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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 allotment. 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. Well, it's a brand new week,

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fresh start, ready for it all to go again. And wow,

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the temperatures are going to drop this week. Not seeing

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the weather forecast, have a look, and yeah, it's certainly

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going to be cold at night now. So if you've

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got any delicate plants what are outside, fetch them into

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the greenhouse. Fetch them inside, protect them and look after

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them through the winter period because if not, the cold

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weather's going to kill them off. And obviously if the

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preennie or plants and they survive and they come back

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every year, that's fine. But if they're not, and if

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you want to keep them safe, definitely bring them inside

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or put them in a heated greenhouse. As it's going

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to turn nippy and the snow predicted this week, so

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we'll see if we get a night. Fingers crossed. We

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don't because it's my mum's seventieth birthday at the weekend

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and hopefully I'm going to be out celebrating that. So yeah,

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it's now Monday. What did we get up to on Sunday?

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That is the question while I'm recording this on Sunday,

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ready for Monday. I've just come back from the allotment

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and I'm absolutely freezing. I went down to the allotment today.

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I forgot my body warmer. I'll have to start wearing

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my body warming now at weekends. As it's getting cold.

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You certainly feel it compared to yesterday. It were gorgeous

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yesterday down at the allotment, but today it's absolutely dropped.

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So I think the autumn and winter weather is finally here.

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We've been waiting for it. It's held off, but it's

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finally appeared. But we don't need the cold weather to

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help with the garlic development over the winter period, so

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we do welcome it. Unfortunately we have to welcome it.

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And yeah, what have we been up to the allotment today? Well, obviously,

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yesterday I absolutely cleared all of my fruit tree area

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around my roobarb, so I got most of that done,

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so there wasn't that much to be done today. To

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be honest, we took it pretty stead. We had a

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bit of a lazy day at the allotment. I went

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down and I was there for quite a few hours,

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but we had a pretty much lazy day. We obviously

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did our first thing of feed, making sure the bird

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feeders are filled up, fed the pussy cat, and yeah,

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then we did some more clearing off the paths and

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clearing some more bind weed which are grown around one

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of my garden arches. But I'm gonna end up taking

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that garden arch down, I think, because it's it's not

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very good. It's one of those metal ones and it's

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bent and broken and it's not done very well. I

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thought I could grow my climbing roses over them, but

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they're not very good and they don't seem to last,

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so I think that's coming down. We might have to

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look at other options on what to grow my climbing

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roses over. Maybe we'll build something, you know what my

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diarisekulls are like. But maybe we will. We'll have to

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have a wait and see. Maybe we'll have to design something.

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And you're not seeing my drawing skills absolutely useless. But yeah,

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I do love DIY but I'm just rubbish it it.

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But yeah, we've been clearing some of that area, and yeah,

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I'm happy that I've cleared all my rhubarb area and

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around there now. And we've just dropped our YouTube video

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up of our weekly tour, so you can see all

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the work that I've done this weekend around my real

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barb and how good it's looking. We've got a big

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job next weekend, but I'll save that for the next podcast.

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What we're for the weekend's podcast to tell you what

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I'm getting up to down at the allotment, So make

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sure you stay tuned for that fingers crossed if it

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isn't snowing. We've obviously been filming our videos for the

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week as after them all on a weekend. Ready for

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the week I've filmed all my daily questions which I'll

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be posting on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, so make sure

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you get involved in the daily question what I post

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as I do love to see all your answers. I

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may not reply to them all, but I do actually

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read them all. And yeah, we've done a few YouTube

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videos this week. So we've done the garden tour. We've

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done a tour of my shed and what I plan

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to do with it this winter, what we're actually growing

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over the winter periods, how to look after the wildlife,

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an allotment or encourage it. So yeah, quite a few

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videos coming up on the YouTube channel, so I hope

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that you are following the YouTube channel. I do post

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them all on Facebook as well on Instagram these days,

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but they're easier to find on YouTube sometimes, So if

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you're not following my YouTube channel, make sure you follow it.

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Click the bell and you'll get notified when I upload them,

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which will usually be at a nighttime. But yeah, we've

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had a good weekend down there overall. I made a

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start on tidying my shed out, obviously getting that all

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clean and tidy, but I'm happy with how it's progressed,

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and I mentioned this in my tour video that I'm

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glad I started around the end of September, starting to

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clear all my plot, clearing all my beds, tidying it

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all up, getting rid of all the band weed, and

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it's pretty much all tidy now. All my beds are

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done and it's pretty much done outside. I've just got

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another weekend to go on doing an area which we'll

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mention later on in the podcasts, and then it's going

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to be in door work getting all my shed ready

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for next year. So we're well ahead of schedule. We're

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absolutely flying with getting my open prepped for next year.

