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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

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Ben for another brand new episode for you to listen

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to on this Sunday morning when it's meant to be

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actually starting to warm up today. Fingers crossed, hopefully all

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that snow and ice will melt away, because I've been

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stuck in my flat all week and i need to

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get out. So I'm hopefully going to go out today

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and hopefully go down to the allotment. I'm not going

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to do any work down there, but I'm just going

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to make sure that my bird feeders are filled up

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because they'll have eaten all the bird feed that I

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put out last weekend, So hopefully we can fill those

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bird feeders up and get them eating again. Like I

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said in my previous episode, I'm going to invest in

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some squibrelproof bird feeders, so they're like ten pounds each,

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but hopefully we'll be able to get some of those

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and hopefully stop them eating all the seed. Not that

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I don't mind them eating it, but when they eat

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it all, it costs a lot of money to keep

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filling them up every single day, so we need to

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get some of those on order, hopefully in the next

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few weeks. So yeah, hopefully I'm down on the allotment today,

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hopefully filling those bird feeders up, and obviously feeding the

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cat as well. My dad's been feeding that every day

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for those that wondering, as we've got an allotment cat

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down there and it pops into my shed, and yeah,

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we give it some food every single day. He's even

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going down even when it's been snowing and bad weather,

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so good on him to keep feeding that pussy cap. Obviously,

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there's plenty of food around for it with the mice

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and the birds and stuff like that. We've seen a

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few pigeon feathers around, so obviously it's keeping plenty of

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food and keeping healthy. So yeah, what have we been

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up to. Well, in yesterday's episode, I'm going to tell

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you I said, I was going to tell you all

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about what I've got growing at home at the moment.

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So the things that I've got growing at home are

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my onions, my peppers, my chilli is, and some auber gene.

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That's what we've got growing at the moment at home.

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And my onions are all starting to pop through. My

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peppers and my chilis, they have not started sprouting yet.

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Like I said, is that peppers and chilis need a

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temperature of about twenty five degrees to germinate, which is

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very hot. It's a very hot germination rate, and obviously

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you can usually start them off in your allotment in

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like April time, but last year when I saw them,

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they were only just fruiting around September times, so they

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were very behind. So we're starting them off really early

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to try and get ahead of the game and hopefully

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get some decent peppers off this year, because I want

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to try and give them a good go in growing.

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I'm also going to grow some melons this year, so

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I'm looking forward to growing them and sharing with you

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how well we get on with the melon growing. I'm

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going to be growing loads of different stuff. To say that,

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I'm only going to be down there two days a

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week this year, I'm going to try and put a

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lot of effort in it, show you how well and

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how accomplished you can actually be. We're going to the

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allotment for two days a week. Obviously, all my allotments

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cleared and tidy. I don't need to do any work

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on it, so it's a case of just growing and

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keeping on top of things. So my allotment's pretty sorted.

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I've had it for about twenty years now, so we're

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pretty on top of it. Obviously we've got maintenance working

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bits and bobs to do, but we are on top

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of getting it all tidied and ready. So yeah, I'm

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excited about that. And we're not going to be starting

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any other seeds off at the moment. We won't be

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starting out other seeds off till end of March time

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beginning of April time. Sometimes you get like a week's

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heat wave which you have to watch out for because

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when it comes, that's when I start sorting on my

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seeds to get them all growing and germinated because I

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haven't got a heat of greenhouse or anything like that,

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so I have to wait for the heat heat wave

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to come and get them started. But I'm also going

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to try and grow a few citrus plants at home.

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That's one thing I want to give another try. I've

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done it before, but I forgot to water it before

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and I ended up killing it off. So I've got

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so grapefruit seeds the other week from out of the grapefruit,

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so I've saved them. So I'm going to try and

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grow some grapefood. I don't think we'll be getting any

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grapefruit on them. And I also got some sat suomers

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as as well, so I'm going to try and grow

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some of those and see how well we get on.

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You never know, if we have a massive heat wave,

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we might get some of them, but I really do

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doubt it. And I'm going to try and grow some

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lemon again. I've grown lemon plants before, like I said,

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but I've got to water them so they died. But

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I've got a secret way of getting the seeds to

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germinate and grow, so I'll be sharing that with you

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all when we get them all started and hopefully get

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them germinated. Hopefully it works. And I'm not proven wrong,

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but the last time I germinated my lemon seeds, I

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managed to get them to germinate within a fortnight, So

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hopefully we can work do that trick on the grapefruit

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and on the satsuomers as well and get them growing.

