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 everyone, and welcome back to Gardening
with Ben for another brand new episode. I hope we've
all had a excellent weekend, because I know I certainly have.
We're finally in February. Yes, it's a new month and
is getting closer to spring. It's getting all that bit
closer towards our mass so in time when we sow
every seed that we've got, and I've still been purchasing
more and more seeds, it's getting beyond the joke. Now
I'm getting a bit addicted to this spot. Oh well,
it's my little hobby and I enjoy it. So what
have we been purchasing. We've purchased every variety of sweet
pea on Amazon, so hopefully my garden is going to
be absolutely gorgeous with sweet peas this year. I'm literally
going to have a sweet pea form. They'll think that
I'm not growing any vegetables on it or fruit, but
we will have lots and lots of flowers.
Speaker 2: That is the plan for this year.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm looking forward to trying lots of different
varieties of sweet peas, and I hope that you enjoy
seeing the variety is growing down on my plot as
well and see how well they actually do down there.
So we've got that to do. We've also ordered every
variety of sunflower as well on Amazon, so we're going
to have a beautiful smell of sweet peas earned a
field of sunflowers for lots of lots of selfies to
be taken.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's.
Speaker 1: Going to be a busy, busy time this summer with
how much that we're going to be growing, because we
are going absolutely wild.
Speaker 2: We are growing this year, and.
Speaker 1: Hopefully it does rain during the summer so that we
don't have to keep water with every day.
Speaker 2: But yeah, so.
Speaker 1: We've got every variety of sweetpea, We've got every variety
of sunflower. I've got loads of varieties of melons to grow.
So those are exciting things that we've got growing. Next up,
we're going to be getting some different varieties of cucumbers,
and we're going to get different varieties of squash as well,
and different varieties of beans. So we're going to be
trying lots and lots of different stuff this year down at,
which I'm excited about. I'm excited to try new challenges
down there, and I'm tempted to try and grow purple
Brussels sprouts just to see what they actually taste like
and if they taste nice or not. So hold me
to that one and see how well we get on
with that. So what have we been up to down
at the Allotment this weekend?
Speaker 2: Well, have big tasks.
Speaker 1: What we've been getting done this weekend is I've started
doing digging over my beds again, as the last time
I dug them over around October time, so they were
all compact again and weed are starting to appear now
because it's a bit tiny bit warmer, but we like
to dig them over quite a few times before we
saw plant out in him. We won't be planting out
in until May time, which is ages away yet, but
we're going to be keeping him dug over for a
couple of times and digging them over. You don't often
need to pull the weeds out because if you're turning
them over and it's cold at night, it will kill
the weeds and the roots off, So we just keep
digging them over and turning them over and not letting
them roots get established in the beds. So that is
our plan over the next few months to keep them
weed free, fingers crossed, and then we won't have a
massive job of keeping weeding them all before we plant.
But we've got all that to do, and then I've
got to paint them all. That's one big job that
I need to do, and not that i'm looking forward
to it.
Speaker 2: I absolutely hate painting.
Speaker 1: But yeah, my beds are starting to fall apart now,
the woods getting a bit knackered, and they just need
to bruce it up and making look smart again. So
we've done all that, and we've also been busy building.
Speaker 2: An arch on my plot.
Speaker 1: As obviously you know that I've got climbing roses near
my entrance, so we need them to climb up something.
They're getting quite tall now, so we're gonna train them
over the arch and hopefully have an archway of flowers
on the allotment. So looking forward to that, it's tiding
them up and keeping them n and hopefully not get
spec to f because they'll be climbing over the arch instead.
Speaker 2: Of blocking the entrance. So we've got that done.
Speaker 1: We've also been busy chitting my potatoes, and if you
don't know how to chip potatoes, I've just posted a
video recently on my Facebook page and Instagram and YouTube
of how to chip potatoes. So if you don't know
how to chip potatoes, watch that video. It's only a
two minute long video, and I show you how to
chip the potatoes. It's about pairing them and getting them ready.
I don't plan them out until Good Friday, even though
it moves every year, but I always stick to that
because it's to do with the moon.
Speaker 2: It's an old garden.
Speaker 1: Wives tale and I've just lived by that rule because
it works for me and I usually get good produce,
so I'm sticking to what works best for me, so
we've done that. We've also been fixing up my polytunnel
as some of the seams were starting to disintegrate and
come aparts. As polytonols do, they seem to split where
the creases are on it, where we're originally folded. So
I've strengthened them up, putting tape along them and just
strengthening it up make it last another year. Every year,
I keep thinking it's gonna go, It's gonna go one year,
and it doesn't.
Speaker 2: It lasts a bit longer, and we keep repairing it.
Speaker 1: And I'm talking to my dad about it today because
if it does come off, I won't be able to
replace it with another one because it's too much hard
work digging out all around it and putting another skin
over the top of it. It's a lot of hard work.
Speaker 2: And if you've.
Speaker 1: Never put a polytonal skin on, trust me, you have
to dig trenches are put it over the top, then
chuck bricks in on to hold the plastic down and
weigh it down. Then chuck all the soil back in
and make it tight. And it's a big job. It
takes about four or five people to be able to
do that. So if that does finally go the skin,
I'm going to play with netting as I tend to
grow a lot of my cucumbers and smartes outside last
year and they did really well, so I don't necessarily
need stuff inside my polytunnel. Obviously it's good for going
to be growing watermelons and stuff like that in it,
but I'll just grow them in my shed come greenhouse instead,
and i'd put netting over the polytunnel, so then I'll
use it as a bit of a brassica cage, have
really fine thin netting so that I can grow my cauliflowers,
my cabbages, my sprouts, my broccoli in there without butterflies
and stuff getting eaten, and use it as a brassica
cage instead, basically instead of a polytunnel. So that'd been
my plan if it does finally give way. So yeah,
it has been a busy week and I've enjoyed it.
We've started filming new types of videos now as I'm
trying different things all the time, different ways of filming
and different types of content, seeing what works and what
doesn't work. And I've started creating short little videos rather
than me talking on the video and recorded myself speaking,
I record the video and then I record the sound
over the top of it with me speaking like narrating
it basically, and I think they're coming out quite well.
They're a lot clearer and they sound a lot better
when I'm recording it, So I hope you're all enjoying
them videos. Obviously, I've put one up recently about birds
visiting my allotment. I did one about the best gardening
tool that I use, and I've also done my chitting
my potatoes that version. So yeah, I'm trying different ways
out and I hope that you're all enjoying them. If
you've seen any of my videos, please do let me
know and tell me what you think of them. And
even if a video just pops up on your page
or something like that, just give it a thumbs up
and leave a little comment on it, as it does
help push it out to wider audience and our followers
as blowing up at the moment, So keep on doing
that and keep supporting me. Obviously you're not paying me
for anything, so just do that and it'll all help
me out in the long run, and it's free. So
thank you everyone for what you do for me and
how much you support me. So until next time, everyone, remember,
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 pride. Don't forget
to stay connected with me on all social media for
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