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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 a lotment adventures

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to wildlife friendly gardening. I'm here to help you grow

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your passion and read the rewards. So grab your gloves,

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roll up your sleeves, and let's get started on this

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year's gardening journey. Hey everybody, and welcome back to Gardening

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with Ben for a brand new episode on a brand

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new week. Happy Monday, everybody. I hope that you've all

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had a fantastic weekend. I know I certainly have, even

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though it's been absolutely chucking it down. But good things

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happen with rain because that means we don't have to

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spend all morning watering, which has been an absolute blessing.

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And fingers crossed, I won't need to water now for

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a few days because I checked the soil and it

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looks like it's soaked in pretty well, so hopefully we

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won't have to water probably until about Thursday if it

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don't main. So yeah, pretty much we're going to be

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happy for the rest of the week with watering. It's

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saved me a big job doing that, so we could

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concentrate on other things down at the allotment today and

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this weekend. So today we have been busying our polytunnel again. Yes,

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I was in there yesterday sorting out all the tomatoes, peppers,

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the melons, the aubergine plant. But today we have been

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setting up an irrigation system. Yes, I had in the

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irrigation system years ago, but I thought I'll try again,

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and I bought one of these solar powered pump ones

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to give it a try and see if I could

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manage to do it. Okay, And I only bought it

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for about ten plants, but I bought an extension kit

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on it, so it added a few more drippers onto it,

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and we've managed to set it up for all my plants.

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So we've got it on my tomatoes, we've got on

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my peppers, we've got my aubergine and on my melons.

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At the other side of the polytamal because I've got

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enough tubing for it all to connect up to. And yeah,

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it were pretty much easy to set up, a lot

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easier than I thought. And I'm no good at they

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and building things, definitely not, especially when it comes to

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building sheds or fall down straight away. But yeah, we've

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been so busy down at the allotment setting this up

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this morning, and it didn't take that long to do. It.

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Were pretty straightforward, easy to fit together, and I just

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followed the instruct and we're all sorted now. In my polytunnel.

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Usually I just water and were watering can but I'm

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having to water them like every single day, even sometimes

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twice a day, so they are getting pretty dried out

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because the compost isn't that brilliant in them. And you

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know what composts like, it does dry out a lot faster,

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especially if it's in a polytunnel where it is a

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lot warmer. So we set up all the drippers into it,

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and we set up the solar panel. And we don't

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get a lot of sun in the polytunnel when it's

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dull like it has been today, raining and bits like that,

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but the solar panel got it working. It fitted up

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to the timer, I turned the timer on and it

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pumped out the water, which was absolutely fantastic. I was

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quite impressed with it. And obviously my wheelibin it can

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hold a lot of water, so it should last for

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quite a few days. And then all I have to

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do is just keep topping up the wheelibin with water

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as and when needed. And if I want to feed

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the plants, I could just chuck some feed into the

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water and it will feed the plants there and then.

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So it's an easier way to feed things as well,

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a lot easier than measuring out the caps and doing

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it all that way. You can just add it straight

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to the wheelibin itself and it will feed the plants. Now,

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in with the kit, it came with a pipe what

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you put into the elbin or into your water butt,

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and it's got a filter on the end of it

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as well, so that if there's any muck in the water,

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it won't get sucked into the pipe and it won't

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mess it all up in sense, it won't cause any blockagers,

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So that is one good thing. And it also comes

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with some water prongs what you're sticking, and it's basically

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when the prongs are dry, that means there's no water

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left in the wor and it won't try and pump

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it out, it'll just keep off until it's actually filled

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back up again. So we'll see how we get along

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with that and see how much water we can use

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on our plants and how long it lasts for without

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having to fill it up. You can also change the

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settings on it. You can change it to what five minutes,

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fifteen minutes, or thirty minutes on it I believe it was,

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and you can do it for every twelve hours, every

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twenty four hours, every forty eight hours, or every seventy

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two hours. So I've set mind to five minutes watering

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every twelve hours, so they get a water twice a day,

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one in the morning and one at a night time,

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so that it'll keep them hydrated and hopefully keep the

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plants alive. It'll save me a big job going down

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to the allotment every day keeping them watered and keeping

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them hydrated. And obviously my dad does a lot of

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the watering as well, so it'll save him having to

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do it, and we'll see if if it works. If

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it doesn't, it's obviously only a bit of money lost,

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but we'll have to go back to the watering can,

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but it's worth trying. I love trying new stuff out

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and little inventions. It's always exciting trying different things and

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different methods in growing these things. So yeah, it's been

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pretty much a busy morning down at the allotment today.

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We have also been recording a couple of videos. I've

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recorded a little tour on my polytunnel which i'll be

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out later in the week as I weren't able to

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do my outside tour today. I wanted to do a

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tour of my plot as it's been a couple of

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weeks since the last one, and I couldn't do it

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because it was absolutely chucking it down on the allotment

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and I didn't want to get wet obviously, So we'll

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be doing a tour of the plot pretty soon. Hopefully

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i'll record it this week while one night when it's dry,

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because obviously I won't need to do any watering because

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the plot's watered for a week now, it'll be fine

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for watering the plot. So hopefully we'll get a tour

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video recorded for you coming up. But I'm happy with

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everything how it's gone on. I also did a little

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slug hunt as well, this morning because obviously with the

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rain outcomes to slugs, and I was just checking on

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my pumpkins and I could see slugs attached to the pumpkins,

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so they were straight off there. I were taking them

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off the pumpkins. I don't want them getting eaten, not

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when I protected them for so long. And they're actually

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growing quite big now. I'm quite surprised, actually, because my

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Atlantic Giant one is growing faster than the other one,

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which is quite large at the moment. So I'm expecting

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the Atlantic Giant to overtake the normal sized pumpkin pretty

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soon because it's growing so much every single day, I

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might end up having to have a fort lift to

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move it at this way, fingers crossed. But we'll see.

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I don't think it'll be a massive giant one, but

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we'll see how big we can get it to grow. Obviously,

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we're in July now, and the pumpkins usually stop growing

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around September time, so he's got quite a few months

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to grow and hopefully get to a decent sized pumpkin.

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Because I'm excited about this. I've never grown the Atlantic

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Giant ones, so it'll be exciting to see how big

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we actually can grow it. We only show these about

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end of May time, and obviously usually you start pumpkins

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off aro out March time, so we're pretty late in

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starting these off. So if they do well this year,

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I'll obviously be starting them off in March next year,

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and then maybe we will get a massive giant one

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because that will be fun to see how big we

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can actually grow a pumpkin. That's the thing with gardening

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as well. It's not just about growing food. It's about

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having fun, having little competitions, seeing what you can do,

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see how you can grow it, and set yourself little

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challenges as well, as that makes it more exciting. I

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don't care if I don't get no projects from something.

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It's just about having fun and enjoying being outside in

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the fresh air and making the most of the weekends

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rather than be stuck inside doing nothing all weekend. So yeah,

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that has been what I've been up to on Sunday

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down at the Allotment. If you're new to these podcasts,

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make sure you do drop it a follow, make sure

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you click the bell so you get notified when you

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podcast come up. And if you knew obviously there's about

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four hundred episodes for you to listen to. So you've

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got a lot to keep yourself going. And if you

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don't follow me on social media, make sure you do.

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I'm on Facebook and on Instagram. Until next time, everyone, remember,

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keep smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening. We bet everyone.

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Thanks for tuning into today's episode of Gardening with Ben.

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I hope you've enjoyed our chat and picked up some

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tips to help your garden and allotment pride. Don't forget

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to stay connected with me on all social media even

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can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Just search

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

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