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Speaker 1: Welcome to Gardening with Ben, your go to podcast for

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all things green and growing in twenty twenty five. Whether

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you're a seasoned gardener, a budding enthusiast, or just curious

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about cultivating your own slice of nature, you're in the

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right place. Join me Ben as we explore practical tips,

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inspiring stories, and the latest trends in gardening to make

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your outdoor space bloom with life, from allotment adventures to

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wildlife friendly gardening. I'm here to help you grow your

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passion and read the rewards. So grab your gloves, roll

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up your sleeves, and let's get started on this year's

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gardening journey. Hey everyone, and welcome back to Gardening with Ben. Well,

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Happy Sunday. How was your weekend day yesterday? Everybody? How

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was your Saturday? Did you manage to get out in

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the gardens. Did you manage to get some work done? Yes?

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I did, I certainly did, and it wow, it was

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absolutely freezing down on the allotment this weekend. Well, hopefully

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it'll be a bit warmer today, but yesterday I forgot

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my body warmer, so I was absolutely perishing down at

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the allotment. But hopefully we will remember it today when

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I go down, and if you're listening to this podcast early,

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send me a message remind me to take my body

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warm with me to the allotment. But yeah, hopefully we'll

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get plenty done down at the allotment today. So what

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did we get done down at the allotment yesterday? Well, yesterday,

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I obviously feed the cat when I get there, and

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it's now started waiting on my fence, perched on the fence,

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and as soon as it saw me walking down, it

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ran to the shed to get fed, like we feed

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it every single day. So yeah, it's starting to wait

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for me now it knows when I'm there. And obviously

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I fed the birds as well. And I think the

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squirrels are pinching my bird feeders. I really do, because

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to disappearing. I don't know where they're going to, but yeah,

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they're definitely hiding them somewhere. So I got to go

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out and get some more bird feeders, which is a pain.

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So we got that to do, but we felt we

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filled the bird feeders that were available to be filled up,

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so yeah, we got that done. What else did we

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get done? We? Oh, yeah, I spilt some bird seed

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on my bench when I was feeding them up, and

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the robin came in my shed and started eating it all.

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There's surtain robins that just appear and come close to you.

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And I sat down in my shed and I managed

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to get a good photo of the robin perched on

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my tripod, and yeah, I posted that on Facebook and Instagram,

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So if you've not seen that photo, have a look at.

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It's an absolutely fantastic photo that I got of it.

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And hopefully the robin will keep coming back. That's what

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we want. I'm definitely tempted to get some robbin houses

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down on the plot. I've obviously got bird bluted houses

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and I've got some sparrow houses as well, So we

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just need to get some robbing houses next to house

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of robbins in on my lot. But they tend to

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light hedges to robbins. So yeah, somebody's just like my

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post now on Instagram my robbin picture. But yeah, thank

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you for those that are following it on Instagram and

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liking it. And we've got four hundred new followers on

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Facebook last week. Wow, it's certainly starting to blow up.

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And I am obviously posting more and more content now

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and posting videos and posting information and giving tips, and

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the last few days we've posted tips on what to

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do in the garden in January, what start planting. We've

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also shared about how to look after cyclement that you're

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growing indoors, how to look what to do with your

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alium bulb once not your alium I forgotten what it's called.

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It'll come back to me, but it's the one that

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we all grow at Christmas, So what to do with

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that bulb when it dies back? And also what to

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do with the slugs in the plot and how to

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prevent them from coming onto your plot. Obviously we can't

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stop them completely, but we can try and prevent them

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as much as possible. So I'm going to talk about

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that in one of my podcasts, what I'm going to

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Do coming up. So, yeah, everybody seems to be enjoying

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all the posts, and we've filmed a new YouTube video,

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What's Out, So if you're not following me on YouTube,

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go over to my YouTube channel and go and have

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a look at that. We've shared a tour of my

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allotment showing you what's growing, what's not growing. I've been

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showing you my sweet peas, my geraniums, all my spring

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and bulbs what are starting to come out. So go

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over and have a look at that video. And if

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you don't follow me on YouTube, do give me a

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follow and then you'll see the videos come up as

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the year goes on. So we've done that. What else

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have we done today? Been busy tidy in my polytunnel up.

