Speaker 1: Welcome to Gardening with Ben. You'll go to podcast for
all things green and growing in twenty twenty five. Whether
you're a seasoned gardener, a budding enthusiast, or just curious
about cultivating your own slice of nature, you're in the
right place. Join me Ben as we explore practical tips,
inspiring stories, and the latest trends in gardening to make
your outdoor space bloom with life, from a lotment adventures
to wildlife friendly gardening. I'm here to help you grow
your passion and read the rewards. So grab your gloves,
roll up your sleeves, and let's get started on this
year's gardening journey. Hey everybody, and welcome back to Gardening
with Ben for another brand new episode here on Monday,
a new week and a new beginning. Hopefully getting warmer
now and hopefully getting towards springtime, but no doubt it
will probably be still be cold. But yeah, we've got
a big week ahead of us this week with the
Big Bird Watch coming up this weekend, so we're looking
forward to that. But first off, let me tell you
about what we've been getting up to down at the Allotment. Yesterday,
we were busy, busy, busy, busy, and yeah, we have
got loads done. So this weekend I've been concentrated on
tidy my polytunel out. I've still got a lot more
left to do. I've got a load of wood in
there what I do need to burn as well at
some point. I've been having it in there so that
it'll dry out and hopefully be able to get it
all burned and done away with. Obviously a norm a
wood order, I'll save any bit of wood lying around,
but this is no good. This would it's hold like
cupboard doors and stuff what I've warped and gone rubbish,
so we definitely don't need them. So yeah, hopefully we'll
be having a bonfire pretty soon. Down on the allotment.
We've got to get that done before March time because
our allotments you only allowed them from something like November
to March time, so I'm going to have to make
sure I get them burned and done away with. But yeah,
we've been tidying all up inside that You don't realize
how much compost and soil gets everywhere. I literally filled
up a box full of compost today so that I'll
be getting dug into my beds and sorted out. But yeah,
we got all that done. And what else did we
get done? We fed the birds again as they'd been
eating all the birds eat up. The pussy cat was
waiting for me again as soon as I got there.
So that's been fed. And we've filmed a few videos
as well today, so hopefully you'll get to see them
on YouTube this week. But yeah, we have then gone
shopping after I went to the allotment and we got
a load of bird feeders. Yes, I've got about four
bird feeders already, but I've bought five more to put
up for this weekend. As obviously I want to get
involved in the Big Bird Watch, and we'll talk about
that in another episode of the Big Bird Watch. But
we've bought five more new feeders. We bought some fat balls,
We've bought some peanuts, we bought some sultanas. So yeah,
hopefully we'll get lots of birds down at the allotment
for the bird watch this weekend. But in's case, I've
just been tidying up and getting all the plot ready.
It was pretty cold again this morning, but we was
wrapped up. I remembered my body warmer today and my hat,
so we kept warm and got plenty done down at
the plot. But I'm starting to make plans of some renovations.
What I want to do down on my plot as
one of my main paths is starting to sing earn.
The edging on the bricks are all wonky and everything
like that, so I want to tidy all them up,
spruce up my path and make it level again, as
my dad often walks down to my shed and it's
a bit uneven and I don't want him to trip
over his going down into the shed for when he
goes down and feeds a cat every day. We've also
watered our plants in the greenhouse today ours Obviously you
don't need to water them often when they're in the
greenhouse because there's plenty of moisture at this time of year,
but we gave them a fresh drink of water as
my water but will fall up to the top. It's
in like a location where it'll collect the rain and
it will fall up to the top, so I thought
that as well takes them out use it up because
it'll only fill up again soon. So we've watered our
sweet peas, our salvia, our geraniums and hollyhock and all
my other flowers in there what I've got started with,
given them a good water in today, and hopefully we're
gonna get some beer full colors this year and some
new plants because I've never grown hollyhock before, so that's
a new one for me. And I think I've got
some delphiniums as well, or we've got some loopings as
well what we've grown from seed, so we've got plenty
of color hopefully coming down on the allotment this coming year.
So we've done that, And my mum asked me today,
actually if i'd seen the squirrels around much, But I've
not seen the squirrels at all while I've been there
last two days. Did they actually go into hibernation at
this time of year? Like a few weekends ago, I
saw a lots of them around, but then they've all
just suddenly disappeared, so I don't know where they've all
hidden off to. And we've got as bird feeders out
and those were pretty full today. They're not like being
attacked like I usually go down and they usually emptied
after one day, so hopefully the squirrels have moved on
a bit. But I've also ordered a little finger as
well to stop squirrel from pinching the seed and the nuts.
So I'm going to film a little video on that,
and it's a clever little idea and it saves you're
having to buy squirrel proof bird feeders, So stay tuned
for that little video what I'm going to do and
share with you all. So what's the plans for this weekend?
This week, well, we've got a As I said the
other day, I purchased a Bond's Eye tree which has
got five seeds in it, so I need to sort
them out. I need to plant all them, film a
video for that feel to watch and hopefully follow along
the journey of me growing my Bond's Eye tree for
the next fifty years. So we've got that plan. And
I've got two peppers popping through my seeds on my
window sill. So yes, my peppers have started growing, which
I'm absolutely estatic about because last year I started them
around end of March beginning of April and they were
only just fruity when it got to September. So I've
started them off airly on my window. So obviously they
need plenty of light and just be careful they don't
go leg a and hopefully we've given them a head
start in growing. And fingers crossed, we get plenty of
peppers this year and a great produce from them, so
I've got them growing. We've got as onion seeds growing
on as wind sol they're coming through with no sign
of the chilies yet. And yeah, that's about it what
we've got growing vegetable wise. I'm not going to be
starting any vegetables off in February. The only thing I'm
going to be doing over the next few weeks probably
is start chitting my potatoes, and I'll do a podcast
on that about chitting or not chitting, that is the question,
So I'll do a podcast on that Tomorrow's. Not Tomorrow's
We're going to do a podcast as well on what's
my seed goal this year? What am I plan on
growing and planting? So make sure you stay tuned for
that podcast. We're going to be sharing all the new
things that we're going to try this year and all
the usual ones which we try, sharing what we're going
to be growing down on the allotment, and then obviously
I'll do a podcast on the Big Bird Watch as well,
talking about how you can help and how you can
encourage the birds and the wildlife to your garden, so
make sure you stay tuned for that episode. So that
has been our little catch up of what we've got
up to on our son yesterday down at the allotment,
and hopefully we will be back down there next weekend
for the big bird watch. Fingers crossed it doesn't snow.
I've spent a lot of money, but hopefully we'll get
plenty of footage and pictures for you all to watch
on them. I'm even going to try and get a
robin to land on my hand and have some bird seed. Now,
that would make a fantastic photo, wouldn't it, So we'll
give that a try. So until tomorrow's episode, everyone keep smiling,
keep shining, and keep gardening with Ben. Everyone, thanks for
tuning in to today's episode of Gardening with Ben. I
hope you've enjoyed our chat and picked up some tips
to help your garden and allotment fride. Don't forget to
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Ben