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Speaker 1: Welcome to Gardening with Ben, your go to podcast for

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all things green and growing in twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 2: Whether you're a.

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Speaker 1: Seasoned gardener, a budding enthusiast, or just curious about cultivating

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your own slice of nature, you're in the right place.

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Join me Ben as we explore practical tips, inspiring stories,

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and the latest trends in gardening to make your outdoor

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space bloom with life, from a lotment adventures to wildlife

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friendly gardening. I'm here to help you grow your passion

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and read the rewards. So grab your gloves, roll up

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your sleeves, and let's get started on this year's gardening journey.

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Hey everyone, and welcome back to Gardening with Ben for

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another brand new episode. I hope you're all well on

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this Monday morning, and hopefully the snow will start to

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fore and fingers crossed disappear soon, because all what's life

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left is all that ice.

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Speaker 2: And it's awful when it's ice.

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Speaker 1: It's lovely when it's first come down, when you can

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crunch your feet in it and stuff like that. But

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when you've had the snow now for about a week

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and it's all that ice, it's awful to walk on

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like all the main road to clear and stuff like that,

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but all the pavements are so awful to walk on.

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It's absolutely awful. But hopefully it will all go soon.

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But yeah, we went down on our allotment on Sunday.

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Obviously it's Sunday today when I've recorded this, but we've

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been down to our allotment. And I didn't even drive

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on to the site because my dad goes down every

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single day to make sure the cat's been fed down there,

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and it says don't even drive on the site, so

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I didn't. I like parts away on the road and

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walked onto the allotment site and it was really, really bad.

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I wasn't expecting to see as much snow as I'd imagined.

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Speaker 2: It was just as if it had.

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Speaker 1: Been laid all the snow. It was just a blanket

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of snow. It beautiful down there, absolutely beautiful. And when

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snow's been fallen, it just feels so quiet, so peaceful,

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so calm. It's absolutely gorgeous. So I've posted lots of

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photos on Instagram and on Facebook of those. If you've

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not already seen them, go and have a look at them.

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Absolutely gorgeous. And my main job today was obviously to

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go and feed the cat.

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Speaker 2: The cat was.

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Speaker 1: Waiting for me, waiting for its food. We do make

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sure it's fed every single day. Even though it's a

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wild cat and it can probably fend for itself, we

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do like to give it some food to keep it

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going and just make sure it's okay. And the other

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main reason for going down to the allotment today was

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to feed the birds. That is one thing that I

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wanted to do. Obviously I've not fed them since last week.

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My dad don't fill up the bird feeders like he

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just manages to feed the cat. So I filled up

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all the bird feeders on my allotment today, got them

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all filled up with seed. But we do need to

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get some new bird feeders that have got that I

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can put peanuts in, because if I just put them

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in normal ones at the moment, the squirrel will take

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them all.

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Speaker 2: So I need to get some squirrel proof peanut feeders.

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Speaker 1: That is one one of the things that are in

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my Amazon cart at the moment. So we need to

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get some squirrel proof bird feeders for the peanuts, and

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hopefully in time I'll get a few more different varieties

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of seeds because I do want to get some different

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varieties of birds down there. Obviously there's not many varieties

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of birds at the round at the moment because obviously

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it's wintertime. You'll just see a light blue tits and

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your robins. I don't see any green finchers and stuff

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like that at the moment. So when it gets a

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bit warm up, we'll be starting to put out some

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different varieties of bird seed, hopefully attract some different varieties

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of birds down there, and have them all in squirrel

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proof feeders so that the seed will actually last a

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bit instead of it all be gone in a day.

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Speaker 2: They certainly are.

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Speaker 1: Expensive feeding the birds, but it's something I absolutely love

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to do. And obviously feeding the bird attracts them to

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the plot and all the insects, all the slugs and

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stuff like that as well, So attracting the birds to

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the allotment is a successful thing to do. And while

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I was down there at the allotment, I just went

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for a little walk around to see how things are

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looking and see how things are getting on. And I

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had a look at my geraniums. I had a look

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at my sweet peas. The rolls still alive. Fingers crossed,

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they'll stay alive for much longer, and we'll steer them

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through to the springtime. I've only planted up my geraniums

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from out of my allotment because I want to sift

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somebody for next year, well this year. Now, what you

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can do with geraniums is that when it's before the

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cold weather comes, before the frost and the snow and

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stuff like that, you can dig them up and move

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them into a shed or into a greenhouse or on

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a window sill and keep them alive throughout the winter

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period and then you can plant them back outside again

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one such chance of frost has passed and you'll get

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flowers on them again, and you can obviously take cuttings

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from them as well and start new plants off. So

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it's a way of saving money and having stronger, bigger

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plants for next year and get more flowers on them.

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So that's what we've done. We've dug them all up

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and hopefully we'll get some great flowers on them this year.

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And obviously, my sweet peas, you can start them off

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in October, which I did, and it makes the plants stronger,

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It makes us plants be in front and flower earlier.

