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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. It's a brand new week.

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We'll start the weekend is finally over. Unfortunately I know

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not what we want, but wow, what a weekend hit

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has been. It's been absolutely gorgeous. Where is winter? Where

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is the cold weather? Off? Autumn? This is actually a

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really nice autumn that we're having. And as I mentioned

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in my tour video what I've shared on YouTube yesterday,

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it's not actually rained frages. Has anyone realized that it's

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not rained frages? And when I were looking at maccarlic

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of my onions, like some of them haven't started popping

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through yet, and that's probably because we've not had no

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read to water them, so I've had to water them.

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And it's not often you'd be watering outside in this

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sort of weather, but yeah, I'm having to water my

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garlic of my onions to get them going, which is hard,

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which you wouldn't often think about, to be honest. One

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of the jobs that I did over the weekend was

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fill all my water butts back up because they turn

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our water off at allotment site over winter peace because

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they don't want the pipes to freeze and them to burst,

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even though they never usually do. But yeah, they've started

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turning it off again and we have to make sure

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we've got enough water because it don't turn it onto

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like April time. And I usually start all my seat

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off in March, so I'll need to keep on watered

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from beginning of March, if you get me. Obviously, I've

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got the water on my plot as well from my

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water boats outside. But whileever the water's turned on, I'll

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be using it out of the tap until they turn

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it off, and then I have to start using it

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out of the water boats, which I don't really want

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to be using, so we needed to start raining. I

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don't really want to say this, but we do need

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some rain. But yeah, hopefully we'll get some main soon.

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We'll have to check the forecast on that. But I

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did get absolutely a load of work done down at

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the allotment. And like I said, if you've not checked

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out my tall video for my allotment for this weekend,

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go and check it out on my YouTube channel called

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Gardening with Ben, and you'll both see how well my

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allotment's coming on. It's starting to look fantastic. All the

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beds cleared, the paths are nearly all clear. I've still

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got a couple more paths to sort out. Then they're

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all done. Then I've cleared the top of my plot.

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I've cleared quite a bit area of that, so I'm

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pleased about that. I'm having visions now of what I

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want to do up there for next year because I

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built this area at the top of my plot a

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couple of years ago, but I've never really used it

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to its full advantage. I just used it to make

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it look good, to be honest, because I've never used

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it in the seventeen years that I've had the allotment,

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so I thought, I'm gonna get it all clear, We're

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gonna get it designed, and then we never planted anything

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in it apart from a few herbs. But yeah, next year,

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I'm gonna get all this back area plot up to

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looking pretty good and I've got some visions for it.

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I'm thinking like alpine plants up at the top of

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my plot, along with more herbs and everything like that,

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things that are easy to grow. And I thought alpines

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will look nice because they'll just like cover the ground

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and some have flowers on them as well. So we're

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going to look for suns that I've got flowers on

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and get them all planted out. So hopefully we're going

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to have a nice new area on my a lotment

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next year. As I like to invest a bit of

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money into my plot each year and an area that

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I've done up and it's worthwhile if you get me,

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so each year, I'll spend a bit of money on

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a different area. So I'm thinking of getting this top

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area sorted one some fall, get some alpines in, get

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some paving down, sort out of the borders, make it

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look good and I know you're not meant to spend

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lots of money on it, but I haven't got a garden,

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so I love to see money going into it and

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it looking nice, and the less maintenance that I have

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to do on it, the better overall, because like this

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year is probably like the first year that I'm not

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having to do much maintenance on my plot because it's

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getting to that standard where it's all pretty much good,

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looking good, and I don't have to do anything on it.

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The only investments that I'm going to be spending on

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it over time is to get my paving done, because

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paving slabs are expensive, So every year I'm going to

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be buying a few more paving slabs, and eventually it'll

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all be paved and my paths won't get muddy or

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anything like that. They'll all be nicely paved so that

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I can walk around nice And most of my plot

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is actually paved. All my paths I've been getting there

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over the seventeen years of having the plot. Whenever anybody's

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giving up the allotment and it's empty, I've usually scoured

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it for paving slabs. All the secrets are coming out now.

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Don't tell anyone, but yeah, paving slabs are expensive. They

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like gold. So if I see any paving slabs, I'll

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have them if it's an empty plot, if you get me.

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But yeah, hopefully next year it's going to look a

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bit more better as well, a bit more investment into

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the top area of my plot and making that look good.

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So what have we been up to down at the

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allotment this weekend? That is what this podcast is meant

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to be about. I've got off on another tangent again.

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I always do this, So this weekend my allotment, it

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has been a case of clearing the top of my plot,

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which I have been talking about. So that is all right.

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So we've cleared the top area of the plot. We've

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got rid of all the leaves what are blown down

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and put them into the compost bin. Leaves will still

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keep blowing down for quite a few weeks because there's

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still loads of leaves on at the moment. But we

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cleared all that, clear all the bind we cleared all

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the brambles, got that all sorted, cleared a lot of

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the paths, which is the pain because I am a

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messy gardener. Like I said, I'll empt to my bed,

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but I'll just chuck all the weeds on the path,

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which is no good for anyone. So really I should

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put them into a tub straight away and then put

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them into the compost deep. But I don't make life

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difficult and I just chuck them on the path. Then

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what else did we do? We potted up my salvia.

