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 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 for another brand new episode.
Well it's currently the weekend. It's Sunday morning, and we
have been down to the allotment. Yes I did I
do any work? Yes I did. I did absolutely loads
down there. I can just hear the ice cream vent
in the background to be cold for ice cream. But
we had been so busy down there at the allotment
to day. It was an absolute gorgeous day to day, cold,
very cold, but it was a sunny day and we
got absolutely loads of stuff done down there. So what
did we get done today? Well, we've fed missus pussy Cat.
She here at the allotment waiting for me as soon
as I got there, so I went and fed her.
She's looking well, looking healthy, and yeah, she pops to
see me every time we go down to the allotment.
And then we fed the birds. We've filled the bird
tears up. That is, we've done the main things, feeding
all the wildlife down there. It costs a fortune looking
after all the wildlife, but we've fed and there will
be happy that there's some food around. Because it was
frosty this morning. It was I say, so the birds
will be struggling to get the bird the worms out
of the ground, so hopefully we can keep them coming
down to the allotment eating all the insects and eating
all the bird seed as well. So we did that,
and then one of my main jobs what I wanted
to get done today was sort out around my strawberry beds.
My strawberry beds are the pride and joy of my allotment.
If I could have strawberries all over my plot, I
certainly would do. That is one thing that I would
get done. So we've been tidying up around all the paths,
sorting out some of the old planters. What we're around,
clearing all that up, sweeping all the paths down. We
can actually get round the strawberry beds now, which is
a lot better. We don't have to clamber over any
pots and plant pots and anything like that. Got it
all tidy, so that is one job done. And I've
also been tidying back or tying back my BlackBerry canes
because they've grown absolutely wild this year all over the place.
And yeah, I've grown down the side of my plot,
which is perfect. They can trail along my fence and
everything like that, but I have to time back to
the fence because they're little runners shoot out everywhere. So
we've been tying all them back and sorting them all
out and making sure that they're on my side of plot,
because I always said to my neighbor, if they're on
your side, help yourself to run. But yeah, I'm tied
them to my side, to my side of the plot,
and making sure that they grow on my side because
absolutely gorgeous. They fall paonless blackberries, but they get absolutely
loads of blackberries on them, and they're massive. They're a
lot bigger than the standard BlackBerry. So I'm really happy
with this faonless variety that I purchased, and the variety
is that I purchased I think they were from Morrison's
Garden Center that I originally bought these from. Doing absolutely fantastic.
So we've got all them growing down the side of
the plot and they do brilliant and obviously we've been
trimming back any old BlackBerry canes off them where the
signs of all blackberries what we're on them from, like
the little shoots that are coming off them. We've snipped
all them back, tiding them all up, and they're all
look looking pretty good. We've also been doing a bit
of tidying up. We've always got tidying up down down
at the allotment to do. I'm a messy gardener. I've
always admitted that. But yeah, we've been tidying up and
clearing away. And one thing I've not had to do today,
I've not had to do any weeding because I've weeded
all my beds. Now they all are pretty empty and
they're all just sat there waiting to be planted, ready
for next year, and hopefully we're going to get a
lot of stuff growing, and if you listened to yesterday's podcast,
I were talking about all the popping seeds that have
got grow, what a purchase, what I'm going to try
for next year. I'm also going to try different varieties
of geraniums, and I'm also going to try different varieties
of sweet peas possibly and possibly sunflowers as well. So
hopefully we're going to attract lots and lots of bees
to the allotment, and hopefully a lot of fragrance as well,
because the sweet peas will smell absolutely amazing. We've obviously
got some sweet peas growing. We've sowed all them last year,
well this year around October time, and they're still alive
in the shed. I had to check on them today.
They're looking healthy. They're still alive. The cold not kill
them because, like I say, my greenhouse isn't heated, so
I'm fingers crossing that they stay alive ready for next year.
We've started them off early because they say that it
makes them stronger, and we've trimmed them back so that
they bush out. The flowers might not possibly have be
as big, but they'll get more flowers on them, so
hopefully this works. As I've not grown them from this
time of the year before. Usually I planted around March
April time, and sometimes they struggle when you plant them out.
