Speaker 1: Welcome to Gardening with Ben. You'll go to a podcast
for all things green and growing in twenty twenty five.
Whether you're a seasoned gardener, a budding enthusiast, or just
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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 everybody, and welcome back to Gardening
with Ben. Well, Happy Friday. It is final late Friday,
and it seems funny me saying this. I'm recording it
on Sunday. But happy Friday, everybody, and I hope that
you're all looking for to the weekend. Well, it's the
last day of January. Finally, it's the end of the month.
January is the month that keeps on giving. It seems
to last forever and ever. And I know, obviously everybody
has that problem with getting paid early before Christmas, which
is nice, but then you've got to make it last
forever throughout January. But it's finally the end of the
month and hopefully we will be turning a corner soon
and heading towards springtime which will soon be upon us
in March. So yeah, what have we accomplished in January?
This is where we talk about our good things and
are bad things of the month. Well, have we done
a lot down at the allotment? Yes we have, I
know we haven't. We feel like we've done a lot,
but we haven't done loads to be honest, but we
have make up your mind, Ben, have you how I
haven't you? But yeah, we have had a good month
down in January. Obviously we've had the snow which put
off us far a few times, but we have managed
to get lots done. And in January we worked on
tidying all my shed up and sorting out some shelving
in it, and sorting my pots out, getting all those
sorted and really giving it a good tidy up and
clearing it all ready for the monthhead because come March
time my greenhouse will be absolutely full to busting with
seeds what we have sown because that's when I saw
all my seats in March time. Obviously we'll be talking
about what SEATY can go in February tomorrow, but I
don't do that. I tend to wait till March time
because it's still quite cold where we are, and I
obviously want it to be warmer in my greenhouse. It's
not a heatd greenhouse, so we need to wait for
the warmer weather fit's to germinate the seeds, so we've
done that. We've also done a lot of tidying up
in my polytunnel, as I've not used my polytonel much
for the last couple of years, but this year we
are bringing it back into action. Yes, we are bringing
the polytunel back into full potential and getting it used.
We stopped growing our tomatoes in the polytunnel. Now we
grow those outdoors, as they seem to do better and
you don't have to water them as often because the
ground stays damper than it would do in a bucket
of compost. So we grow tomatoes outside. That's cherry ones,
the bigger ones you would need to grow into a
greenhouse because they need a lot more sun to make
them riper. So big ones will grow indoors if we
are growing any this year. And obviously my cucumbers, I
grew about three in my polytunnel this year, and I
had about fifteen plants outside what I got spare plant
left over, and the ones out that side did fantastic.
They did so much better than the ones in the polytunnel,
which is hard to believe, but yes they did. So
I'm going to grow my cucumbers outside from now on.
If they're doing that well, I might as well carry
on doing them like that. And again, they won't need
as much water because the ground stays wet and if
it rains, it waters them, which is a bonus. But
why are we fetching the polytunnel back into action. You
may say, we are going to be growing peppers in there,
and we're going to be growing melons in there, and
you're probably saying, well, why don't you grow those outside?
But them two things need more sunlight so and more heat.
So that is the reason why we're fetching the polytunnel
back into action this year. So we've got it all
tidied out and ready for them to grow, which we'll
talk about in another episode. So I'm excited to be
growing in the polytunnel again obviously, I mean I need
to go down there often and keep things watered. But
it encourages me to get out and about and visit
the plot, which I'm looking forward to. And we did
a few repairs to the shed because we've had a
few bad storms. The roof blew off some of it,
so we had to repair that. But I only like
a body job because my dad said to me that
is going to help me take all the roof off
and start from scratch and make a better roof. Which
the roof's probably been on for about ten years now
and its perspects and it's pretty strong, but it's starting
to go brittle a bit now so when the wind
comes it just snaps it now, so it's time for
a replacement. It's done its job and it's time for
a fresh new roof. And hopefully we're going to make
it waterproof as well, because whether we're in there, there's
dripsqui through where all the screws are because I've not
done it right. I've not like capped it off, I've
not waterproofed them, so it has it keeps getting mid
wet when it's raining in there, so Hopefully we're going
to make it a bit more waterproof and use stronger
plastic as well. Obviously we've started looking on Facebook Marketplace.
Facebook Marketplace is a brilliant place if you're wanted to
look for cheap stuff or free stuff, as a lot
of people just post on there to get rid of stuff.
So if you're looking at doing work to your allotment
or sheds or greenhouses, have a look on Facebook Marketplace
and you'll possibly be able to find some good bargains.
So that is what we're going to be doing soon
when it gets a bit nicer. Obviously, we can't be
doing it when it's absolutely chucking it down and cold
and freezing because we don't want to be doing that.
So yeah, we've not done much weeding in January. January
we've not done anything outside as it's been too cold,
the ground's been too hard, and all the weeds don't
seem to be growing much at the moment. So we
might turn all the bed over in February. That might
be one of our jobs that we do in that month.
But yeah, overall, January has been a pretty decent month
and obviously we're starting to do more content on YouTube
we're getting more videos out there, and we're going to
film the loads this year, loads of videos for you
to watch. And obviously we're getting more and more content
out on our Facebook page for you to read and
sharing it in digest. So I hope that you found
that useful. So yeah, I'm happy that I've been down
to my allotment in January. Years ago, I never used
to go down to my plot in January. I used
to finish off my plot at the end of October,
then not go back down to the allotment until March time,
and I'd be rushing at the last minute to be
getting everything tidied, cleaned up and ready for the months ahead.
So I tend to carry on now throughout the winter
period so that I've got all these jobs done and
I can concentrate on growing my seeds throughout the March period,
because when I start stating my seat in March, it's
going to be a lot of work. I'll obviously need
so more and then keep them all water and then
we have to prick them all out and pot them
up individually, and yeah, it takes a lot of work.
So that is the reason why I continue doing all
my working throughout October through to February, because you can
get a lot of stuff done, and it's not necessarily
just digging over. It's like tiding up and getting it
all clean and ready for the year ahead. So yeah,
January has been a successful month down at the Allotment.
Hopefully we'll get lots done in February. I'm looking forward
to it. Obviously, the spring bulbs and everything will start
popping through now and start showing the heads and hopefully
start fetching some spring color down at the Allotment, because
that's what I want. I want to see all the
crouxes out. I want to see the daffodils out. I'm
looking forward to the highs of smells when you walk
onto the Allotment. So yeah, I'm excited for the springtime,
and I'm sure you are all too. So tomorrow's episode,
we'll be back with a new podcast and it will
be talking about all the things that you can so
in February. Like I said, most things I won't be
starting until March time. But it's there just as a
guide for anybody that's interested, And obviously it all depends
on the temperature in your area that you live in.
As well, so thanks for listening to today's podcast everyone.
As always, remember keep smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening
with Ben. Everyone, thanks for tuning in to 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 pride. Don't forget to stay connected with me on
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and keep gardening with Ben.