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I've got all my salvias potted up now. They look

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absolutely fantastic. There were loads of flowers on them, all

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on all my cuttings. So I'll be putting a video

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out this week, so make sure you stay tuned for that.

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But basically, I potted them up and I've cut the

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flowers off to make the root system better on it

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and to hopefully push more shoots out on the cutting

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and what's growing, and hopefully we'll get some nice bushy

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plants next year. So fingers crossed we'll get that sorted.

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We also filled up my bird feeders, obviously keeping the

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birds happy. Got to keep the birds happy down at

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the allotment expensive things, but the birds and the squirrels.

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Should I say? We have pinched out all my sweet peas.

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A video will becoming for that as well. We have

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potted up my geraniums. Videos coming out for that. I'm

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filming loads of videos for you all. I hope you're

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all enjoying all these videos. And if you're not following

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my YouTube channel, do give it a follow because I'm

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putting a lot of time and effort into all my

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YouTube videos. I would like it to get monetized eventually,

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but it's so hard to get YouTube monetized. Obviously, everything

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that I learned from these podcasts and from bits and

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bobs like that, it all goes back into my allotment

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for your videos and for your podcast to show you

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what I'm doing and stuff, so it's all worthwhile. So yeah,

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I know there's quite a few adverts in these podcasts,

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but like I said, it all goes back into my allotment,

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and it's all goes back into the labor off it.

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What health have we done? That has been pretty much it.

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It doesn't sound a lot, but it is a lot.

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We have spent a lot of time down there. This

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weekend and next weekend, I'm going to get absolutely scratched

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to death, So get ready for the pain from that podcast.

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Down where all my fruit trees are, there's a lot

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of brambles growing from my neighbor's plot, so I need

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to prune all them back. I won't be able to

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dig them out in an awkward spot, but I'll trim

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them right back to the base. I do that every year,

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and then by the time it comes to the next winter,

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they love growing back again. They usually last about a

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year before they get bad again. So we'll pull them

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all back and chop them all back, and then in

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a few weeks, when my fruit trees are completely bare,

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I'm going to give them a winter wash. Now, I

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don't know if you've heard of a winter wash. You

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can get it on Amazon, and basically it is a

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chemical unfortunately, but I spray all my fruit trees when

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they're completely bare, and it'll stop any insects from living

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in the tree and hatching on the tree and stuff

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like that. It just gives them protection over the winter.

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And then I'll do it again in the springtime before

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they start budding up. And also I'll be getting some

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sticky tape things what you put around the trees to

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stop anything from crawling up and nesting in the tree,

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like bugs and stuff like that. So I like to

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put a bit of attention into my fruit trees to

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protect them for the year. Ahead and hopefully stop any

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anything from eating the apples that can as there's like

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something called a winter off or something like that, and

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it crawls up the tree and it nests in it

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and it hatches and then it'll like eat your fruit

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and stuff like that. So the more I can do

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top stuff getting eaten, the better, really, So that's what

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we're gonna be doing next week. We go be sorting

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out my food area, which will be a four weekend's work. Again,

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I usually split it over two days. That'll be my

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task for the week, and then I'll do little jobs

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in between that, like any thing that I need to

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pop up, or anything that I need to sort out

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a path or a bit like that. I do a

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few other jobs in between. I don't just do that

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all weekend, if you get my but that's my main

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project for next weekend. I accept myself little project areas

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to do, and once I've done them, I can tick

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them off. I know. I don't put too much pressure

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on myself to do a massive area with my allotment.

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I'll say i'll do that chunk this weekend, I'll do

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that chunk next weekend, a bit like that, and you

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get it. All done eventually, and that's the best way

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of doing it. You don't have to put too much

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pressure on yourself or it becomes a chore. And it's

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not a chot. It's fun and good for the mental

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health and everything like that. So I hope you've enjoyed

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these podcasts. I really do. Make sure you do give

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us a follow. If you don't follow us already, make

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sure you follow us YouTube, follow us Instagram, follow us

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Facebook page. And yeah, I'm hoping that you're all enjoying

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all this content because you'll keep coming back. And like

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I said, this podcast is here to stay now. It's

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every single day I'm trying to get off the ground

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gate going again. So the more shares of this podcast

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twenty year Gardening Friends will help a lot. So until

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

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gardening with everyone. Thank you for joining me on this

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episode of The Gardening with Ben. I hope you've have

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found some useful tips and instpiration for your own gardening

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and a lot on the journey. If you've enjoyed today's episode,

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please make sure to follow and subscribe to the podcast

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so never miss a new episode. And if you have

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a moment. I'd love for you to leave a review

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and share the podcast with fellow of gardening enthusiasts. Your

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support helps us grow this community and continue bringing you

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great content. You can also follow us on social media

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on every platform for all gardening with Ben for daily

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gardening tips and mondays. Happy gardening, and until next time,

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remember keep smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening with them,