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 of tricks and techniques
to make your garden and allotment thrive 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 Allotment. So sit back,
grab a brew and enjoy today's episode. Hey everyone, and
welcome back to Gardening with Ben. Always certainly being quiet
with these podcasts, haven't we? I do apologize, but we're
all over the place at the moment with Christmas and
New Year. But they are keeping going and keeping flowing,
and yeah, I'm not going to take a big break
again like I did last time. But yeah, hopefully they'll
keep on coming for you to listen to. So what
have we been up to? Well, we've had Christmas and
yeah it was a nice Christmas. We had Christmas dinner
with my parents and then I just relaxed at home
and watched a bit of Gavin and Stacey like everybody
else did. It's the first time I've ever watched it.
Don't tell anyone, but it's the first time I've watched it.
And yeah, I thought i'd best watch it for all
the hype now that it's finishing, and I actually enjoyed it,
so I may go back and actually watch the full
lot of them. But yeah, what have we been doing
on our allotment? Well, you know that I've been getting
all my new potting bench ready. It's all been painted.
Some of it's come off because it's been dripped off
from the rain from the ceiling, but some of it's
come off, but we'll give it a liquor paint once
the weather's decent and dries out and hopefully get it
fully painted properly. So yeah, what We've got all that done.
And I've finished it all off literally today. Obviously, like
I said, I've still got some painting after on it,
but I've finished off the look of it. And I'm
not going to share a photo of it with you
until New Year's Eve, so make sure you stay tuned
to my socials on New Year's Eve for what it
looks like. And wow, it looks professional and I have
put a lot of effort into it and I've really
spruced it up and made it look good and proper
ready for my filming on my videos for the New Year.
And I'm desperate to share a photo of it. I've
got a photo of it on my phone. I think
you do I share it? Do I share it? But no,
I'm going to be good. I'm going to save it
to New Year's Eve and it will be part of
my round up video of the year. So make sure
you stay tuned for my round up video. It'll be
on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, It'll be everywhere. But yeah,
make sure you stay tuned for that and you can
let me know what you think of it and if
I've done a good job or not. So we've been
busy doing that. We've finished all that off and we
have also started tidying all my shd up ready for springtime,
as that is a big job. As I, like I
always say, I'm a messy gardener. I'm not tidy at all.
There's rubbish all over place, plant pots everywhere, nothing's tidied up,
nothing's sorted. Non a plant pots are sorted. They're all
dirty and got seed trays everywhere full of compost. Yes,
I create more mess than I need to. Really, if
I did it as I went along, I want to
have to do this every single year. But yeah, we've
been busy tidying up today. We've also put up some
extra shelves as well in my shed so that I
can't try and tidy things up a bit better. So
hopefully things will be a bit more organized next year.
I'll be saying all this again next year, midtiding my
shd up, so make sure you stay tuned for the
episode this time next year. But yeah, we'll be doing
lots more tidying up ready next year. But we've been
doing that. We've repaired a panel on my front of
my shed because i've blown off. They're blowing off like
nobody's business. I'm going to have to literally probably rebuild
my shed at some point because the plastics just coming
off now is disintegrating. It's been up about ten years now,
so it's had its time, so that's why it's all
starting to come off. But yeah, we need some new
pieces of plastic on the front of the shed next
so if anybody's got a load of perspects, let me know.
If you want to send me some perspects for Christmas,
I will gladly have it. But yeah, we've got a
big job ahead of us getting that sorted. We're keeping
an eye out on like Facebook, Marketplace and stuff because
people do have it on there for sales. So hopefully
we can get it all sorted and ready far the
new year. So hopefully it will look a lot better
to come this time next year. Hopefully we'll start each year,
I do a bit more investment on my shed and
on my allotment, so I don't mind spending a bit
of money on it here and there everywhere. So yeah,
I'm hoping I'm gonna actually look for my onion seeds
today and my pepper seeds and my aubergine seeds and
look into starting sorry my seeds this week. As if
you wanting to grow prize winner onions, massive ones, they
usually say to start them on Boxing Day. That's a
gardener's tail that a lot of people start them on
Boxing day if you want huge onions. And this is
growing from seed, not from set, So if you're wanting
big onions, start them off now, start them off. Obviously,
I need somewhere warm for them to germinate, and once
we've got germinated, then they can start growing, and then
separate them out into individual seed trays seed cells and
keep them growing a bit more and then plant them
outside come end of March April time, and obviously keep
feeding them and keep enriching the soil and making sure
that you can get them to a decent size. So
that is what I'm going to try and do this year.
