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Transform Your Allotment Garden with 5 Easy Winter Tasks
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Jan 1, 2025
🌱 Transform Your Allotment Garden with 5 Easy Winter Tasks! Winter might feel like a quiet time, but it’s the perfect season to get ahead. ❄️💪 These five simple tasks will refresh your plot, boost productivity, and set you up for a thriving growing season ahead. Which winter task is top of your list this month? #WinterGardening #AllotmentTips #GrowYourOwn #GardenPlanning #AllotmentLife #UKGardener #WinterOnThePlot
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0:02
hello and welcome to gardening with Ben
0:05
your go-to podcast for all things green
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and growing I'm Ben your allotment guide
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and here to help you cultivate your
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garden and your passion for plants
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whether you're a seasoned Gardener or
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just starting out this podcast is for
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you each episode we'll dig into tips
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tricks and techniques to make your
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garden and alotment thve from planting
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sewing and growing we will share all the
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tips and AD advice we will also have
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regular episodes talking about what we
0:36
have been up to on the alarm so sit back
0:40
grab a brute and enjoy today's
0:45
episode hey everyone and welcome back to
0:48
gardening with Ben for another brand new
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episode for today I hope you're all well
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I hope you're all getting in that
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festive mood and yeah it's nearly the
0:59
weekend one more day and then the
1:01
weekend is finally here so it's finally
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Friday and yeah we getting ready to go
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back down to the allotments fingers
1:10
crossed this rain and wind has stopped
1:12
it's been pretty stormy today here in
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Sheffield where I am but hopefully we'll
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be able to get down to the allotment
1:19
this Saturday and Sunday because I need
1:21
to start filming some more content for
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you all and I need to get back into
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doing a lot of more work down there
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because obviously the last few weeks
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I've been absolutely tied up with moving
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and getting ready I've just got a new
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chair to sit on today while I do my
1:36
podcast so I'm a lot more comfy you and
1:38
yeah I'm getting my set up pretty well
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here in my flat now and settling in
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pretty well I just need to find out what
1:46
where the local places are now and go
1:49
and visit a few sites around me that's
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the next plan on the tick list but
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hopefully I'll settle in in the village
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pretty
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nice so as you know we start off with a
2:01
Christmas joke to get you in the festive
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mood if you've not been watching them on
2:05
Instagram or on Facebook we'll deliver
2:08
them here as well for you so today's
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Christmas joke is what do you call a
2:14
festive herb garden what do you call a
2:17
festive herb garden you call it Seasons
2:23
greeting Seasons greeting so what do you
2:27
call a festive herb garden Seasons greet
2:29
EA in I hope you're enjoying all these
2:31
little dad jokes that we keep throwing
2:33
in every single day you never know we
2:35
might continue them throughout the year
2:38
and just do other gardening jokes so let
2:41
me know if you want me to carry on with
2:43
the jokes and I'll carry on with them on
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a daily basis as quite a lot of people
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are enjoying them so today's podcast
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episode we're going to talk about five
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ways to transform your allotment over
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the winter period and these are are
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probably the five things that I mostly
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concentrate on during the winter months
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down at my allotment and in the olden
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days when I first started my allotment I
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used to finish off my allotment at
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September and I never used to get back
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to my alotment until
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in probably January February time and
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then I was rushing to get it all ready
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in time for March when I'm starting to
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sew on my seeds so I tend to do a lot of
3:29
the jobs from throughout the winter
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months when it's decent weather and as
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you know I've dug over all my allotment
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and cleared most of the rubbish away all
3:38
so I then concentrate on doing parts of
3:42
doing my shed doing my poly tunnel and
3:44
other jobs which need doing around the
3:46
allotment what I don't get chance to do
3:48
during the spring and summer
3:50
months so to get your allotment ready in
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the winter are these five easy winter
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tasks which we like to stick by so the
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first one is clear and tidy yard
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allotment now this is the first thing I
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usually do when my allotments finished
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uh end of October beginning of November
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I clear away all the old vegetables all
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the old weeds and give it a good tidy up
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and try and do any repairs that need
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doing down at the allotment and getting
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it all in ship shap and tidy ready for
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the year ahead and I write down little
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jobs which I I need to do and anything
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what I'm planning on changing I'll like
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design it and draw it and hopefully get
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it built and ready and supported and now
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I've got my allotment in pretty good
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shape with the layout the layout I'm
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going to stick with now probably forever
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as it works I've got my beds set out
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I've got my paths laid out and the only
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thing that I'm going to change is I'm
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going to get Paving slabs for paths but
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they're expensive now so it's only
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buying a few Paving slabs every now and
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then to keep filling the paths up and
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eventually hopefully we'll have all
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Paving stone slabs down on the paths I
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just like them down because they don't
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get as muddy it's suppressed as the
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weeds it's level and yeah it looks a lot
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more aesthetic as well with nice Paving
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stabs down obviously the Slugs like to
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hide underneath them so they're not all
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beneficial but they do look a lot nicer
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so that's the first job which we
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concentrate on doing down at the
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allotment clear and tidy your allotment
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and once you've done that then you can
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start looking at some of these other
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jobs so the next up is enrich your soil
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winter is the ideal time for improving
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your soil and that means either adding
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nutrients to the soil or growing green
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manure in your beds and then digging
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them in in the springtime as obviously
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during the summer months a lot of the
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nutrition has been used up with growing
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your vegetables growing your flowers in
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and yeah you need to get that nutrition
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back into the soil and one way obviously
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you can do that is by spreading a thick
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layer of what we got to manure down and
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covering it over and then in the
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springtime dig it into the soil once
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it's rotted down even more and hopefully
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that will improve the soil and get your
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produce growing absolutely fantastic
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with great results down at the alotment
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obviously the more you look at after the
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soil the more the produce will look
