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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 been about a

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couple of weeks since our last episode, and I do apologize.

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I know I said I'm going to do them every

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single day, but we have had a reason why we've

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not been doing podcasts every day. The reason is I've

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moved house, well moved flat, and I've got a new

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place where I'm living now, and so I got to

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see it on a Tuesday and I started to move

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straight away the next day. So it's been all systems

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go in getting moved out of my old place into

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a nice new, brand new place which is absolutely beautiful,

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so peaceful, so quiet, and yeah, no sirens in the

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background when you're listening to your podcasts now, I can't

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believe how quiet it actually it is. It's absolutely bliss

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where I'm living now, so hopefully the podcast will sound

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a lot better for you from wherever you're listening. So yeah,

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we've all settled in and it's strange being in a nice,

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brand new property because obviously I didn't want to bring

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all my old stuff with me. I've been out and

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bought all brand new stuff and it looks absolutely fantastic.

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And thank you to those that have commented on my

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posts or sent me messages wishing me well in moving

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into my new property. I absolutely love it. So hopefully

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here's the podcast back again and hopefully no more breaks

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unless we move house again, but I don't think it

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will be for a few weeks now. But yeah, thank

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you for all the support that you have given me.

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So what are we going to be talking about today? Well,

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it's actually the first off note December, not November, first

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of December today, so we're going to talk about everything

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that we got up to in November and then tomorrow's

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episode we'll start talking about all the things you can

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grow and obviously all the jobs which need doing in December.

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So if you're not following, mate, do give me a

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follow and make sure you stay up to date for

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them episodes dropping shortly. So what did we get up

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to in November? Well, we absolutely blitched my allotment. I

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did so much work down at the allotment during November

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to say I'm only getting like two days a week

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down at the plot. Now that I'm back working full time,

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I've absolutely done loads and I'm so impressed with myself

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because of how much I've actually got done. I've managed

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to clear all my allotment. All my beds are completely empty.

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I've cleared out all the bind weed what we're growing,

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and dug over all my beds. We have planted all

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our spring bulbs. They're all nicely planted and summer starting

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to grow and pop through, which is absolutely fantastic. We

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harvested all my Christmas potatoes. Yes it's not Christmas yet,

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but they were ready. The plants had died off so

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there were no more growing in them, so we harvested

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all of them. We dugle pa geraniums and we moved

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them into the shed, which was good sign because we

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had snow. We did have to know, so it's a

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good job I got them in and obviously we've had

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the frost which would have killed them, and looking at

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them today, they're still alive. They're still standing, which is

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a good sign. Fingers crossed we can keep them alive

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all winter. We also potted up all our salvia cuttings

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which I took earlier in the year. They're all growing well,

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so it's a case of keeping them all watered and

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keeping on top of that side of things. And obviously

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on my allotment site they'll be turning the water off

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over winter, so we've got to keep things water in

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the shed. We've got a big massive bucket full well

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a wheelly bin full of water, so hopefully that will

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last me all winter. I'm also feeding the cat on

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a regular basis. The cat's still visiting my shed and

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coming for its food, and my dad goes down on

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a daily basis to go and feed it. He absolutely

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loves going down to see the cat, so that's a

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good thing. Else stuff we're being up to. We have

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been sorting out my fruit trees and sorting out all

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my BlackBerry canes and loganberrycanes. Have been busy with them today, actually,

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been sorting them out, tying them back to the fencing,

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chopping off any old branches and shoots what we're growing

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on them, and the old signs of the old blackberries.

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I've snipped off all them and tiding them all up.

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What else we've cleared round all my rhubarb. We've got

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rid of all the brambles on the plot, which was

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absolutely awful. Dealing with brambles is a horrible job. But

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we've done it all. We've got all that done, and yeah,

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it's pretty much looking very neat and tidy now. There's

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still a lot of work left to do. And I've

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been tidying up inside my shed. We did a bit

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a few weeks ago when it was absolutely chucking it down,

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and I did some today because again it were chucking

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it down when I got to the allotment. But when

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I got left the allotment today it was absolutely gorgeous.

