben,
your allotment guide and here to help you cultivate your
garden and your passion for plants. Whether you're a seasoned
gardener or just starting out, this podcast is for you.
Each episode will dig into tips, tricks, and techniques to
make your garden and allotment thrive from planting, sewing, and growing.
We will share all the tips and add advice. We
will also have regular episodes talking about what we have
been up to on the allotment. So sit back, grab
a brew and enjoy today's episode. Hey everyone, and welcome
back to Gardening with Ben for hopefully another long episode
for you to listen to today. Well, today we have
been down at our allotment. Obviously this is coming out Sunday,
but I've recorded it on Saturday. We've had a absolute busy,
busy day down at the plot today. And yes, I'm
starting to feel the cold while I'm down at the allotment,
so I need to start wrapping up. It's obviously still
good temperatures out there, but after I'd been down there
for a bit, I was starting to feel the cold,
and I was ready to come home and get back
in the warmth again. And it's not even winter yet,
so we've got all this to come. But I do
love being down there, especially at this time of year.
It's nice weather to be down and it's been a
perfect day for gardening. No rain, no bit of showers
or any cold wind or anything like that. It was
just a decent day down there. So what have we
been up to today at the allotment. We've been having
a little bit of fun. If you've not watched any
of my latest videos, we had et down at the atment,
and if you watch the videos you'll find out why
Et was down there. Okay, but yeah, we're having a
little bit of fun down there. And also when I
got down to the allotment today, I usually go into
my shed and give put some food out for the cat.
What's around on the allotment. The kittens are around anymore,
they've moved on, but the main cat is still around,
so we usually give it some food. And I went
into my shed and wow, my dad had been busy
all week while being at work, tidying up in my shed,
sorting things out, moving things around, and yeah, he started
doing some work for me in the shed and making
some improvements down there for me, which has been absolutely
fantastic of him, as obviously I want to get it
all renovated through the winter period, get it all repainted
and looking good. But yeah, my dad's been busy and
the tidying up and doing a few odd jobs which
I don't get a chance to do, and my dad's
better at doing them than me sometimes. But yeah, my
dad's he's not young himself, so I always worry about
him being down there doing stuff and burning himself out,
but he enjoys going out and being active still while
he can, and while he can make the most of
it moving around down on the allotment. But yeah, my
dad's obviously got an allotment and he's being busy on
his plot, tidying it all up ready for winter. But
he must have thought, oh, I like going down there's
not much left to do on my plot. I'll go
and do some bits for Ben, which has been a
blessing in disguise. So yeah, a big shout out to
my dad. My dad's the one that got me into gardening,
and again his dad got him into it because he
used to grow all fruit and vegetables and look after
his garden and everything like that. So it does run
down in the genes. And yeah, I've been very busy obviously.
Yesterday I talked about all the jobs that I wanted
to do now at the allotment. I didn't get a
chance to do them all, but I got a lot
of the jobs to which I had written down to do.
And one of my main jobs this weekend is to
clear at the top of my plot, which looks absolutely atrocious.
They were bind weed all over the leaves all over
the place from the trees what had fallen. Now, you
couldn't see the paths, you couldn't see the beds. What
we were up at the top of the plot where
the herbs had been wearing. There's like mint up there
and stuff like that, because there's nothing else for what
will grow much up in the area because it's a
shaded area. So we just stuck some bits and and yeah,
I managed to get half of that done, which was
what I wanted to do. I set myself in alarm
clock as I like to schedule things and tick things
off as I do to fit everything in. So I
set myself in alarm clock of time to do it
in and I managed to get it all done what
I wanted to do to do. There's still a lot
more to do of that area, but we'll finish that
off tomorrow. Fingers crossed. We might have to go into
next weekend to finish it all off because it's a
It's an area that I don't look after much. It's
just an area what I've just tied it up to
make it look smart, if you get me. It's not
an area that I'm too fussed about. But obviously we
have to keep them looking tidy for inspections and stuff
like that on the allotment, which unfortunately we get, so
we have to make sure it's spick and span for them.
But yeah, I've been busy doing all that, and obviously
I've been doing some videos as well for you to watch.
I'm starting to do a video for every day on YouTube.
That is my plan, that is my target. Obviously, I'm
doing a podcast every day for you and obviously when
I'm down at the allotment of the weekend, I have
to try and film six episodes for you all to watch,
like different little short, little videos for you all to watch,
which is obviously getting that done doing my allotment. It's
quite a push, but we are managing to do it.
So what have we done down at the allotment today
as well as clear the top area, Well, today we
have I've been busy harvesting my Christmas potatoes. Yes, I've
harvested my Christmas potatoes. I expected them to be ready
around December time, but the plants have died off and
I thought, well, they're not going to grow anymore, now,
might as well harvest them. So that was one video
which I filmed, which is on YouTube now if you
want to go and have a look of me harvesting
my Christmas potatoes and I'll let you see how well
we actually did. Now I'm happy with the results of them.
