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2024 Allotment Round Up and New Potting Bench
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Jan 1, 2025
🌱 2024 Allotment Round-Up and New Potting Bench Reveal! What a year it’s been on the plot — from highs and harvests to lessons learned. And to top it off, we’ve finished the year with a brand-new potting bench build! 🧤🪴 Join me for a look back at the growing season and a sneak peek at the latest addition to my gardening setup. How was your 2024 on the allotment? #AllotmentRoundUp #PottingBenchBuild #GrowYourOwn #AllotmentLife #GardenProjects #UKGardener #GardenReview
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0:00
hey everyone and welcome to gardening
0:03
with Ben for your New Year Roundup
0:05
episode so sit back relax and enjoy
0:09
today's episode
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[Music]
0:21
[Music]
0:29
[Applause]
0:31
so welcome back to our new year Roundup
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special where we talk about all the
0:35
things that we have done throughout this
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year all the success all the failures so
0:40
I hope you enjoy this episode but first
0:42
off we need to give this desk a lick of
0:45
pain and make it look professional ready
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for our videos for next year so let's
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give it some lick of paint everyone so
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there we have it all nicely painted now
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so once it's fully dried out and it
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stopped dripping in here I can give it
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another coat but for now it will do
1:02
perfectly fine we just need something
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behind this really nice backdrop to make
1:07
it look a bit more special and a bit
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more like a studio so let's get a
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backdrop added to it let's go and if by
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Magic we are now in a winter wonderland
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but yeah we got a nice little backdrop
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so plan is to change it each season so
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that it fits the season of the year as
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well but this desk is just missing
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something off the front we just need
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something to fit on the front of it
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something the right side so let's have a
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think let's
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think and there we have it we have a
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professional sign now on the front so it
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looks all professional and it'll do its
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job everybody knows who I am gardening
1:50
with Ben so yeah we are now ready to
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start filming our videos down here and
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uh showing our talks as well so let's
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talk about our New Year Roundup and
2:01
share with you all our success and our
2:03
failures so let's get on with our
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Roundup of
2:09
2024 wow this has been a bad year and a
2:13
good year in some senses we didn't get
2:16
much sunshine or much heat this year so
2:20
a lot of people struggled with growing
2:22
stuff and getting good
2:24
produce but I did success with certain
2:28
vegetables and certain through uh some
2:31
crops have been the best that they've
2:34
ever been and we'll start off talking
2:37
around everything what we've grown on
2:40
our allotment this year so My Plum Tree
2:42
my Plum Tree did absolutely rubbish this
2:44
year it got a good lot of leaves on to
2:47
start off with and then it's them to die
2:49
off mid year whether it got Silver Leaf
2:54
I don't know but hopefully fingers
2:56
crossed it comes back to life next year
3:00
our rhubarb this year was absolutely
3:03
fantastic we had so much rhubarb this
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year whether it would because it a lot
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wetter but yeah we got certainly lots
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and lots of rubab and plenty of crumbles
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from them as
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well then uh apple trees we didn't get
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many cooking apples because we gave it a
3:21
massive pruning last year I've not
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pruned it much this year so hopefully we
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get a lot of cooking apples next year
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because of obviously pruning it too much
3:31
can stress the tree out and reduce crops
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the same goes for my eating apples we
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got absolutely loads of eating apples
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off but again I've not given them a
3:41
prune this year because they're in good
3:43
shape for next year so we don't need to
3:45
prune them ready for next
3:47
year our Tomatoes our cucumbers and our
3:53
Peppers we started some cucumbers off in
3:56
the poly tunnel we got quite a few off
3:57
on there but I had a lot of plants left
4:00
over so I planted them all outside just
4:03
to fill gaps in not thinking that they'd
4:06
come to anything but wow we had such an
4:10
amazing crop of cucumbers outside this
4:13
was the market more variety of cucumber
4:16
they did absolutely amazing and it's
4:19
given me hope to start growing them
4:21
outside probably because they get a lot
4:23
wetter and get watered more often with
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it raining and stuff like that so I'm
4:29
thinking of trying them again next year
4:32
outside I did this with tomatoes because
4:36
one year I grew them in the poly tunnel
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and we had a massive Heat Wave and water
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restrictions and everything so I didn't
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get them watered much and the year after
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I planted them outside and they actually
4:48
did really well like the cherry tomatoes
4:50
so I've continued to grow the cherry
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tomatoes outside and obviously it saves
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money on buying loads of compost as well
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to fill pots up so I continue to grow
5:00
tomatoes outside our Peppers haven't
5:03
done very well last year uh it was the
5:06
first time that I grew them in the long
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time and I saw them in March April time
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and they were only just fru in in
5:13
September so I'm going to start them off
5:16
this month ready and get them started
5:18
