Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Gardening with Ben. You'll go to
a podcast for all things green and growing. I'm Ben,
your allotment guide and here to help you cultivate your
garden and your passion for plants. Whether you're a seasoned
gardener or just starting out, this podcast is for you.
Each episode will dig into tips, tricks and techniques to
make your garden and allotment five from planting, sewing and growing.
We will share all the tips and add advice. We
will also have regular episodes talking about what we have
been up to on the alltment. So sit back, grab
a brew and enjoy today's episode.
Speaker 2: Hey everyone, and welcome to Gardening with Ben for another
podcast episode the day before New Year's Eve, the day
before we get ready for starting all the fresh in
twenty twenty five. It's soon getting close to that fresh
start and ready to get ready for that new growing season. Well,
we're back here with another podcast. This podcast is talking
about everything that we got up to at the Allotment
yesterday as we had a very busy day. It was
extremely busy down at the Allotment yesterday and you probably think, well,
it's winter, you can't be doing that much. But I am.
I never stopped working. I'm always grafting when I'm down
at the allotment, and I absolutely love it because obviously
I worked ninety five Monday to Friday, so it's good
to get out of the flat, get good to get
out in the fresh air and enjoy being down at
the allotment. So what have we been doing this weekend? Well,
we finished tidy in all my shed up, as it
was an absolute pig start. I didn't realize how much
compost I must have read in buckets old compost. So
I've been shifting all that out, putting it into all
my beds outside, getting all that out of my shed,
and I think I scooped to put out a bucket
off at carpet. I did tell you I'm not a
very tidy gardener. But yeah, it's all clean and tidy
out and ready for next year's growing season. So next
weekend's job we'll be starting in tidying up the polytunnel,
which is probably worse than my shed. That is a
dumping ground. I just shove stuff in there out of
the way, So that is going to take a lot
of work and a lot of clearing, but we'll crack
on and hopefully it get it done over two weekends.
I think that'll take two weekends to get that all
clean and tidy, and then that'll be another job ticked
off my bucket list of what I want to get done.
So as we do these jobs, we tick them off
and then we know that we've got them all done.
So I have to I've done my polytunnel, then I'll
possibly start back outside again, start getting all my beds ready,
dig them over again, because I've digged them all over.
I've cleared them all, but we might do another dig
over over them all and get rid of any weeds
and roots that are growing in them, just to keep
on top of it. It's good to keep doing them
every month or so so that nothing gets growing in them.
And one job that I want to do is I
want to paint up all my beds and everything and
get all them many, but we won't be able to
do that possibly until springtime when we get in the
drier days and hopefully the paint will dry with ease.
So we've done that, We've tied it all the shed up.
It's all looking good. There's still quite a few repairs
that I need to do to the shed. We need
to get some perspects and get the roof fixed and
a side panel fixed as well, So that's a job
on the list as well. So the next thing what
we did we recorded some videos. We recorded our yearly
round up video, which I'm going to do a podcast
version of as well, So make sure you stay tuned
for that video which will be dropping on New Year's Eve,
and you'll also be able to see my new fantastic
potting bedge which I've completed and the final outcome of
it all and how well it actually looks, and you
will be amazed by it, trust me. But yeah, I'm
definitely building it up alto for you all. So yeah,
we've filmed that video. We have also started sowing sub seeds. Yes,
I've started, and I'm eager to go, but not too eager.
I've only sown the ones which will need to be
sown now to get them ahead start. So I've sown
all my onions. We've sown them and we will be
planting them out in the ground hopefully in April if
they all grow. Fingers crossed they do grow, because the
reason why I'm growing them early is to give them
that head start and hopefully get some giant sized onions.
So we're starting them off now and then hopefully be
planting them out come April time. We have planted some chilies. Yes,
I've not done chili's for a few years, so we're
going to give chilis a try again this year. There's
ten seeds in it, so hopefully the old Germany we'll
see fingers crossed and again I've done that. The reason
why with my peppers, because I've also started my peppers off,
which is one hundred and fifty seeds, but we've not
sown all them is that I planted them around March
April time the seeds last year, and they were only
just fruiting come September time. So I'm starting them off
now to get the plants established and hopefully speed them
up and get them growing in advance ready for fruiting earlier,
because then we'll get more produce often, which is what
we want. So yeah, we've sown as onions, are peppers
and as chilies. I still need to sew my auber jeanes,
which I'm looking at the packet right now because I
forgot to take it to the allotment. But yeah, I've
still got as auber jeans to plant. We're not going
to plant as tomatoes. I know us smart packets. You'll see,
say January February time. We don't start smartered off till
March time. They soon catch up smart plants. That is
one thing that does catch up. Yes, again, you can
start them off earlier, but make sure they don't get legate.