They're not hard hardened off enough and they seems struggling
and a lot dye and stuff like that. So I'm
starting them off now ready for next year to hopefully
have a successful sweet pea harvest. And if all these
sweet peas grow, it's going to look absolutely phenomenal on
my allotment. I've got absolutely loads in my shed growing.
My geraniums are still alive in the shed as well.
They're doing well. We dug all them up out of
the ground and we put them in the greenhouse to
keep them alive in the greenhouse over the winter, because
that's what you can do if you've got geranium dig
them up, move them into a greenhouse, move them out
of the cold, and you may be able to keep
them alive throughout winter, and then plant them out again
next spring time once the frost has gone, because if
you leave them outside, the frost will kill them, and yeah,
you'll have to buy new ones next year. So we're
just trying to serve a bit of money and keep them,
keep them alive. But like I said, I'm hopefully going
to grow some drainums myself next year. I've grown them
from seed before and they did absolutely fantastic, really amazing
results from them. First time I ever grew and we
managed to grow some from seed, and they took a
bit longer to get flowering stage, but they did flower
eventually and they looked absolutely amazing. So if you want
to save some money, try growing some drainums from seed
yourself next year. Obviously, if you start them off earlier,
if you've got a warm greenhouse, you will get flowers
on them pretty earlier then, like I did towards middle
end of summer. So hopefully we'll have lots of flowers
next year. But yeah, I'm just getting excited now for
stuff to grow, and I may look at growing some
different freighters to cucumbers as well. We have such a
good success of growing cucumbers outdoors last year my market
more variety. I planted them all outside. I've got loads
of spare plants, and I thought, I'm not wasting money
on spending it on loads of composts to put them
in pots in a polyton or where they'll just dry
out and die. I'll just plant them outside and see
how they go and say it wasn't a very nice summer.
They did absolutely amazing. It must have been a perfect
season for them because we had got absolutely loads off them.
So I might look at different for itis to grow
next year. There's like a lemon variety in an apple
variety as well, so I might look at trying to
grow them, seeing how we get on with them. But yeah,
I'm hoping for great, big harvest next year. Like I said,
I'm working nine to five Monday to Friday now, so
I don't get a chance to go down in the
week like I used to. I used to work for
on four off, so I used to spend four days
down at the allotment at a time. So hopefully we
can still get a good harvest on two days a week.
Like I don't live too far away from my plot,
so in the summer months, I will pop down at
night down to the allotment just to check on it,
give it a water and see how it is. So
hopefully I'm thinking that we're going to do well next year.
We've got a good start on it all. My plot's cleared,
it's all tidy. We're going to now start working on
inside our shed pretty soon, getting all that ready ready
for next year. And yeah, I've got a lot of
faith in how well we're going to do next year,
and I hope you do too. And like I always say,
start off early, get your garden ready, get your allotment
ready for the season ahead. Like I could just sit
back now with blacks until March time because I don't
need to particularly do much down there, but I'm finding
little jobs to do and getting it all ready because
I cracked on after the season and I cleared it all.
I got it all tired. I dug up all the
old plans, clear them all away, and got it all ready,
so I don't have to do anything throughout the winter
period if I don't want to. But I'm going to
keep on going down because I need to keep creating
content for all you guys, and I need something to
talk about while I'm down at the allotment. So yeah,
I hope that you all enjoying these podcasts. They have
been coming on every single day. And if you've got
any friends that like gardening or allotmentton make sure you
share them the link to my podcast because we're getting
more and more people listen every single day. I want
it to be really successful next year. I want it
to really take off. Like we're getting over one hundred
people listen every single day at the moment, which is
phenomenal for person that's not a professional gardener. I just
talk about what I'm getting up between my garden and
sharing my tips and advice with you all, and I
think that's absolutely brilliant. But shall we see I can
get two hundred people listening to day, that would be phenomenal.
And yeah, everything I make from these podcasts goes back
towards my allotment. And you know how much seeds costing
some cost quite a bit of money, so it all
goes towards seeds and compost and keeping you all entertained
and enjoying this podcast. So until next time, everyone, remember
keep smiling, keep shining, and keep Guardening with Ben. Everyone
will be back tomorrow with our episode talking about what
we've been up to on the plot today, so make
sure you stay tuned for that until next time, everyone,
I'll see you off later. Thank you for joining me
on this episode of Gardening with Ben. I hope you
have found some useful tips and inspiration for your own
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