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 a lotment. So sit back,
grab a brew and enjoy today's episode. Hey everyone, and
welcome back to Gardening with Ben. Well, it's finally the weekend.
The weekend is finally here. I'm sure these weeks seem
to be getting longer. I hope you've all been enjoying
the podcast this week. Been doing them a little bit different.
We've been talking about little different topics every single day.
I hope you've all enjoyed them. We recorded them all
in two days and we scheduled them all for the week,
so I hope you've all been enjoying them as I
do like to get them on nice and earlier for
you to listen to while you're either waking up, going
to work, getting ready, walking the dog, or while you're
in the garden or having your morning brew. Either way,
I hope that you're enjoying all your podcasts that you're
listening to. So today's podcast is going to be talking
about what we're hoping to get up to at the
Allotment this weekend. And the reason why I'm laughing is
because I recorded an episode last week saying what I
wanted to get up to at the allotment, and literally
I did rubbish. I didn't do a single thing down there.
I went there, but I didn't do much whatsoever. But yeah,
fingers crossed, we have got the motivation to do something
this weekend. Well, it was absolutely awful last week and
the weather was horrendous. It was raining on the Saturday
and then we had the storm on the Sunday, so yeah,
it would absolute wash out last weekend. So we didn't
get anything done down there. But we do have those
days where we don't want to do anything, where we
just like to maybe just pop down to the garden,
just have a look and evaluate and decide what we're
going to be doing in the future. Well, last weekend,
as you know, like I said, it was storm last
weekend and we did get some damage to our shed.
It took a bit of a brunt of the wind
and speaking to my dad, he's repaired it and fixed
it all. So it's all going to last another week.
Figures crossed it lasts longer than that, but yeah, it's
all repaired and it's all hopefully it's a bit more waterproof.
We've got no extra windows in there that's not needed,
soefully we can crack on with some allotment work this weekend.
I've not actually checked the weather forecast this weekend, but
if it's like today, it's not being too bad. It's
been a bit drizzly, but hopefully we can get some
work done outside. However, I have been ordering a load
of seeds this week and they're all just starting to arrive,
which is fantastic as I had an Amazon gift voucher
for fifty pounds which I wanted to spend. And like
I said, each year I like to try and grow
something new and different varieties of things. And next year
I'm thinking of growing what I am going to do,
I'm going to be growing different varieties of poppies as
they're absolutely beautiful. Obviously, they provide seed heads and you
can get some amazing flowers a year after year from
them because they just throw the seeds out everywhere and
hopefully provide blooms a year after year. So I've purchased
lots of different varieties of poppy seeds, so I'm looking
forward to seeing what the lights are going to get
from them. Obviously, it can sprinkle poppies straight into the
ground to grow in the ground, or it can start
them off in seed trays. I'm going to be starting
all mine off in seed trays and getting them started
that way, and that way I know where I'm going
to be planting them and in between certain areas and
do it like that, and then I know that when
they're growing, they're not actual weeds that are growing, because
I tend to just dig up anything that's growing, to
be honest. So hopefully we get some amazing poppies next year.
So hopefully over the weekend we're going to be I'll
share some photos of all the seeds what I've ordered
and which ones will be trying, and I may even
look at doing some with different flowers as well different
varieties of other flowers. So if you've got any good
suggestion on good flowers to grow and the ones that
I've not tried before, let me know. Send me a message.
I'd love to hear from you and see what sort
of things to try and grow, because I'm always up
for experimenting down at the allotment. So what are we
hoping to do down at the allotment this weekend? Well,
my main task is going to be starting to carry
on with sorting my shed out ready for next year.
I know, obviously I've had all the repairs to do,
which my Dad's done for me, so that's one job
blessed done. But I need to start sorting out some
of the shelvy and the old plants that are growing
in there, sort out the plants which are growing ready
for next year. And now I've got plenty of different
flowers currently growing in there at the moment, so I'm
looking forward to hopefully keeping them alive throughout the winter
period and hopefully getting unplanted outside next year. As my
greenhouse isn't heated, it's just a shed and it's not insulated,
which it probably should be. But yeah, hopefully we can
keep them alive and keep them growing because we've got
some loopings in there, we've got some sweet peas in there,
and yeah, hopefully with a head start ready for next year.
And I've got all my salvia cuttings as well in there,
so I'm looking forward to all them growing next year.
So we're continuing with tidying up my shed, but if
the weather's decent, I'm going to be outside around my
strawberry bed area. And I've got some carrots still in
a tub which i've not harvested yet. I'm not expecting
big things from them because I forgot about them and
I didn't water them all summer, so i don't know
how well they're going to look, or if I've got
any carrots whatsoever. But we'll have to see and hopefully
get them harvested and have a look, and obviously i'll
share my results with you. I'm never shy on sharing
failures or success, so make sure you stay tuned for
that on Instagram and i'll share a picture of that
as well. And obviously we're gonna hopefully do some more videos.
I've not done any videos for a while for my
YouTube channel and my Facebook and Instagram as I like
to do nice, longish YouTube videos because sometimes it's all
right speaking and people listening to me, but I do
like to show visual as well so then people can
see what I'm actually on about. So hopefully I'll do
a few mark videos as well for you next this weekend,
ready to share with you all for next week. So yeah,
we've got a lot to be getting on with down
at the allotment, and hopefully obviously we'll be filling the
bird feeders as well. That's one job that we need
to do. And we'll be feeding Missus cat that lives
down there and pops down to see us regularly, we'll
be feeding her as well, So we've got absolutely loads
to do. I've also got my onion seeds come through
as well, so I don't know if I should be
sewing them yet this month or wait until it says
on the packet, which is February. I do know a
lot of gardeners that do like onions for show and
for competitions to start them off in December, so let
me know, send me a message if I should be
starting them now. If I want some decent big onions,
and I'll start them this month and we can share
how well they're getting on. And I've also got some
sweet peppers as well come through the post and some
auber jeans. So we've got to get them started soon
because the quicker we get them started, hopefully they'll get
some fantastic produce on next year, because they only just
started putting produce on towards the end of the summer,
so they were a bit late at the plants. I
started the plants off too late, I think, so we
need to start the plants off pretty early ready for
next year to have hopefully a great harvest from them all.
So yeah, we're going to be having a lot of
new episodes coming up over the coming week of the podcast,
and tomorrow's episode we'll be talking about everything that we've
got up to at the allotment today, So make sure
you stay tuned for tomorrow's episode and you'll be able
to find out if we've actually done any work this weekend.
So until next time, everyone, remember keep smiling, keep shining,
and keep gardening with Bed. Everyone. 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 Gardening and a lotment Journey. If you have enjoyed
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