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You wouldn't have thought it was December. It were warm,

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it was sunny. I felt like I was getting sun tanned,

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which I couldn't believe. But yeah, it will gorgeous down there.

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So we've done all that, so we've got a lot

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of jobs left to do. During this month of December.

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We're going to be obviously digging over the beds again.

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I'm going to do that on a monthly basis because

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roots will still grow in the ground. Even if you

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don't see weeds on top, you might still get roots

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growing in the ground. So if we keep digging them

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over and pulling the roots out, then we'll keep on

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top of it and hopefully less weeds will be growing

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in them beds next year. And obviously I don't want

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the bind weed growing back, so getting as much as

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that out as possible while it's winter is the perfect opportunity.

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We're also going to be looking at sowing some seeds

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this month as well, but stay tuned for what we're

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going to be sewing. I'll share them with you on

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a later date. So we've got all that done, and

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this month I'm thinking about it might be time to

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start prepping my shed, start doing all the renovational work

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inside of what I'm wanting to get done this winter,

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So I'm going to look forward to that project side

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of it. But next week we're going to be busy

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sorting out around my strawberry beds. We're going to get

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that area sorted, and once that's sorted, then I'll be

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happy enough to leave the rest of the plot until

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next year and we can concentrate on doing everything in

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the shed that we want to get done for the

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winter period. And once the shed's done, then we can

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concentrate on going back outside, which might be around February time, obviously,

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depending on the weather, but hopefully we'll be getting lots

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done down there. We've also sted in some bird feeders

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down at the allotment. We're feeding the birds on a

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regular basis. We've got plenty of different seeds and feeds

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down there for the birds. And I did see a

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rat screwing around today, so at least we've got the

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cat to catch the rats. I nearly struggle saying that,

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but yeah, at least we've got the cat to catch

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the rats, so hopefully he will get them and stop them.

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But yeah, I'm happy with everything that's been going on,

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and i'd like, like I said, I do apologize for

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not coming on and doing the podcasts, but obviously I've

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had more exciting things to be doing at the moment,

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we're moving into the property and setting up all my

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setup and getting that done. We're going to be doing

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quite a bit of new content this month as well,

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and I hope that you enjoy it. I've dropped one

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already today, a Christmas gardening joke, and if you think

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it's a bit corny, they'll get a lot work. Trusty

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have recorded some for every day this week, so make

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sure you stay tuned for the daily Christmas joke that'll

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be on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube for you to watch

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and TikTok, so stay tuned for the daily joke of

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the day. They're all Christmas related and they're all gardening

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and Allotment related, so I hope that you do enjoy them.

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If you do see them, do give them a like,

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give them a comment, as it does help push them out.

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And we're going to be doing a lot more content

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hopefully this month. We filmed our Allotment Tour video today.

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Obviously there's not much to show you, but you can

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have a look and see how things are getting on

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down at the Allotment at the moment, and hopefully we're

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going to be doing some other types of content down

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at the plot over the winter months, just showing you

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what we're getting up to and different topics that we're

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talking about. So I hope you're enjoying all this new content,

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as it is taking up a lot of my time now,

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but I absolutely love doing it, and the more people

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that see it, the more people that follow, the more

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I'll definitely enjoy doing it. And so many people listen

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to my podcast last month, it was probably one of

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the best months for downloads out of all the times

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that I've been doing these podcasts, so it encourages me

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to do them more and more. And yeah, I hope

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that you're enjoying them, So I hope you come back

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to the next podcast. We're going to be talking about

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everything that you can grow in December, and I'll talk

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about what I'm going to be sewing in December as well,

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so stay tuned for that and the episode after that

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will talk about all the jobs which you can do

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in your garden and allotment in December to keep them

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going and keep on top of things. So until next time, everyone,

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remember keep smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening. We bet everyone.

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Thank you for joining me on this episode of Gardening

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with Ben. I hope you have found useful tips and

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inspiration 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'll 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 beauty asks. Your support helps us grow

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this community and continue bringing you great content. We can

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also follow us on social media on every platform. All

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Gardening with Ben for daily gardening tips and to days

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happy gardening. And until next time, remember keep smiling, keep shining,

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and keep gardening with Ben