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after you and that is what you want
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really you want great produce coming
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from your
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allotment so next up
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is plan your crop
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rotation now some people don't do this
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but it is a key factor in getting great
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vegetables and it leads on from the
6:53
other segment before enriching your soil
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is
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that if you don't enrich your soil you
7:01
need to make sure that you've planted
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crops in a different place to the
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previous year the reason being is that
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the crops will take out the Nutri
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nutrients from the soil which are needed
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for that plant so if you plant the same
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plant in the same place a lot of the
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nutrition has gone from the soil what
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that plant needs so either enrich the
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soil and add manure back in or move your
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vegetables around obviously it's it it
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would help if you did enrich it as well
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because there might not be the right
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nutrients in the soil from a different
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crop as that might have used them but
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yeah obviously enriching your soil and
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moving your crop around is a key factor
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and that is one thing that I always do
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around this time of year January time I
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draw a plan of my allotment and I plan
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where I'm going to plant stuff this year
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and I make a list of everything that I
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want to try growing whether it be the
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same things whether it be new things or
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whether it'll be trialing things have
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never actually grown before so planning
8:02
your crop rotation is a key factor of
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getting a great crop from your
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allotment and obviously check where this
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sun and where this shade as well because
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different vegetables grow in different
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places next up is a job which isn't that
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fantastic to do but it needs doing
8:25
maintain your tools and structures what
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it means by maintain new tools obviously
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clean them up and store them away for
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the winter if you're not going to be
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using them and oil them up if you've got
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secretar and different Machinery tools
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make sure they're all nice and clean
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ready for the year
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ahead maintaining structures that means
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mean means looking after your sheds
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after your poly tunnels after your green
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houses and we've talked about this in
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previous episodes is that obviously in
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the winter months I do a lot of work
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work on my shed I make sure all
9:02
the polycarbonates fastened down well I
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do any repairs to my poly tunnel by
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taping up any splits in it and if you've
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got a greenhouse make sure that all the
9:12
clips are secure that it's fasten down
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to the ground well just in case we have
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some storms which we have been getting a
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few recently and it's case of making
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sure it's all in good shape and
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obviously you can do different setups in
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your shed like possibly paint it to stop
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it from rotting or whether it be putting
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new shelving up or just tidying up your
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whole shed and making it last an extra
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year because if you don't do a bit of
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Maintenance you could end up with a
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disaster like I did where one year half
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of my shed collapsed and I weren't able
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to grow in my shed for a year as it was
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out of action it was a mess it were all
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falling down polycarbonate was falling
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off it and it had all cracked and split
10:02
wind got in and blown half it away and
10:05
yeah last winter time I spent a lot of
10:08
time rebuilding my shed and making it
10:11
stronger and a better structure ready so
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hopefully it'll last a few more years
10:16
but obviously I will keep an eye on it
10:18
through the winter and do anything that
10:20
needs repairing or
10:23
replacing and the last up is plant
10:27
winter crops and perennials
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so if you're thinking about growing
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winter crops now is the perfect time to
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do it obviously if you've got a poly
10:36
tunel you can grow stuff throughout the
10:38
winter months in the poly tunnel or in a
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warm cold frame or warm Greenhouse I did
10:44
talk about what you could grow in
10:46
previous episodes so if you've not
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listened to that one make sure you go
10:49
back and listen to that one and find out
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what you can actually grow in the polyon
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and Greenhouse at this time of year I
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also talked about perennials and uh
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annuals what you can grow like sweet
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peas and geraniums at this time of year
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starting them off and obviously if
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you're thinking about growing fruit down
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in your alotment or in the garden now is
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the perfect time to be planting any
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fruit in the plot because it is the
11:15
perfect conditions there's wet weather
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and the the plants are dormant they're
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concentrating on growing The Roots if
11:23
you plant them in the summertime it's
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worse off because they're concentrating
11:27
on growing the fruit and the flowers
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so you want to be planting any fruit in
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the winter months and that's why you see
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the supermarkets full of fruit trees
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fruit bushes Etc because they know it's
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the perfect time to plant them now if
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you go to a garden center in summer they
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don't have as many but they'll still
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sell them but it's ideal to plant them
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during the autumn and winter months down
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at the allotment so those are the five
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key tasks of what you should be doing
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down at the alotment or in the garden at
12:01
this time of year I hope you found it
12:03
extremely useful and if you're new to
12:06
this podcast make sure you do give us a
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follow leave a comment and feel free to
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share it as well share it to other
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people share it to Facebook groups the
12:15
more people that listen to this podcast
12:16
and the more it gets out there the
12:18
better I've just had my Spotify review
12:22
of my podcast for over the last year and
12:25
it's amazing to see how far and how wide
12:28
my podcast actually goes and it's not
12:31
just the UK that's big listeners there's
12:34
big listeners in other countries as well
12:36
so if you're from a different country I
12:39
thank you for listening and I hope you
12:41
find it useful where you're listening
12:43
but yeah I am guarding in with Ben if
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you don't follow me on my social medias
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do give me a follow on my Instagram on
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13:04
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13:06
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well so until next time everyone
13:11
remember keep smiling keep shining and
13:14
keep gardening with Ben
13:18
everyone thank you for joining me on
13:21
this episode of gardening with Ben I
13:24
hope you have found some useful tips and
13:26
inspiration for your own gardening and
13:29
allotment Journey if you have enjoyed
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14:00
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14:02
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