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 Alltment. So sit back, grab
a brew and enjoy today's episode. Hey everyone, and welcome
back to Gardening with Ben. What happy hump day. We
are now in the middle of the week. It's nearly
the weekend. We nearly the weekend. It's nearly time to
get back to those allotments and gardens. If you're working
in the week like I am, so yeah, we do
look forward to them weekends, and I do look forward
to spending all the time down there at the weekend.
And it's currently still decent weather. We still haven't had
a frost that I know of. Yeah, where I am,
and it's like twelveth November, thirteenth November already, and we've
not had no frost. And another thing I've noticed is
we've hardly added well, we've not had any rain for ages.
I don't know if it's like it where you are,
but we've not had no rain. They'll be calling on
a drought before you know it. But yeah, it's bizarre.
Weather certainly is strange at the moment. How we've not
had no rain, no frost. It's just dry. And I'm
needing it to rain, to water my onions and my garlic,
but it's just not coming. We're having to water cells
in November. And yeah, it's very bizarre. But yeah, what
are we talking about today, Well, today's episode is all
about planning for next season. We are at that time
of year when we're starting to think about what we
want to do down at the Allotment Gardens next year.
And I love this time of year. And obviously, as
I'm doing my plot at the moment, I'm stripping it
all back, I'm digging it all over, I'm clearing all
my beds. I'm providing a blank canvas ready for next year.
Like obviously, some stuff will stay where they are like
all my fruit trees, all my fruit bushes, my roobarb
that'll all stay where it is. But all my beds
are completely empty and we'll be starting from scratch again
next year. And what I usually do at this time
of year, I usually get a piece of paper, draw
all my beds out and right down where I want
to go stuff next year, and we'll plan on growing it,
planting it, sewing it, and yeah, I decide on what
I want to do, and my allotment gets quite a
bit of shade on it, so I have to think
about what's or growing the shade and what won't grow
in the shade. And when you're planning on what you
want to grow on your allotment next year, you need
to look at what's been grown where. You need to
grow stuff in different places each year, because each vegetable
uses different nutrients from the grounds, so it's not good
to grow the same thing in the same place year
after year. It's good to keep rotating stuff around and
obviously improving soil as well over the winter period ready
for planting next year. And that can either be with
compost mulch, or it can be with a fertilizer. Anything
to improve it and make it more nutritious ready for
growing next year and hopefully getting some good crops in.
So we'll obviously draw as plan well, write down where
we want stuff to grow, and we'll think about what
we want to grow next year. And one of the
ways that I think about what I want to go
next year is I just have a like think of
something like say squash, and I'll just google or look
on Amazon or in a seed catalog at different varieties
of squash to grow. And I like growing different new
varieties every single year of different things. And obviously if
you go to a garden center, you won't get that
as many varieties. In the garden center or a DIY shop,
you'll only get your standard varieties that you will see.
So have a look online, have a look in different
seed magazines, et cetera, and try and grow something different
next year. And it's really interesting to do. Whether you're
eat them or not, it's just the fun of growing them.
And I've done this for a few years now, and
one year I did different varieties of squash. One year
I did different varieties of beans. As his loads of
different varieties of beans is like purple beans is like
speckled beans, yellow beans, black beans, red beans. Is all
different varieties of beans, and it's just good to try
different varieties and then sometimes experimenting growing different varieties, you
may find one what's really easy to grow and taste delicious.
Now I did this as well for growing cauliflower. I
saw a purple variety of cauliflower. Yes purple, not white,
but purple. I've never had any look growing white cauliflowers
very well. I thought, oh, give these purple ones to try.
It's worth a shot, fill up a space. I'd got
some seeds and they did absolutely fantastic. The curd on
them were absolutely brilliant and they tasted absolutely delicious. So yeah,
it's good to try different varieties because things might actually
grow better. So always experiment down at the allotment. And
I might actually try that with carrots next year, because
obviously I've not had much luck with growing carrots, So
might actually do my experiment with carrots next year, try
different varieties of carrots and see which ones I can
actually get growing. So let me know if you fancy
doing different experiments in trying different stuff next year. It's
always good to hear what everybody else is up to
and there's not many other sort of things that you
can try with different varieties. Really, I'm not there's not
an awful lot of different varieties stuff out there. Obviously,
you get your like different varieties of tomatoes, which is good.
There's plenty of different varieties of tomatoes coming out there,
is why. Ones. My dad grew some white tomatoes last
year and they were delicious and they did fantastic, and
he grew them outside. They did really well. So there's
lots of different varieties out there. And what I tend
to do as well sometimes is I'll go to the
supermarket and or to the garden center and I'll just
write down all the different types of seeds. I think
I'll try that one this year, I'll try that one
next year. And I also write a little log as well.