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And what I've done is I've trimmed them all back

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and to about six inch and when they start growing,

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when it gets a bit warmer, they'll bush out rather

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than just being a one stem plant, so we'll get

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more flowers on them, a lot more flowers on them.

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They'll bush out, probably won't be as big a flowers,

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but there'll be lots more flowers if you get me,

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So hopefully we'll have some fantastic displays down at the

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allotment this year. That's what I'm wanting at some fantastic

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sweet pea displayers because my mum.

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Speaker 2: Loves them, my auntie loves them.

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Speaker 1: And the fingers with sweet peas is that the more

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you keep cutting the flowers off, the more they'll keep

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flowering throughout the summertime. And you can have flowers up

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to October on your sweet peas as soon as you

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start letting them go to seed. If you don't pick

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the flowers, then it'll think it's dying off and in

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its dormant time, and then it'll stop flowering. So you

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are encouraged to keep picking the flowers on sweet peas

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from to keep blooming. So that's why one of the

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reasons why we grow the sweet peas. They won't last

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long in the ours, to last about three or four days,

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but obviously you'll be picking them off every few days.

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So hopefully you'll get absolutely loads of free flowers. And

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they smell absolutely amazing. Sweet peas absolutely gorgeous. So it's

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worthwhile growing sweet peas if you haven't tried growing sweet

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peas before, and they're pretty easy to grow once they

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started growing as well, just make sure that they're big

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enough before they put them out so that they can

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withstand like birds and slugs and stuff like that. Just

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make sure you protect them and you'll get some fantastic

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crops from the sweet peas, and that is what we want, really,

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some fantastic crops growing. So yeah, I'm looking forward to

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some beautiful displays.

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Speaker 2: Next year down at the allotment.

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Speaker 1: And I had a look around, or we're walking around

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my plot today just checking and looking at the bulbs.

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I can see a few bulbs popping through, not many.

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Hopefully there is a lot of bulbs in there because

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we have planted loads this year, so hopefully the squirrel

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didn't get them all, and hopefully we'll get some beautiful

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spring bulb and spring.

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Speaker 2: Flower displays as well. Down at the allotment.

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Speaker 1: I know quite a few people have been commenting on

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the posts saying that they've got loads of bulbs popping

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through and everything like that, so hopefully it we'll get

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some beautiful pictures. I love plant but albs and flowers

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and stuff like that, so that I can get some

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great pictures as well as obviously making the allotment look

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absolutely gorgeous as well, because if you're just grind vegetables,

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there's no color in vegetables, so you need the flowers

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to make some color down there and to make it

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more attractive and obviously attract the bees to help pollinate

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the fruit and the vegetables as well, So another reason

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for planting flowers down there. So yeah, it's been a

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nice day down at the allotment today. I didn't spend

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too long down there. Spent about an hour down there.

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I had a few coffees down there, just had a

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look around my plot and just relaxed. Really, it didn't

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feel as cold as what it actually looked.

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Speaker 2: It actually pretty nice down there.

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Speaker 1: Obviously I were wrapped up so I were pretty warm,

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but it was nice just to be down at the

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allotment after being stuck in.

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Speaker 2: My flat whole week.

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Speaker 1: I needed to get out and being in my allotment

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is my happy place and I absolutely loved it. So yeah,

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it's been a successful day down at the allotment today.

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I've not done anything obviously, apart from feed the birds

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and the cat, but it has been great to get

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down to the allotment and fingers Crossed will be back

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down at the allotment next week with lots of jobs

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that we need to start doing and cracking on with.

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We've tidied it out all our shed, we've cleared all

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us beds, and my job at the moment is to

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clear my polytunnel if it's still standing after all the snow.

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I did notice absolutely loads of snow on top of

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the polytunnel today. I should have knocked it all off

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to be honest, but it'll be like a block of ice,

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so I didn't want to risk damage in the polytunnel,

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so I thought I'd just leave it and it'll slide

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off in its own time fingers crossed this week, So yeah,

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hopefully we'll be back down at the plot next week

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and get your lots of pictures and lots of footage.

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I need to start recording some more videos. Again, we've

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not recorded any videos for a while and hopefully keep

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you on track with how well we get on this year.

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But yeah, I hope that you're enjoying the podcast. I

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hope that you enjoy listening to them. We've had a

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lot of nice comments coming from people via messages and

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people of leaving reviews on the podcast as well, which

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you can do. You can leave a review after the

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podcast and just let me know what you think of

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the episode. It's always nice to see and obviously it

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pushes it out as well. The more people that comment

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in the review section of the podcast on Spotify, so

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thank you for everybody that does that. So until next time, everyone,

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remember keep smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening with Ben. Everyone,

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thanks for tuning in to today's episode of Gardening with Ben.

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I hope you've enjoyed our chat and picked up some

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tips to help your garden and allotment pride. Don't forget

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to stay connected with me on all social media for

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even more gardening inspiration, updates and behind the scenes content.

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You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Just

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search Gardening with Ben, hit that follow button or subscribe

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button and join our growing community of garden lovers. Until

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

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gardening with Ben