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So yeah, I'm looking forward to doing that, and I

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just want to try loads of different things this year.

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And I put a post out on Facebook the other

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day saying about obviously it's cold weather, it's frozen over

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and everything like that, but now it is a perfect

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time to be planning and writing down all the seeds

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that you want to grow this year, and making a

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plan of your allotment and garden and showing what you

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want to grow aware and how you're going to grow

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it or if you're going to draw any improvements on it,

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what you want to do, and bits like that. And

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I've got so many sweet peas growing in my shed

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in my allotment. Hopefully they're still alive. Hopefully the cold

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weather's not killed them off. Hopefully they're still going to grow.

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But we'll see, we'll see fingers crossed, they will knowing

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my look, when I go down to the allotment tomorrow,

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they'll all be dead. But like I always say, I'm

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an up and and on his gardener. I tell you

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how it is and how well I'm growing. I'm not

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one of these gardeners that just show you all the

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good things. I show you all the bad things as well,

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because then it makes it more relatable to everybody, because

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people think, well, they always seem to manage to get

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them to grow. Well, no I don't. But yeah, I'll

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love being open and honest with everybody. So we'll be

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trying lots of different things this year. We still got

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to make our seed list. I've got a load of

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things in my Amazon shopping cart of what I want

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to buy. In my shopping cart, I've been looking at

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flower seeds at the moment because I want to try

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loads of different flowers. A lot of my vegetable seeds

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I tend to get them from wilcos which is obviously

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now in the range. So if you've got a range

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near you have a look at their Wilcose seeds because

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They're usually pretty cheap, and they usually germinate pretty well.

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I usually have good success with them, so I'll be

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doing all my vegetable seeds from there. But my flower seeds.

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I like to look all different unusual vegetables which we

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probably won't see in a garden center. I tend to

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get off Amazon or from a seed supply, and at

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the moment, in my Amazon shopping cart, I've got a

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load more. Even though I got loads of sweet peas growing,

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I've got a load more different varieties of sweet peas

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in my shopping cart. I've literally gone for every different

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variety and put them in my shopping cart because I

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want to try as many different varieties as sweet peas

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as possible this year. I've also done the same for sunflowers.

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I've got different varieties as sunflowers, and different varieties of

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geraniums as well. I did have poppies in my shopping cart,

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but I've ordered all them. We've got all them. We've

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got loads of different varieties of poppies. So I'm trying

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lots and lots of different varieties of stuff this year.

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So it'll be exciting to see so fingers crossed. They

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all grow and we hopefully get some good displays for

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you all, some good pictures, because if not, it'll be

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a big waste of money. But I don't care about

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losing out of money on my allotment and garden, and

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it's just about being outside and enjoying it, learning new things.

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Given it try and if it fails, it fails. But yeah,

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I absolutely love being outside in the garden. And that's

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the thing I've missed this weekend is not being out

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in the garden and being able to do stuff. But

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I've been concentrating on other stuff. I've got these podcasts back,

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I've been sharing posts on my Facebook page about what

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to plan and what jobs need doing and stuff like that.

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So I'm being pushing out my social media instead and

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keeping everyone updated. So if you don't follow me on

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my social media channels, give me a following in Instagram

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and Facebook. Just search for Gardening with Ben and you'll

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see all my posts and updates on there. So yeah,

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that is hopefully what we're going to be getting up

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to today on Sunday. Obviously I've pre recorded this episode

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before I've gone down to my allotment, and hopefully we're

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going to have be able to get onto the plot.

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If not, I'll pluck away from the allotment and walk

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down to the plot because I do want to get

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down there, and I do want to have a little

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look around and get some nice wintry pictures as well.

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That would be nice. So yeah, hopefully I'll get down

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to the allotment and hopefully get some stuff done. So

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

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keep gardening with Ben. Everyone. Thanks for tuning in to

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today's episode of Gardening with Ben. I hope you've enjoyed

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our chat and picked up some tips to help your

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garden and allotment pride. Don't forget to stay connected with

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me on all social media for even more gardening inspiration,

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updates and behind the scenes content. You can find me

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on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Just search Gardening with Ben,

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hit that follow button or subscribe button and join our

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growing community of garden lovers. Until next time, everyone, remember,

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keep smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening with Ben.