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Speaker 1: Welcome to Gardening with Ben. You'll 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 a lotment adventures

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

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

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

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year's gardening journey. Hey everyone, and welcome back to Gardening

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with Ben for a brand new episode. I hope you're

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glad to hear that we're back again for the time,

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but yeah, we're back with the podcast and recording them

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again on a regular basis for you. So today's podcast

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is we're going to talk about what we got up

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to down at the allotment yesterday as we were busy

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bees down there yesterday. Obviously we had the forecast for

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torrential rain and thunderstorms. We didn't get any thunderstorms where

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I am so far up to recording this episode. But

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we did get some torrential rain, which is good because

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I didn't bother water in my plot on Friday or Saturday,

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so I'm glad that it came. Hopefully it's soaked in well,

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and hopefully it will not have me watering for a

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few days now and we can just let things grow

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with the n actual rainwater, which is a lot better

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than tap water when you grow in plants. So what

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did we get up to, Well, we did a bit

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of picking before the rain actually came. I picked some

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massive squash which you might have seen on my Instagram

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or Facebook, and I've just got to work out how

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to cook them now that's the only problem. We're growing stuff,

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but it's cooking stuff that's another issue. But yeah, hopefully

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we'll be able to cook something nice with them. We

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also picked a load of tomatoes as they're all starting

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to ripe them pretty fast. Now we're just waiting on

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them beefsteak tomatoes to start ripening. Once they obviously start ripening,

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then they'll all start ripening. But the massive, absolutely massive,

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one of them's literally the size of my hand and

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it's still growing. It's still growing every single day. We're

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keeping unwatered every single day, sometimes twice a day, and

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it's just growing massive. At the moment, I don't know

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when it's actually going to stop growing. I might be

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able to turn to it in a competition at this

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rate with how big it is. But yeah, they're absolutely amazing.

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So today, obviously with it raining, we decided to do

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some polytonal jobs, the jobs that I don't often do,

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as I like to be outside when it's a nice day,

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making most of the sunshine while we've got it. So

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we stayed inside in the polytunnel and we tidied up

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all my smart plants. I took off all the lower

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leaves I took off any I took off the tops

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of the smart plants as they'd reached the top of

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my polytunnel. So I want them to concentrate on growing

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the tomatoes now, not growing the actual plant. That's a

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plan anyway, whether that will happen, hopefully we get a

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load more to Martes on them and keep them fruiting

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all the way up to end of September October time

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and get a great reward from them. So we've got

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them growing. We also sorted out as beefsteak tomatoes. Again,

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took off a load of leaves and sipped the top

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off as they've reached the top and it won't get

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as many tomatoes on that one, but hopefully we'll get

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some decent sized, wopper sized ones. We also gave them

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a good feed, We gave them some blood, fish and bone,

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we gave them a good water in and they were

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all looking healthy. And we tied them all back up

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because they were getting all over the place. So we've

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sorted all them out. Next up we've sorted out as

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pepper plants. Again, I don't know how you look after

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pepper plants. I should have really read up about peppers

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as it's not something I often grew. But again I

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took off the lower leaves and the only issue with

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my peppers is that they're getting eaten by something. Whether

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it's ants, slugs, I don't know. Something is eating them

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and I'm not happy about it. So if anyone's got

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any tips for stopping things from eating my peppers, please

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do let me know. Maybe I need to put them

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in a bowl of water so nothing can crawl into them.

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But yeah, we'll see how we get on. Hopefully we

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do get some peppers from them, because there's loads on there,

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but they just keep getting eaten. I'm like, no, not

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another one. So I ended up just cutting it off

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and throwing it away and hopefully we do get some

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peppers next up. I then sorted out all my melon plants,

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now not grown melons for a few years. Down at

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the allotment. It must have been about eight years or so.

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I grew some cantaloup melons and they were absolutely phenomenal,

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great taste, great flavor, and smell absolutely beautiful. And we've

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grown some more melons again this year. Don't ask me

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what variety, because I've forgot to label them, or I've

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forgot to label them up. I don't know. But we've

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got some melon plants and they had not even tied

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any of them up. They were just growing everywhere. So

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we've put some netting up on the side, and we've

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also fastened them all up to the netting and sorted

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them all out and hidden away. There were some melons

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growing on it. So looks like we possibly will get

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some melons growing and get a great reward from them

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and see how well they get on. So I'm happy

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with that. I posted a video of that on my

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Facebook and Instagram if you want to go and have

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a look at that and see how well they're getting on.

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I've also sorted out my aubergine plan as that I've

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got a load of leaves on it. It looks like

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it's pretty hungry because the leaves are going a bit

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yellow on it. So I've given it a good feed

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as well and stripped off a load of lea what

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weren't doing any good and tidied it all up, fastened

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the cane and tied the plant up. And yeah, I

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bought my aubergine plant this year. I didn't grow it

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from seed. I've never had any luck with growing aubergine

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from seed because you have to start them off pretty early.

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So I thought I'll buy a plant, see how it

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gets on. And wow, one plant is en off. There's

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absolutely loads of ubergunes on it. It's doing absolutely amazing.

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I can't believe how well the aubergines are growing on there.

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So we're getting going to get some great rewards from

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that as well. So overall, we have had a very

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busy day down at the lotment. I spent about four

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hours down there this morning. As I'm an early riser,

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so I usually get down there for about eight half

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eight and get on and get started with my job.

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Now tomorrow, hopefully, fingers crossed, we're going to be setting

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up irrigation for my tomatoes and stuff in my polytunnel.

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I've got a big, massive, really been what I fill

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with water, but I want to set up an irrigation

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on it so it does get a constant of water

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twice a day and keep them happy because obviously the

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big plants now they'll need water in possibly twice a

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day because it do dry out really fast. As the

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composting it's absolutely Rubbishou's no good. But hopefully we'll keep

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them water and keep them alive and keep things growing

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on it. So that's my plan for tomorrow. I was

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meant to do it today, but I've got to take

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them down to the plot, which I are absolutely annoyed

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myself for. But over we did get a lot of

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stuff done down there, so I'm happy about that. So

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make sure you come back to tomorrow's episode at where

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we'll be talking about how we've got on. We're setting

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up this irrigation. It's the solar powered irrigation system rather

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than battray, so hopefully we'll get enough sun to make

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it work, but talking to other people, they've managed to

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get it to work even with little son, so we'll

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see how we get on with that. I'll obviously film

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a video on it as well to share with you

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all as well. And if you're listening to this, make

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sure you do follow my Facebook page and feel free

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to lie the comment, like the post comment on it

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as obviously it pushes it out with hit twenty five

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thousand followers now, which I'm absolutely and thrilled about. It

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took us eight years to get to twenty five thousand,

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and hopefully the next step will be fifty thousand, and

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hopefully it'll be a lot faster than eight years to

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get to fifty thousand. So thank you all once again

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for all your support and everything. So until next time,

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everyone remember keep smiling, keep shining, and keep Guardening with Ben. Everyone,

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thanks for tuning in to today's episode of Gardening with Ben.

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I hope you've enjoyed our chat and picked up some

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tips to help your garden and allotment thrive. Don't forget

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to stay connected with me on all social media for

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even more gardening inspiration, updates and behind the scenes content.

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You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Just

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search gardening with Ben, hit that follow button or subscribe

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to and join our growing community of garden lovers. Until

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next time, everyone remember, keep smiling, keep shining, and keep

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gardening with Ben.