They'll need to be in a heated place to get
them started, and plenty of light. And yeah, obviously you'll
get more fruit of them and more season from them.
But we don't start as till about March time, as
we still get plenty of them, which is what we want.
So yeah, we've done that. What else have we done.
We've fed the birds, We've made sure the birds were fed.
We've fed Missus puttycat. She always looks at me and things,
so I'll feed. I'll feed her when I get there.
And she's always waiting on the path to be fed.
And as soon as I walked down, she'll follow and
she'll wait outside the shed until I fill the bowl up.
I fill the bowl up, I go and sit in
the corner of the shed and have a coffee, just
to get started and warmed up. She'll come in and
eat it all. She eats it pretty fast, so she's
usually quite hungry. We feed her every day, like, and
obviously there'll be rats and birds around for to catch,
so she eats it up quite fast, and then like,
she'll pop back into the shed a few more times,
thinking as he filled it up again, yet, as he
filled it up again, yet, and I'm like, no, I'm
not doing it more than once. You'll get enough food
from this. So yeah, we fed the cat, and wow,
obviously I've filled my bird feeders up, and I know
we've got squirrels down at the allotment, but yesterday I
saw four squirrels in my fruit tree, all having the
bird feeder, and I'm like, what mind you? I don't
mind the squirrels, the good little pets. They do cause
a bit of damage with like the bulbs and stuff
like that, but I don't mind seeing the squirrels down there.
It's good to see wildlife down at the allotment, and
I do encourage it, which some people wouldn't, and some
people had posed against it. But I don't mind seeing
all the wildlife down there. It's great to see. And
it's one thing that I always want to see more
of so hopefully we get different wildlife down there this year.
So yeah, we've had a very very busy day. And
because obviously I've started my onions, my peppers and my
chilies off, I've brought them home because they all need
heat to germinate, especially the chilies and the peppers. They'll
need about twenty five degrees to get them germinated. So
it's nice and toasted in my flat. And obviously I've
got a windows on now, so I'm going to put
them on the windows, so we're gonna put cling film
over them, and we are hope like going to get
them to Germany and I'll take them back down to
the Ortument around March time, once wh've got growing and
once we've got established. But yeah, we're being busy with that.
And I've started sharing little stories on instagrams is now
and on Facebook stories, So if you follow me on
Instagram or Facebook, make sure you check my stories out.
I'm sharing like little diaries of what I'm getting up
to in the day for you all to watch and
or to enjoy and see a bit more of in
the Life of Gardening with Ben. But let me know
if you're liking the little stories and hopefully I'll keep
it up as you know what I'm like, I'll start
something and then I'll stop it. But now hopefully if
more people watch the videos and enjoy them, I hope
that they do. So tomorrow's episode we're going to talk
about all the success and all the failures of our
allotment of twenty twenty four, so make sure you stay
tuned for that. That's the last episode of the year
coming tomorrow, and then the month and then the first
of January, we will be talking about what we're planning
on doing for the twenty twenty five and then the
episode after that'll it what to start sewing in January
and what jobs need doing in the guard in January.
So make sure you stay tuned for those episodes coming up.
If you don't follow me on Spotify, give me a
follow and you'll get notified when new podcasts come up.
So until the next time, everyone remember, keep smiling, keep shining,
and keep Guardening with Ben.
Speaker 3: Everyone, thank you for joining me on this episode of
Gardening with Ben. I hope you have found some useful
tips and instgiration for your own gardening and a lotment journey.
If you have enjoyed today's episode, please make sure to
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Speaker 1: You can also follow us on social media on every
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and Mondays. Happy gardening, and until next time, remember keep smiling,
keep shining, and keep gardening with them.