Speaker 1: Welcome to Gardening with Ben, your go to podcast for
all things green and growing in twenty twenty five. Whether
you're a seasoned gardener, a budding enthusiast, or just curious
about cultivating your own slice of nature, you're in the
right place. Join me Ben as we explore practical tips,
inspiring stories, and the latest trends in gardening to make
your outdoor space bloom with life, from a lotment adventures
to wildlife friendly gardening. I'm here to help you grow
your passion and read the rewards. So grab your gloves,
roll up your sleeves, and let's get started on this
year's gardening journey. Hey everyone, and welcome back to Gardening
with Ben. It's the weekend. The weekend is finally here.
Let' us celebrate. Let'us shout from the rooftops because Saturday
is here and there's no snow. All gone. Thankfully, Hopefully
when I get down to the allotment it's all gone.
But everywhere that I've been around there's not been any
snow around, so fingers crossed, it has all gone. So
I'm so excited to get back down to my allotment
today and hopefully get some work done down there, and
if the temperature goes by what it will like Yesterday
on Friday, it were actually a decent day, So hopefully
we'll be productive down there and it won't rain and
we'll be able to do plenty of work until the
weather changes in it's frosty or it's raining or it's sleeting.
It fingers crossed will get something done. Well, we're definitely
going anywhere it is on our list to go. So
what are we doing at the allotment this week? Well,
We've got lots to be getting on with. And this
week I'm going to be obviously filling up my bird
seed I do that on a weekly basis until I
get some squaw will prove bird feeders where it doesn't
all go away go down straight away. But yeah, we'll
be filling up my bird feeders, and then obviously feeding
the cat because the cat waits for me as soon
as I get to my allotment. My dad feeds it
every single day, but I've feed it at weekends. So
we'll be feeding the pussy cat. And then hopefully I'm
going to be watering my sweet peas and my geraniums
because last week when I went down it we're all
frozen up all my water container, so I weren't able
to water anything. But the plants won't need much water
at this time yet. There's plenty of moisture around, so
hopefully they're all still alive. But we'll give them more
water this week. So we've not watered them for quite
a while, and we'll be planting them out in the
springtime when it does warm up and hopefully when the
chance of frost has passed, because we don't want to
kill them off as soon as we put them out. Obviously,
we've grown them through the winter period and they're in
my greenhouse. It's not a heat of greenhouse, so if
this sur ivor until springtime, I'll be happy. If not,
we've given them a try, but hopefully save some money
by doing it. So yeah, we'll be doing that. We're
watering them and then we're going to start digging over
some of my beds again. Last time I dug them
over around October time, so it's been about three months
since we've given them a dig over. Obviously, there's no
weeds growing in them, it's too cold for any weeds
to be growing, but we just dig them over so
that the frost can get into the soil, break it
up and kill any roots what are growing in there
if we keep turning it over. So we'll keep doing
that all the way up to maytime, when I will
be planting stuff out. Obviously the weeds will start growing
around March time and stuff like that, so well be
digging it over more regularly than once every three months.
So we'll be doing that, and then I'm going to
be filming some videos as well down there. I've made
a list of all videos what I want to film
this weekend, so hopefully we'll be getting some content back
out on YouTube again because some people obviously pre first
seeing the visuals rather than just listening to me. So
hopefully we'll be doing some videos down there. And I've
ordered a new phone holder for being at the allotment,
so as well as obviously recording on my tripod, it
goes on a band that goes around my neck, so
you can actually see, like what I'm doing with my hands,
so I can like film potting up or saw in
my seeds and doing stuff like that, you can actually
see it from my perspective as well. So we're going
to hopefully get some new camera angles on videos. It
all sounds professional, but trust me, the videos won't be.
