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January Review: Wins, Challenges, and Lessons from the Allotment🌱📆
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Feb 27, 2025
📆 January Review: Wins, Challenges, and Lessons from the Allotment! The first month of the year brought a mix of successes and a few hurdles — but every moment was a learning opportunity. 🌱✨ Here’s a look back at January on the plot: what worked, what didn’t, and what I’m taking into the rest of the growing season. How was your gardening start to the year? Share your wins and lessons! #AllotmentLife #JanuaryReview #GardeningLessons #GrowYourOwn #GardenWins #AllotmentReflections #UKGardener
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0:00
welcome to gardening with Ben your go-to
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podcast for all things green and growing
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in
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2025 whether you are a seasoned Gardener
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a budding Enthusiast or just curious
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about cultivating your own slice of
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nature you're in the right place join me
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Ben as we explore practical tips
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inspiring stories and the latest trends
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in gardening to make your outdoor space
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Bloom with life from allotment
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Adventures to Wild life friendly
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gardening I'm here to help you grow your
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passion and reap the rewards so grab
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your gloves roll up your sleeves and
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let's get started on this year's
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gardening
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Journey hey everybody and welcome back
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to gardening with Ben well happy Friday
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it is finally Friday and it seems funny
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me saying this because I'm recording it
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on
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Sunday but happy Friday everybody and I
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hope that you're all looking forward to
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the weekend well it's the last day of
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January finally it's the end of the
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month January is the month that keeps on
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giving it seems to last forever and ever
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and I know obviously everybody has uh
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that problem with getting paid early
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before Christmas which is nice but then
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you've got to Make It Last Forever
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throughout January but it's finally the
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end of the month and hopefully we will
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be turning a corner soon and heading
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towards Springtime which will soon be
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upon us in
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March so yeah what have we accomplished
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in January this is where we talk about
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our good things and our bad things of
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the month well have we done a lot down
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at the allotment yes we have and no we
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haven't we feel like we've done a lot
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but we haven't done loads to be honest
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but we have uh H make up your mind Ben
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have you how haven't
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you but yeah we have had a good month
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down in January obviously we've had the
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snow which put off us for a few times
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but we have managed to get lots done and
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in January we worked on Tiding all my
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shed up and sorting out some shelving in
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it and sorting my pots out getting all
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those sorted and really giving it a good
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tidy up and clearing it all ready for
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the month ahead because come March Time
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my Greenhouse will be absolutely full to
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busting with seeds what we have sewn
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because that's when I se all my seats in
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March
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time obviously we'll be talking about
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what seat you can goow in February
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tomorrow but I don't do that I tend to
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wait till March time because it's still
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quite cold where we are and I
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obviously want it to be warmer in my
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Greenhouse it's not a heated Greenhouse
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so we need to wait for the warmer
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weather for to germinate the
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seeds so we've done that we've also done
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a lot of tidying up in my poly tunnel as
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I've not used my polyol much for the
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last couple of years but this year we
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are bringing it back into action yes we
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are bringing the poly tunel back into
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full potential and getting it used we've
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stopped growing our tomatoes in the
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polyon now we grow those
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Outdoors as they seem to do better and
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you don't have to water them as often
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uh because the ground stays damper than
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it would do in a uh bucket of compost so
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we grow our Tomatoes outside that's
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Cherry ones uh the bigger ones you would
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need to goow into a greenhouse because
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they need a lot more sun to make them
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rer so big ones will grow indoors if we
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are growing any this year and obviously
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my cucumbers I grew about three in my
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polyan this year and I had about 15
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plants outside what I got spare plants
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left over and the ones out side did
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fantastic they did so much better than
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the ones in the polyon which is hard to
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believe but yes they did so I'm going to
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cut grow my cucumbers outside from now
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on if they're doing that well I might as
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well carry on doing them like that and
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again they won't need as much water
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because the ground stays wet and if it
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rains it Waters them which is a bonus
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but why are we fetching the poly tunnel
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back into action you might say we are
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going to be growing peppers in there and
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we're going to be growing melons in
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there and you're probably saying well
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why don't you grow those outside but
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them two things need more sunlight so
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and more heat so that is the reason why
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we're fetching the poly tunnel back into
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action this year so we've got it all
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tided out ready for them to grow which
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we'll talk about in another
