Gardening With Ben Blog February

Welcome to Gardening With Ben Blog February. This is the first in the start of our new hopefully daily diary for you to read. Here we will be sharing with you all the things we have been getting up to on the allotment and outside the plot. Keep up to date with all the things happening with Gardening with Ben. As most of you are aware I work 4 shifts on and 4 off, this means I get to spend a great amount of time at the allotment doing what I enjoy the most gardening and being on my allotment sharing tips and advice with my fantastic followers on all my social media channels. The encouragement I get from is amazing. So thank you all for those who follow me.

Allotment and Kitchen Garden Book

Are you starting an allotment or planning on growing your own fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers in a kitchen garden? If so we highly recommend the book Allotment Month By Month. This does exactly what it does on the cover to help you with what you should be doing in the allotment and kitchen garden each month. Below you can see the link for Amazon where you can purchase the book directly. This book is extremely popular with all allotment holders as you will read in the reviews:-

You can check out all the allotment and kitchen garden books we recommend here.

16th February 2022

Today is the day the first bad storm arrives for parts of the UK and it’s a day that all gardeners do not look forward to at all. However much you prepare for bad weather you don’t know what the outcome is going to be.

I had checked the weather forecast before going to the allotment and it said rain from 1 pm so I thought yes I can spend a good few hours down at the plot being out in the fresh air. Little did I know the wind was starting in the morning. It was a great morning for the garden apart from the wind. Good job the wig is stuck down well.

While at the plot I saw damage happening to my shed as the wind was quite strong. It was ripping the plastic corrugated sheets off my greenhouse. Knowing that it would be bad weather for the rest of the day I thought it would be pointless doing any major work to the shed until the weather stabilizes. We shall see tomorrow what the outcome is.

I was however in my shed while the wind was blowing and it was really shaking the shed. I’m surprised I did not end somewhere over the rainbow!

I did however manage to get lots more beds cleared and dug over so you never know I may have cleared all my plot by the end of the month with is my aim so that I can do some work in my shed preparing it ready for sowing all my seeds this year in it.

I always love to look at how well my allotment is improving over the weeks and can’t wait for it to be in full bloom for summer.

I was however excited to see my first crocus out on my allotment it is certainly a sign that Spring is just around the corner.

15th February 2022

Well, today is the first day of my four shifts off and I wake up to it chucking it down with rain and feeling cold. The question is do I go to the allotment or not? Well, I always say to my followers if it is raining I can always go and do work in the shed and polytunnel so that is what I did. I spent a good couple of hours tidying up inside my shed making it ready for Spring. I only use my shed mainly in Spring to start all my seeds off germinating and growing my plants in till they are ready to go outside after the frost has passed. After that, it does not get much usage apart from it being a growing room for bindweed which I have trouble with on my plot.

Once I have sorted my shed out it will be time to move on to tidying my polytunnel which I have not used for around 2 years now as I’ve not had time to grow in there but now I’m working shifts again will have a lot more time to spend in there. This year I plan to grow tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, chillis, and melons in it.

While clearing out in my shed I found a big pot of bulbs which I had misplaced and they had started growing, if anything they are nearly in flower. So I managed to get them in the ground. I don’t know if they will come to anything but they are better in the ground than just growing not in soil.

This week it’s forecast to be bad weather with 2 storms approaching so I can see it being a good few days in the shed and polytunnel which I am happy about as we have not had a bad winter so far at all so I’ve not had a chance to work in the shed and polytunnel. I always say that if it’s nice I need to work outside and make the most of it – only work in the shed if it’s raining and it’s never been raining while I’ve been on the plot.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s update and see what I’ve been up to!

Keep Smiling and Keep Gardening With Ben

Gardening With Ben Podcasts

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