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 allotment 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 your Thursday's episode. The weekend is nearly here, Thankfully,
soon it'll be Friday, and soon we'll be thinking about
spending the whole weekend down at our allotments and fingers crossed.
It's a lot brighter than it was last weekend. Wow,
did we get some torrential rain. It absolutely bounced it
down on Sunday worse than it was on Saturday. Who
says there's a host pipe band in Yorkshire With the
amount of rain that we had, but the host pipe
ban will probably be on until winter, knowing our luck.
But yeah, hopefully we do get some more rain. And
I don't mind if it rains in the week because
obviously I'm not down at the allotment. But hopefully we
do get sunshine for the weekend. That is what I'm
wanting because I need to do some work outside now.
That's the only thing. With all this rain that we have,
the weeds certainly start to grow back. And one of
the weekend jobs that I like to do is go
around weeding in between every planet and digging it over
so that if it does rain, the water can get
into the soil. Pretty years, I do that once a
week on all my beds to keep the weeds down
as well, and it keeps it manageable and it keeps
it easy. It only takes like five minutes to do
each bed. If you do it every week, you get
it all tided and keep on top of it. If
I only could say that about keeping the binder weed down, though,
that is one thing I can't keep on top of. Well.
Today's episode, we're going to talk about sharing your allotment
with people and how I mean about that is build
a community of friends with your allotment neighbors and people
online as well. I've made so many friends online through
doing social media and sharing tips and advice what I
learn with other people, and they give me tips and
advice all the time as well, and that is where
I get all my information from from other people. Obviously,
I learned stuff myself through trial and ever and mostly errors,
but I learn new things every time. And if I
learn something good, that is when I share it with
you all, and I really jump and shout about it
because I know it actually works. If only we could
find something to keep the slugs off, then I'd be
jumping and shouting about that, that is for sure. But yeah,
it's good to share tips and advice for one another
and encourage one another as well. Never put anybody down
for how they're doing stuff, as it might work for
the person that's trying it. You never know, and if
it's successful, then you may even be doing it in
the end. But yeah, never put anybody down, as it's
their passion that they're enjoying it and they're reaping the
rewards from it. And that's one thing I've never done.
I've never put anybody down about the methods that they
do in gardening. I've always encouraged other people and another
thing to do is share your seeds and your plants
with other people. As I get loads and loads of
seeds free women the madgaisines too many to handle and
I've literally got a bag full, and I'll always for
sharing seeds with my dad or with a people if
they need a packet of seeds, I'll always share it
with somebody. And yeah, share the seeds rather than waste
them as well. And therese loads of seed swaps around
as well. If you look online on Facebook in particular,
the people do seed swaps as well. So if you've
got loads of seeds that you're never going to use,
swap them with someone else and you might get something
useful back which you might want to try and grow
as well. And the same goes for with your plants
as well. From the allotment. I'm one of these that
if I'm sawing my seeds, I won't just sow as
few seeds. I'll sew the whole packet. Even if there's
two thousand cauliflower seeds in a packet, I will sew
the lot. Why I need two thousand plants. I don't know,
but then they all end up dying and you only
plant about twelve of them out of the two thousand.
So give them away, give them to other people around
the allotments, or if you're going in your garden, give
them to a neighbor or to a friend. Never waste
anything that you grow. It's always useful to pass it on.
And that is one thing that I always do with
my strawberry runners. Strawberries are sending out their runners now.
This is when they send out all the baby plants.
They've finished fruiting and it's now time to send out
the baby plants. If you're not going to use them,
don't waste them. Don't chuck them away, Pot them up,
or stick them in the soil while they're still connected
to the mother plant. Let them route once the root.
Snip the umbilical cord off it. That's what I call
it anywhere, the umbilical cord, because it is connected to
the mother plant. Once it's rooted. Snip it off and
then you can either use it for yourself, filling gaps,
filling spaces, replace old plants, because you're meant to rotate
your plants every three to four years. That is something
they say, as they don't fruit when they get older,
replace old plants. But if not, pass it on to
a plot neighbor. Look out for somebody new that's joined
your allotment recently. I'm sure most of my strawberries all
over the allotment site because I've passed them on to
my neighbor. My neighbors passed them on to his neighbor.
They're all over the place. It's good to see and
pass plants on as well, and strawberry plants cost a
lot of money, so yeah, pass on the rewards what
you've got from your allotment and let others enjoy it
as well. And then the final thing is to share
your vegetables. That is one thing you should do. And
when I'm down at my plot, my neighbor often shouts over,
just try some of these strawberries, these alpine strawberries that
I've grown, and I'm like, yeah, I'll try them, because
I've never tried alpine strawberries. I've always just grown the
normal strawberries. And they're actually really nice. Actually I don't
know if i'll actually grow myself very tiny, but yeah,
they're really nice. Then like you'll pass something back, whether
it be rhubarbs, some apple or anything. Yet, if you've
got any spare vegetables, share it out, don't waste it,
or if you've got nobody to pass it on to,
I have a look at a food bank and see
if you can pass them on to them. That there's
plenty in Sheffield wire where they accept excess vegetables and
everything like that, So have a look around and see
if anyone can use them, or even a soup kitchen
or something. So obviously grow enough stuff for yourself, and
if you've got any leftovers, do the right thing and
share it with other people and let other people enjoy it.
And you never know that one person that you might
give a strawberry plant to might decide to get an
allotment or maybe start growing their own fruit and vegetables,
and you've planted that seed there for them to start
learning how to nurture and care for plants and obviously
get food from it as well. So yeah, that has
been our little episode today about sharing and enjoying other
people down at the allotment and getting to know one another.
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So until next time, everyone, remember, keep smiling, keep shining,
and keep gardening with Bet. 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
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