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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Gardening with Ben. You'll go to

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a podcast for all things green and growing. I'm Ben,

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your allotment guide and here to help you cultivate your

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garden and your passion for plants. Whether you're a seasoned

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gardener or just starting out, this podcast is for you.

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Each episode will dig into tips, tricks, and techniques to

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make your garden and allotment thrive from planting, sewing, and growing.

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We will share all the tips and add advice. We

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will also have regular episodes talking about what we have

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been up to on the a lotment. So sit back,

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grab a brew and enjoy today's episode. Hey everyone, and

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welcome back to Gardening with Ben for another brand new episode.

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And I'm excited to say that our podcasts are going

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to be launching on YouTube over the next few days

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or watch this space. So if you'reet listening to this

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on YouTube, welcome to Gardening with Ben. This is my

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podcast what I put out on a daily basis, and

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usually there about seven o'clock in the morning and you've

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got about four hundred episodes to listen to a so

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good luck, but no welcome to the channel. If you're new,

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it's always good to see new people joining, and if

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you are new, click that follower button and click that

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bell button so that you get notified when new podcasts

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come up. Hopefully we'll get up to one thousand subscribers

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on Spotify, so we're about seven hundred. So if you've

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not followed, mate, please do give me a follow. So

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what are we talking about today? Today? We're going to

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talk about gardening motivation. Now. I talked about this in

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one of my YouTube videos what's going to be coming

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out as well soon, but I've got to talk about

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it on my podcast as Obviously a lot of you

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know that I have struggled with my mental health in

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the past, and I went to the doctor and they

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tried to prescribe me tablets and stuff like that. But

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at that time I was talking to my martial arts

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coach and he was saying, no, don't do the tablets,

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do exercise instead, which I found very helpful and it

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helped a lot. And obviously I were going to martial

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arts back then, but I used my garden as a

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place of escape, a place of where I can relax,

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where I can switch off, where I can turn off,

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and yeah, that's why I spend the whole weekend down there,

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really and that's why I enjoyed putting all these videos

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out for you to watch, all these podcasts out to

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listen to because I know a lot of people get

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a lot of stuff from it. And the comments that

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people send a really nice, genuine comments. I don't get

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no hatred whatsoever, and everybody is always supportive of what

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I do, and it's a fantastic community that I've got.

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I absolutely love it. And yeah, if you are listening

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to the podcast or watching one of my videos, just

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leave a comment. And it really does help with everything

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what I do, and it motivates me as well. And

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that is how obviously you need to keep your motivation

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when you're do in your garden. It's hard to have

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motivation sometimes to go to the allotment to go in

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your garden, especially if it's an awful day out there,

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or something's gone wrong at the allotment, like everything's got

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an eating or you've had a break in at the allotment,

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or something that's put you off from going. It's hard

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to find that motivation to go back. And I never

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used to find that motivation in the winter months, once

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my harvests had finished end of September beginning of October.

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I used to say, right, that's it. I'm not going

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back to the allotment now at all January February time.

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I've spent all year there and it's been a hard work,

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but that's it. I'm not going to be starting again

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until January February time. And sometimes it's hard to get

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started again once you've not been doing it, and that

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is one of the reasons why I decided that a

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few years ago I would continue through the winter, go

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into my allotment. I don't grow necessarily through the winter, obviously,

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you know that I do grow garlic, I grow winter onions,

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broad beans, but yeah, I don't grow much through the

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winter period. I could grow loods stuff in my polyton

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on in the ground if I wanted to, but I

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don't want to grow stuff through the winter. It's not

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what I want to do. And what I want to

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do down at the allotment is all my maintenance, working

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tidy in and prepping ready for next year, as that's

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what excites me over the winter period. Obviously, I've spent

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all year doing all the growing and everything like that.

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I won't switch off from that and I like to

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prep and do handy work, do some building, even though

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I'm absolutely rubbish at building. You all know I'm rubbiship building.

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I put a shelf up and it'll fall down in

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a few weeks time. But yeah, I absolutely love it.

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I love the iy but I'm rubbish it. It never hired

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me to build a shed because it'll fall down, trust me.

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I can't even put a fence up with like that

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falling down. But yeah, I love winter time down at

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the allotment now is absolutely fantastic and I'm eager to

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go down all the time. And I'm always eager to

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go down when it rains as well, when it's absolutely

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chucking it down. I'll still be at the allotment, trust me.

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And if I'm not, you need to be messaging me

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saying Ben my own the allotment, taking pictures and doing

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posters stuff like that. But yeah, I'll always go down

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at the winter now. And one thing obviously that I

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do want to go to the allotment is I make

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a list of jobs that I need to do. Obviously

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I'll find jobs while you're there to do, but I

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write down a few jobs which I need to do

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for that weekend, and obviously during the winter months it's

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about getting it all perfect ready for next year, which

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is a big task in itself, but the quicker I

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get it done, and the quicker than I can like

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silver Winter if only. But yeah, I write all the

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jobs down. I don't give myself too many jobs each weekend,

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just a few jobs so that I know that I

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can complete them, and I tick them off as i've

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got them done. Like I talked about next WEEKND is

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I'm going to be sorting out about my fruit trees,

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cutting all the brambles back on that and sort in

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that area. That's next week's task, which I know will

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last just for the weekend. I could probably do it

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in a day if I wanted to, but I'll make

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it last a weekend. I don't put too much pressure

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on myself. I'll tick them off once I've done them.