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episode so I'm excited to be growing in
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the polyol again obviously it mean I
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need to go down there often and keep
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things watered but it encourages me to
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get out and about and visit the plot Mar
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which I'm looking forward
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to and we did a few repairs to the shed
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because we've had a few bad storms uh
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the roof blew off some of it so we had
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to repair that but I only did like a b
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job because my dad said to me that he is
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going to help
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me take all the roof off and start from
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scratch and make a better roof which the
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roof's probably being on for about 10
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years now and it's perspects and it's
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pretty strong but it's starting to go
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brittle a bit now so when the wind comes
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it just snaps it now so uh it's time for
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a replacement it's done its job and it's
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time for a fresh new roof and hopefully
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we're going to make it waterproof as
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well because when I'm in there there
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drips qu for where all the screws are
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because I've not done it right I've not
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like capped it off I've not waterproofed
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them so it has
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it keeps getting me wet when it's
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raining in there so hopefully we're
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going to make it a bit more
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waterproof and use stronger plastic as
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well uh obviously we started looking on
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Facebook Marketplace Facebook
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Marketplace is a brilliant place if you
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wanted to look for cheap stuff or free
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stuff as a lot of people just post on
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there to get rid of stuff so if you're
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looking at doing work to your allotment
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or sheds or green houses have a look on
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Facebook Marketplace and you'll possibly
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be able to find some good
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Bargains so that is what we're going to
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be doing soon when it gets a bit nicer
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obviously we can't be doing it when it's
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absolutely chuing it down and cold and
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freezing because we don't want to be
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doing that so
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yeah we've not done much weeding in
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January January we've not done anything
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outside as it's been too cold the
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ground's been too hard and all the weeds
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don't seem to be growing much as at the
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moment so we might turn all the beds
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over in February that might be one of
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our jobs that we do in that month but
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yeah overall January has been a pretty
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decent month and obviously we're
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starting to do more content on YouTube
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we're getting more videos out there and
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we're going to film loads this year
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loads of videos for you to watch and
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obviously we're getting more and more
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content out on our Facebook page for you
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to read and share and in in Digest so I
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hope that you found that useful so yeah
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I'm happy that I've been down to my
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alotment in January years ago I never
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used to go down to my plot in January I
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used to finish off my plot at end of
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October then not go back down to the
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allotment until March time and I'd be
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rushing at the last minute to be getting
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everything tidied cleaned up and ready
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for the months ahead so I tend to carry
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on now throughout the winter period so
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that I've got all these jobs done and I
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can concentrate on growing my seeds
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throughout the March period because when
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I start sewing my seeds in March it's
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going to be a lot of work I'll obviously
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need to S them more and then keep them
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more water and then we have to pick them
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all out and pot them up individually and
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yeah it takes a lot of work so that is
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the reason why I continue doing all my
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work in throughout October through to
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February because you can't get a lot of
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stuff done and it's not necessarily just
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digging over it's like Tiding up and
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getting it all clean and ready for the
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year ahead so yeah January has been a
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successful month down at the allotment
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hopefully we'll get lots done in
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February I'm looking forward to it
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obviously the spring bulbs and
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everything will start popping through
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now and start showing the heads and
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hopefully start fetching some spring
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color down at the allotment because
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that's what I want I want to see all the
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Croakers out I want to see the daffodils
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out I'm looking forward to the heis of
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smells when you walk onto the allotment
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so yeah yeah I'm excited for the
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springtime and I'm sure you are all too
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so tomorrow's episode we'll be back with
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a new podcast and it will be talking
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about all the things that you can s in
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February like I said most things I won't
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be S until March time but it's there
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just as a guide for anybody that's
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interested and obviously all depends on
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the temperature in your area that you
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live in as well so thanks for listening
9:24
to today's podcast everyone as always
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remember keep smiling keep shining and
9:29
keep guiding with Ben
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everyone Thanks for tuning in to today's
9:36
episode of gardening with Ben I hope
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you've enjoyed our chat and picked up
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some tips to help your garden and
9:44
alotment Thrive don't forget to stay
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