But one of them was a complete failure. But three
boxers of the potatoes did absolutely fantastic and I've brought
a load home. So I'm going to be eating chippies
now for the next few weeks, which is fantastic because
I just shove them in the air five I've got
a special chipper what just chops them into chipsy shapes
and I just stick them in the air five minutes
and they taste absolutely delicious, and there's a seasoning out there.
I don't know if you've tried it, but it's to
make them cheesy chips. So I just stick them in
a bowl and sprinkle some of this on and mix
it all in and then put them in the air
five for ten minutes and they taste absolutely gorgeous, absolutely
over the moon with them. So I've got them to
last me for a few months, which will keep me going,
which is saving me money obviously, So they'll be having
with my tea every single night. We'll be having some
chippies throughout the winter period, which is good because obviously
you're spreading their produce out over the winter period as well,
save you're having to go out and buy stuff. And
what else have we been up to. We have sorted
out all my sweet peas. I've been showing in my
tall video recently of my sweet peas and they were
all becoming leg eu and I wanted to pinch them back,
and I explained about that in the video which i'll
be coming this week, that pinching them back helps bush
them out. They'll be smaller flowers on them, but they'll
be more bushy and they'll get more flowers on them,
whereas if you usually leave them not pinched out, they'll
grow bigger flowers on them and bigger long as stalks
on the flowers. So that is the reason. So if
you're wanting them to look at like a nice display,
pinch them out to keep them busher. But if you're
wanting them for vases and stuff like that, I suggest
not pinching them out. So we'll talk about that more
in another episode later on down the line. What else
have we done as geraniums. We've finally dug them all
up out of the ground before the frost comes. We've
not had a frost at all this year so far,
well this winter, autumn winter, we've not had a frost yet,
which is amazing. Like this time of year you've usually
had a frost at least, but we've not had no
frosts around here whatsoe. So I managed to get them
out before the frost gets them and kills them, and
we've potted them all up. We put them in my
shed and we're going to keep them watered and hopefully
look after them throughout the winter period and keep them
keep them alive, because that's what we want to do.
So we've got that all sorted and that's another job
ticked off my list. So we've got quite a few
more jobs left to do down at the allotment. Tomorrow.
Obviously I do my weekly tour video which I'm going
to be doing down there, and I'm filming my blog
of what I get up to down at the allotment
as well. But there's quite a few other videos which
I want to film and we need to sort of
salve your out. Tomorrow I'm going to be sorting them
out for a video for your all to watch. I
took some cuttings earlier in the year and they've rooted,
They've took well, and I just want to put them
into bigger pots fresh compost and tidy them up and
give them a big boost and then I'll be planting
them out next year in my allotment. So we want
to encourage them to grow better and keep on looking
better and hopefully we'll get some nice salvea plants next
year for free, which is always a bonus. Been a Yorkshireman,
we always like everything for free or cheap or half price.
But yeah, I'm looking forward to next year. We're putting
a lot of effort into my allotment this year. Obviously,
like I say, I've not got as much time down there.
I've only got two days a week down there at
the moment throughout the winter period. Obviously, when it gets
to summer and lighter nights, I can stay down there later,
but we are only there for the weekends at the
moment for a few hours. And like I say, it
gets cold, so wanting to come home after a short
while down there. So we've got the salveya to sort
out tomorrow. We've obviously got the rest of the top
area of my plot to sort out and finish off,
and which other jobs are down on modest I want
to sort some of my paths out. Hopefully we're going
to be doing that. And there's nothing else really down
there what I need to actually get done and sorted.
There's nothing burning to get done, which is good. I'm
I'm on top of stuff. I'm in front. I've got
a lot of it cleared and ready for next year.
So yeah, it'll be a case of just once I've
cleared this top area, it'll be a case of just
tidying it all up and sorting my beds out and
screwing them all back together and then painting them all
next year. But my allotment is coming on fantastic. I'm
happy with how it's all looking, and it's looking fantastic,
and then obviously through the main winter period it'll be
the time when I'm sprucing up all my shed getting
it all painted. Like I said, I want a new
potting shelf where I can record myself, film myself and
make it make some good episodes for the videos as well.
I know everybody's liking the videos been back at the moment,
which is fantastic and I'm happy about so hopefully we're
going to keep this up. This weekend is going to
be busy as well, recording all these podcasts for the
week ahead. I like to film them all on Saturday
and Sunday so that you've got on for the week
as obviously, when I finished work, I'm tired, so I'm
not necessarily wanting to record them, but you will get
an episode every single day this week, believe me. And
thank you for everybody that's commented saying I'm glad the
podcasts back, and thank you to everybody that's listening to them.
Over one hundred people each episode or listening to them,
and so yeah, keep sharing it out everybody. The more
people that listen, the better they will get out to everybody.
So until tomorrow's episode. Tomorrow's episode, we will be talking
about everything that we've got up to on Sunday, so
make sure you're tune in for that episode. Until next time, everyone, remember,
keep smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening with Bet. Everyone,
thank you for joining me on this episode of Gardening
with Ben. I hope you have found some useful tips
and instrogiration for your own gardening and a lotment journey.
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