I create like a little log. I go online and
I buy a seed catalog, seed diary every year of
planting diary, and you can write down when you've planted stuff,
how well it's done, when it germinated, where you planted it,
and that is very good for you to try as well.
So yeah, there's plenty of different things out there for
you to try. When you're growing stuff and it's exciting.
It's exciting to try different stuff. You can't you don't
understand how easy it is to grow different types of
stuff on the allotment, and you don't realize how many
different varieties of things they actually are out there, because
if you go to a supermarket, for instance, you'll just
see your standard vegetables. You won't see any different varieties
of vegetables because they won't sell them in the supermarket
because people won't buy them. It's like if you were
to go to a supermarket and you had a white
Beat route, for instance, people wouldn't buy a white Beat
route because they think, wow, that's strange. I'm not buying
that it might taste funny. They'll only buy what the
nose gonna taste nice if you get bade. So that's
the reason why it's best to grow these things at
a different varieties because you'll never actually try them unless
you grow yourself, because they'll not sell them in supermarkets anywhere.
So it's always good to try different varieties of stuff.
So if you are listening to this podcast, do get involved.
Send me a message, let me know what different types
of varieties of vegetables that you have tried growing and
what you plan on try and growing as well. And
I might give melons another girl next year, as I've
not grown them for a few years now, and I
grew some cantlope melons in my polytunnel. Wouldn't be able
to grow them outdoors because it's not hot enough, but
I grew them in my polytunnel and they did absolutely
fantastic and I had some really nice, delicious melons on them,
and I didn't think I'm able to grown in this country,
to be honest, But as it's starting to get warmer
sometimes some summers, I thought i'd give them a try,
and yeah, they did really well. So I might give
cantilope melons another girl next year. And yeah, they're absolutely
delicious and each plank got a few melons on them,
so they did absolutely fantastic. I've never tried growing watermelon.
I don't think watermelon would grow very well here, to
be honest, but it's not something that I might give
a try. But I'm going to look out and try
and see what different types of varieties stuff are out there,
and see about trying some new stuff as well, so
I might get myself a seed catalog from one of
these companies. There's plenty of companies out there that gives
seed catalogs out and you can have a look through
them and then see all the different varieties they are
that are in there. Obviously you can look on the website,
but sometimes it's easier to navigate through a magazine rather
than through somebody's website. I often find and then you
can circle them and think, all have that one, I'll
have that one, and then you can go online and
buy them once you like circled them and found which
ones that you want to grow. So it is all
good fun trying different varieties of produce out there. So
if you are listening to this podcast and you are
just a standard grower, you just grow standard stuff. You've
never tried experimenting growing different types of stuff. Have a
go next year. Let me know how you get on.
I'd love to hear how you're growing and what you
are growing, and I love to hear from you all
as well. So yeah, and I hope you're enjoying all
these podcasts. They have been coming out on a daily
basis now, which is fantastic. So I'm having to find
different topics to talk about every single day, which can
be hard sometimes, but I'm getting there. I probably cover
a few things quite a few times, but I am
having a little chat with you on talking on different
topics every day. If you have got any topics that
you'd like me to talk about, please do drop me
a message and give me some suggestions. I don't know
anything about no Dig gardening, so don't ask about no
Dig gardening because it's not something that I actually do.
But yeah, if there is anything out there that you'd
like me to chat about on a podcast, please don't
let me know. Also, on my YouTube channel and my
Instagram channel, I've been posting daily questions as well. Thank
you for everybody that's got involved in the questions. Yesterday's
question was do you use gardening gloves or do you not?
Do you like to get your hands moockey and get
them dirty or do you like to wear the gardening
gloves and keep them clean. I'm certainly one for keeping
getting my hands money. I never wear gardening gloves. I'll
only wear gardening gloves if I'm messing around with brambles
or nettles. But yeah, I'll never wear gardening gloves down
at the allotment. So that was yesterday's daily question. So
if you aren't following me on Instagram or on YouTube,
give me a follower and get involved in the daily questions.
I'd love to hear from your and your answers, and
I'll talk about the daily questions on my podcast as well,
as it's obviously a little space for as well and
extends it, so we'll ask the daily question in the
podcasts as well. So I hope that you're enjoying these podcasts,
remember to give it a like, give it a follow up,
and leave a review as well, because it helps push
it out to everybody. So until next time, everyone, remember
keep smiling, keep shining, and keep Guardening with Ben. Everyone,
thank you for joining me on this episode of Gardening
with Ben. I hope you have found some useful tips
and integration for your own gardening and a lot then journey.
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