We just do it for the fun and obviously people
like to watch them, so we'll be doing that. But yeah,
we've got that to do. And then obviously in a
couple of months, hopefully we're going to be painting on
my beds up because all the wood paints all washed
off now. It doesn't last fi years like most of
them say on the tin. They only last a couple
of years a year at the most. So I tend
to paint every couple of years just to spruce them
up and look nice. Obviously you don't need to paint them,
but it protects them from rotting a bit more faster,
and obviously it makes it look nice esthetically, so it
looked good for photos and stuff like that, so we'll
be painting all them up. I do hopefully need to
try and source some wood chip for because my paths
could do with real wood chipping this year. I put
a load down last winter and obviously it rots down
over the year, so hopefully we'll try and get some
wood chip sorted down for the allotment. Last time my
neighbor got a load from the council so we'll have
to see if he can speak to his contact and
hopefully get some woodchip down on the paths. But there's
loads of jobs to be doing this winter time, and
this is the time when you're doing all them odd
little jobs around the allotment, sprucing it up, tiding it up,
doing any repairs, and getting it all planned and ready
for next year, well this year now. And it's the
exciting part because come March time, I'm going to be
starting all my seeds. All my seeds will be getting sown,
and I'll be going down there regularly to water them
at night and stuff like that. So we'll be having
lots to get getting on with down at the allotment.
So it's going to be a busy few months coming up.
But I s can't wait to be sorry my seeds.
That's my favorite part of the year. So in the seeds,
seeing them Germany, planting them out and then seeing the
produce what's produced on them. It's so heartwarming seeing the
final product really of what you've done and seeing how
it's actually grown and how fantastic it is. So yeah,
that is our day round up down at the allotment.
Hopefully we'll get as much done as possible, and tomorrow's podcast,
obviously we'll be talking about what we have actually done.
So hopefully we can say that we've done some stuff
down there. And obviously soon I'm going to be preparing
for the big bird watch down there. I'm going to
get a load of different varieties of seed and hopefully
get some pictures of some birds down at my allotment,
and yeah, fingers crossed, hopefully we get to see some
birds down there. I've been seeing bluteds down there regularly,
robbins down there, and I might try and get some
blackbirds down there, so I might get some sultan as
amazons because blackbirds absolutely love them. So if you wanted
to attract the blackbirds, get some sultan and amazons and
just put me in a little bowl. Obviously put them
high up because he attract the rats and stuff like that.
But yeah, trying to attrack some blackbirds to your garden
as blackbirds are absolutely beautiful. So hopefully we're gonna get
plenty done down at the allotment. Obviously, I'm posting more
and more videos on my Instagram stories, my Facebook stories
so you can follow along on my day. How what
we're getting up to and yeah, and I've been sharing
posts as well on my Facebook page of little blog
ideas and what to do were Amaryllus, what jobs need
doing in the garden in January? What needs to be planted?
So yeah, we're posting lots of different things. And yesterday
I posted a post on how to prevent slugs from
eating everything? Stop slugs from eating everything? If only we
could do that? But yeah, I might talk about that
in one of my podcasts. Actually will do that as
one of my podcasts, How to stop slugs from attacking
everything in your garden? What you can plan to stop
them attacking everything, and hopefully getting some projects out of it,
because my neighbor he gets absolutely loads of slugs on
his allotment, but thankfully touch wood, I don't get many.
Whether it's because I let the weeds disguise all my vegetables.
But yeah, hopefully we'll be recording that podcast well for
you soon. So I hope you all have a fantastic day. Everyone.
Make sure you do it out in the garden. Make
sure you do something like feed the birds orful water
bowl up from to have a little drink out of
Just go outside and enjoy some fresh air today everyone,
and I hope that you have a fantastic weekend. Until
next time, everyone, remember, keep smiling, keep shining, and keep
gardening with Ben. Everyone. Thanks for tuning into today's episode
of Gardening with Ben. I hope you've enjoyed our chat
and picked up some tips to help your garden and
allotment drive. Don't forget to stay connected with me on
all social media for even more gardening inspiration, updates and
behind the scenes content. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram,
and YouTube. Just search Gardening with Ben. Hit that follow
button or subscribe button and join our growing community, our
garden lovers. Until next time, everyone, remember, keep smiling, keep shining,
and keep gardening with Ben.