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One of the next year's planned is obviously to improve

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the soil in my beds, because I've not improved them

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over the last like twelve years or so. So I'm

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going to be adding some nutrients into the soil and

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adding compost into it, adding food into it. Anything I

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can do to help improve the growth of all my

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vegetables and hopefully gets some huge pumpkins next year and

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some fantastic cor jets. But we'll see. But we've got

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lots and lots to get done over there. But yeah,

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we've had a fantastic weekend. Like I said, it's been

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a bit too cold today. Maybe I'm going to have

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to start having them bonfires down there. I didn't manage

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to get one done this weekend, but hopefully I'll start

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getting some bonfires going and then that i'll keep them

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warm as well. But as I'm actually recording this podcast,

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you know, I said, it's not hardly rained here. It's

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absolutely chucking it down now, which is fantastic, which is

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what I want. We've not had no rain, proper rain

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here for ages. We had a like fifteen minute down

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poor yesterday when I was allotment, but it wasn't much.

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But hopefully this is a lot heavier than it was yesterday,

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So hopefully we're going to start getting a bit more

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rain now. Because I needed to stop watering my garlic

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and water in my winter onions as they're not getting

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any water. I'm having to water with myself and it

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seems strange having to water outside in November, but yeah,

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I'm having to water everything. But it's going to be

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a busy week down the allotment, well at home, to

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be honest, not at the a lot, but it's going

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to be a busy week. This week I'm going to

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start planning and prepping for what seat I'm going to

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grow for next year. So I'll be sharing that with

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you all shortly as I need to have a look

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what I want to order, obviously, pop them in a

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basket and then get them all ordered. I want to

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try some new flowers next year. That's another plan. But yeah,

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I'm going to start putting it all together and I'll

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share it with you on my podcasts and hopefully get

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some new ideas for some my new podcast ideas because

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I start to run out of things to talk about

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after a while. I tried to make them quite long episodes,

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but I only managed to ever get to about ten minutes.

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But yeah, I like to talk about a different topic

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every single day, so this podcast has obviously been talking

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about what we've been getting up to at the weekend.

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But we've got as bird houses back up, we've cleaned

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them out. We're cleaning them out ready for springtime. If

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anybody's got any bird houses in the garden, make sure

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you take them down, clean out any old nests what

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are in them, disinfect them out just in case there's

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any diseases and stuff in that. Give them a clean

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as bluets won't move into them if they look like

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they've been lived in or anything's disturbed them, so have

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them nice and clean ready for springtime, and then that'll

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encourage bluets into garden. I do this every year and

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then the bluetis moved back in again in the early springtime,

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many four laying their eggs for baby blue tis. So

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I'm looking forward to getting more birds down at my

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allotment next year. And hopefully I'll get my prize as well,

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delivered this week from my bird feeder. So hopefully we'll

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have some suet blocks again, because after yesterday's episode of

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the pesky squirrels eating all my sewet blocks, which I'm

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not very happy about. So expensive, they're not cheap suet blocks,

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but yeah, they're expensive and they ate them all. And

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I thought, oh, that will last me for about ten weeks,

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that put a new suet block in every week, But no,

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it lasted me three weeks. But hopefully we're going to

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start encouraging more animals down onto my plot. Obviously, I

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had a look actually in the supermarket yesterday and they've

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got some hedgehog food. Now it's specially designed for hedghogs,

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but obviously that will encourage my some wraps and squibbles tweeter,

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So I don't know if I should put a hedgehog

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food out or not. Let me know in the comments

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if you put hedgehog food out, well, not in the

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comments by sending me a message. I'd like to know

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if anyone else puts hedgehog food out. Obviously there's certain

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stuff that you can feed them and certain stuff you can't.

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But this is specially designed for hedghogs. So let me

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know if you feed your hedgehogs with hedgog food and

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whether it's worth off doing it or not. My a

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lot them. As I have got a hedgehog house, I've

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not put it out yet. I need to put it out,

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find somewhere nice for it to go, because obviously this

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time hedgehogs are hibernating and they need to stay safe

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for anything next year. So let me know and send

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me a message if you feed the hedgehogs or not.

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Make sure you come back for tomorrow's episode. We're going

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to be talking about all different topics in this week.

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Tomorrow going to be start talking about what's the best

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way to start an allotment off off excuse me, what's

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the best way to start an allotment off from scratch,

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so make sure you're tune in for that episode. If

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you're not following, mate, do give me a follow, give

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it a like, give it a vating as well. I

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know you can give ratings as well, so make sure

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you come back for tomorrow. Until next time, everyone, remember,

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keep smiling, keep shining, and keep guarding with everyone. Thank

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you for joining me on this episode of Gardening with Ben.

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I hope you have found some useful tips and the

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integration for your own gardening and a lotment journey. If

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you have enjoyed today's episode, please make sure to follow

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and subscribe to the podcast so you never miss a

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new episode. And if you have a moment, I'd love

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for you to leave a review and share the podcast

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with fellow gardening husiasts. Your support helps us us community

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and continue bringing you great content. You can also follow

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us on social media on every platform for all Gardening

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with Ben for daily gardening tips and mondays. Happy gardening,

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

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keep gardening with them,