I'm going to start off my onions hopefully this week,
and get them started and get them growing. And the
same goes for peppers and aubergines. Peppers will need about
twenty three twenty four degrees warmth to germinate, so you're
going to have to start them off in the house
or heated greenhouse what is really really well heated and insulcted.
But obviously if you're growing them in the house, you
need to make sure that they're getting enough light and
they don't stretch out and go legga as they say.
As obviously, growing them indoors can get seed leg a,
so make sure you turning them around, keep them in
plenty of light, and hopefully get them started then and
again obviously when it's a bit warmer, like in March April,
then you can move them into a non heated greenhouse
and hopefully get them carry on growing. And the reason
why you start them around now is because they take
a long time to get growing and get fruiting. As
I started some offering March time last year, March April time,
and they were only just fruiting September time, so they
were a bit behind. So that's the reason why I
want to get them started pretty early and get them
growing on a window sill in my flat and hopefully
get some peppers next year, because peppers are expensive. I've
also been looking into getting a soup maker, as obviously
I do live on my own and I like to
have handy things to be able to cook with. I've
obviously got my air fire, and obviously if i can
a soup maker, it will be ideal for when I'm
growing my corget so growing my onions or my potatoes,
or my leaks or my tomatoes, because I can make
soup from them all. And there's some decent soup makers online.
So if anybody's got a soup maker, let me know
if they're worth it or not, because I would like
to know, because obviously you can take quite a lot
of bit of money from and they will make them.
I don't like chunky soup. I'd like smooth soup, and
it splends it as well for here as well, so
I'm looking forward to trying that, because soup's getting expensive
as well. When you win to the supermarket now it's
not the cheapest. And obviously if you're making your own soup,
you know it's organic, you know it's fresh, and you
have perfected it yourself and it's lovely soup. You can't
beat it, can you. And we've got a Morrison's near
us as well, so having fresh bread as well from
the bakery would go absolutely fantastic stick with the soup.
So I'm looking to investing in soup maker next year.
So let me know, get in touch if you've got
a soup maker, and if you make some soup recipes,
feel free to let me know the recipes because obviously
I'll be wanting them. But yeah, obviously where I can
save money as much as possible, that is the plan
for next year, and obviously eating health out, which is
another New Year's resolution I need to shift a bit
of timber for next year, so we need to do
lots more digging. But yeah, I'm planning on getting all
that done for next year. So hopefully we will be
back in tomorrow for another episode. We'll be talking about
everything that we've got up to down at the allotment
today as we're back down there today and hopefully get
on a lot more work done. Hopefully we'll get the
shed completely tidy and finished off ready for the springtime,
and then I can start looking at possibly doing some
work in the polytunnel and getting that prepared because I
didn't really grow much in it last year. I grew
some cucumbers in it, and obviously I grew over the
cucumbers outside. The cucumbers I grew outside did better than
the ones in the polytunnel, so I'm going to grow
cucumbers outside again. I think next year we may possibly
do a few indoors, but I'm attempt to grow the
majority of them outside like I do with my tomatoes.
So we might look at using our polytannel for growing
some peppers and some melons and some chilis in next year,
because obviously melons needed warmth, a lot of sunshine and warmth,
so we might look at getting our polytunnel back in
use again next year and hopefully get some stuff growing,
So make sure you stay tuned for all that Again.
Like I said, we'll be back tomorrow with tomorrow's episode.
Then on the thirty first, we'll be doing the yearly roundup,
talking about all our successes, all our failures. Then on
the first of January will be the new year and
we'll be talking about all our plans for the year ahead.
And then come the second, we'll be talking about all
the things that you can start to sew in January,
and on the third we will be talking all about
the jobs to do in your garden. So make sure
you stay tuned and follow those episodes coming up. If
you're not following us, do give us a follower and
feel free to share this podcast out. The more people
that listen, the better. So until next time, everyone, remember,
keep smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening with Ben. Everyone.
Hello and welcome to Gardening with Ben. You 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 and tricks and techniques
to make your garden and allotment thrive from planting, sewing,
and growing. We will share all the tips and i'd advice.
We will also have regular episodes talking about what we
have been up to on the a lot, So sit back,
grab a brew and enjoy today's episode.