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And then obviously during the winter month is when I

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do all my improvements in my shed. I wash all

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my pots down, I tidy it all up, I sweep

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up all the mess what I've made, pick up all

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the rubbish what I've left, because like I say, I'm

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not a mess, I'm not a clean and tidy Gardener.

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If I if I were cleaning tidy gardener, I won't

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have no jobs to do in winter. But yeah, I

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definitely won't be going to the allotment if I were

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cleaning tidy gardener. But yeah, we love to keep ourself

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motivated throughout the winter period. And that's why another thing

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what I enjoy doing is doing these blogs and videos

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for you because doing the videos and the photos and

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everything like that and talking about it, I can see

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the improvement from the plot week on week. Obviously you

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can as well, so you're following my journey, but you

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can see that I've progressed every week and I'm doing

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a little bit more and it's looking a little bit better.

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And one of the things that I might do next

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year if you all want to join in, I don't

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know if you want to join in or not. I'm

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going to stand in the same spot every single week

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and take a photo and just show it what it

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looks like every week for fifty two weeks and just

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see the progression throughout the year and through to the winter,

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which I think could be make what would make quite

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a good video. Really, you know, when like merge into

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one another and you can just see the change. That

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would be a good little video to do. Not that

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I know how to make it. It's hard enough making

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the videos as it is, but yeah, that is one

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other way that I keep myself motivated obviously doing all

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these photos. And I've got to say as well, all

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you guys and girls that are listening to this, you

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all motivate me into keeping gardening and keeping going throughout

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the year. It's good to share with one another how

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well we're all doing and getting involved on the garden

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and what we've been up to down at the garden.

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And that's why I love it when people do comment

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on the post on Facebook and Instagram saying what they've

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been up to, what they've done at the allotment. I

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know I may not reply to them all, but I

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do read them. If I applied to all the comments,

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that would be a day in a job in itself.

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But yeah, I do read all the comments. And it's

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fantastic to see what other people are doing down in

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the gardens and the allotment. And it's about encouraging one another.

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And the next time you go out to see a

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friend or go out for a coffee or something like that,

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just chat to someone about your garden, about what you've

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been doing in your garden or allotment, or tell them

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what produce or flowers have grown really well and what

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you'd like to do next year down at the allotment

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and it is you as well talking about it to

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other people. It gives you that warm sense of feeling

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and encouragement into doing more. So if you are lacking

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motivation for your garden and allotment, do get in touch

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with me. I'm always here to chat. I'll always reply

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to people's messages. You can message me through Instagram. I'm

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available to message through Instagram. Just search for gardening with Ben,

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give me a follow and you should be able to

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message my Hopefully you should be able to message me.

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It's always good to hear from people, and I'd love

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to hear about what you've been getting up to in

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your allotment tips and advice as we're always learning. And

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that's another thing is that if somebody says, oh, I

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did this and it really successful, like that'll go give

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you that little bit of boost and you'll think, oh,

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I'm going to give that a try next year. A

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bit like what my neighbor did with his carrots on

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his allotment here a first year gardener, and hegrew some

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fantastic carrots. And I've been trying for sixteen years. Don't

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it disheartened you. Let it encourage you into doing more

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and more good things down at the plot. I never

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get disheartened. If something fails and it does absolutely rubbish,

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I'm just like, fair enough, I'll try it again next year.

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But yeah, don't let anything put you off in gardening.

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Use it as an encouragement into trying again and doing it.

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Keep doing it until you get something out of it.

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And I hope you found this podcast you was full today.

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Tomorrow we're going to talk about another topic, so make

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sure you come back for tomorrow's episode. I'm loving doing

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these podcasts on a daily basis again now and I

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hope that you're all enjoying them. I'm getting certainly a

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lot of downloads every day, about one hundred and twenty

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downloads a day, which is fantastic, and we're growing every

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single day. And like to say, they're going to be

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out on YouTube as well, some of these podcasts, so

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you'll be able to listen to them on there as well.

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If you are a YouTuber so until next time, everyone,

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remember keep smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening with Bet. Everyone,

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thank you for joining me on this episode of Gardening

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with Ben. I hope you have found some useful tips

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and instgiration for your own gardening and a lotment journey.

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If you have enjoyed today's episode, please make sure to

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follow and subscribe to the podcast so you never miss

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a new episode. And if you have a moment, I'd

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love for you to leave a review and share the

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podcast with fellow gardening enthusiasts. Your support helps us grow

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this community and continue bringing you great content. You can

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also follow us on social media on every platform before

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Gardening with Ben for daily gardening tips and of days,

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happy gardening, and until next time, remember keep smiling, keep shining,

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and keep gardening with Then