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I am a real pain with my polytunnel. I just

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tend to chuck stuff in there, and then at this

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time of year I spent ages tidying it all out.

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So I need to start being more tidy this year.

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That is one of the plans, to be more tidy,

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and then I don't have to do all this tidying

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up in the winter period. I'll be saying the same

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thing next year. But yeah, we've done that. What else

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did we do? We've been sorting out all kanes because

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they were all in my polytunnel and they still got

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all the wires on and string attached to them, and

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they've got old runner beans, plants that I died on

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what were fastened to them and stuff like that. So

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we've been tidying all them up. We've tied them all

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up and hung them up in a shed. That's all

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done and all sorted. But yeah, we've done quite a

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lot down at the plot today and we've had a

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massive delivery today which we're expecting to come today and

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it was a big box from your garden and they've

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done livered mate three big thirty liter pots and we've

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got some potato fertilizer. We've got three varieties of potatoes.

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We've got Desiree, we've got Rocket, and we've got Charlotte.

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So we're going to be starting them off chitting them soon.

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So we'll be filming that showing you how we chit them.

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And the question is do you chit or do you

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not chet? To chet or not to chet? That is

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the question. So send me a message to let me

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know if you chit or you don't chit. I'd love

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to hear what people do. I tend to chip. I've

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always done that, and then I always plant them on

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Good Friday, even though it changes every year, I always

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plant them on Good Fridays to do with the moon.

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But we'll be talking about that in a podcast coming up,

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how to start chitting your potatoes and how to grow them.

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So we'll be doing that and what else we've got

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a bonds eigeh tree being delivered, not an actual tree.

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We've got five seeds, so we've got them to plant

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and try and grow. I've never grown a Bond's eye before,

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and to start one off from seed, it'll probably be

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a tree by the time I'm dead, so we'll probably

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be planting it and remembrance something. But yeah, I'm looking

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forward to giving that try. It's all good fun. I

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love trying new things and different things, so make sure

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you stay tuned for that. I'll be posting my videos

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for that on YouTube and Instagram and sharing the progress

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with how it gets on. But yeah, it's been a

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very busy day down at the plot today to say

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it was freezing cold. I actually got quite a bit

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done and we'll be back down at the plot today

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we'll be recording. I'm going to try and record five

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videos for you for this week, so stay tuned for them.

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There'll be more informational videos rather than demonstrating videos because

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it's not much to demonstrate at this time of year,

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so it's a bit like my podcast, but you'll actually

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be able to see me. So we'll be doing that

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and hopefully tidying some more of my polytunnel up getting

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a bit more done and by the time it comes

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to summertime it should be spotless. But yeah, hopefully get

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lots done down at the plot tomorrow. It doesn't sound

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like I've done a lot, but it feels like I've

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done a lot if you get me. So hopefully we'll

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get lots done today. So we'll be back tomorrow with

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another podcast talking about what we've got up to today

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down there, and then I'll be having podcasts throughout the week.

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Hopefully I'm going to get more recorded this weekend for

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you to listen to all week because everybody loves my podcast,

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and thank you for the messages that I do receive

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about my podcast. I really do appreciate it. So yeah,

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until tomorrow, everyone, remember keep smiling, keep shining, and keep

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Guardening with Ben. Everyone, thanks for tuning into today's episode

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of Gardening with Ben. I hope you've enjoyed our chat

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and picked up some tips to help your garden and

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allotment thrive. Don't forget to stay connected with me on

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all social media even more gardening inspiration updates and behind

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the scenes content. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram,

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and YouTube. Just search Gardening with Ben, Hit that follow

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button or subscribe button and join our growing community of

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garden lovers. Until next time, everyone remember keep smiling, keep shining,

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and keep gardening with Ben