I'm going to get them germinated at home
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where it's a lot warmer because they
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need about 25 degrees to
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germinate and hopefully give them that
5:27
Head Start in growing for next year
5:31
um then our potatoes our potatoes did
5:34
absolutely fantastic we grew them in
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boxes again we started grow them in
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boxes so that you don't uh stab them
5:40
when you're digging them up they don't
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get worms in them as much the ring worm
5:45
and they don't get damaged as much so
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I'm going to continue to grow my
5:49
potatoes in boxes as it does well yes it
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costs a lot of money to buy the compost
5:54
to fill the boxes up but the produce
5:57
that we got from them was absolutely
5:58
fantastic so want to continue that this
6:02
year what else beetroot beetroot again
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did absolutely amazing first time I've
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tried cooking it in the air fryer I
6:10
cooked them like chips and they were
6:11
absolutely delicious so beetroots done
6:14
fantastic as peas have been the best
6:18
that they've ever been now I used to
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grow them in the ground start them off
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in the ground and let them just
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germinate where they grew but obviously
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we get a lot of squirrels lots of mice
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lots of r down here lots of birds and
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they eat all the seeds so I started them
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off in seed trayes first and then
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planted them out when they were big
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enough to survive themselves and they
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did absolutely amazing we had so many
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peas this year it was absolutely amazing
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so I'm going to continue that method
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again this
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year then uh pumpkins we got a few big
6:53
pumpkins off not many uh but they were a
6:56
decent size so hopefully fingers cross
6:58
we can get better as from our pumpkins
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next year as corett didn't do very well
7:04
as lettuce did
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fantastic they always do well as lettuce
7:09
uh we grow the iceberg lettuce down
7:11
here and yeah that's about everything
7:15
that I grew this year uh fruit wise
7:18
strawberries did absolutely rubbish I
7:20
planted 200 plants this year from
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Runners so hopefully we get some good
7:26
crops next year down on the allotment as
7:29
blackberries this formless blackberries
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absolutely amazing it's growing so well
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now uh Vine for my blackbery uh I've
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tied all that up ready for next year so
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hopefully we'll get another big crop
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next year as raspberries again did
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fantastic as autum ones always seem to
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do better than the summer variety so
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they did well but yeah we have had a
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amazing crop this year um fingers
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crossed I'm going to have an amazing
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crop next year like I said I'm going to
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start off my Peppers early I'm going to
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start off some onions from seed I'm
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starting them off as well this month and
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yeah we're going to start some chilies
8:10
off as well we're going to grow some
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chilies this year and one of the next
8:13
projects is to tidy out all my poly
8:15
tunnel I've tided all my shed out now
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it's all done we've got this new bench
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to do all his videos and filming showing
8:22
us potting up and growing stuff so I
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hope you enjoy the new
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setup but yeah
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hopefully we're going to have a good
8:31
year next year as flowers as flowers did
8:34
absolutely amazing we grew some poppies
8:36
last year for the first time they did
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amazing I grew like different varieties
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uh we grew the black ones and they
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looked absolutely beautiful and it's
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given me hope to try lots more different
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varieties next year I literally went on
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Amazon and chose every different variety
8:53
of poppular is so look forward to seeing
8:56
them videos next year and we start those
8:59
off all the seed trayes again we didn't
9:02
s them where they meant to like some
9:04
people s them where they meant to but
9:06
knowing my look how dig them up thinking
9:07
the weeds so I start them all off in
9:09
seed trays we grew Salvia for the first
9:13
time absolutely amazing I bought some of
9:16
that from BBC gardeners world and it was
9:20
absolutely phenomenal they were black
9:21
current type one which smell a black
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currents and that was absolutely
9:26
beautiful so I've took lot of cuttings
9:30
from that from last year I've took about
9:32
20
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cuttings and currently they are alive in
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my shed all the cuttings they've taken
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so we're going to plant them all out
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next year in springtime and hopefully
9:43
have a lot more Salvia down at the
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alotment we grew lots of fuches sweet
9:48
peas did amazing as well we got some
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great sweet peas off but this year I've
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sewn them in September October time to
9:57
give them a head start ready for next
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year year because if you grow the maight
10:02
then they'll get stronger and hopefully
10:04
produce more plants next year I've also
10:07
trimmed them all back to about 6 in so
10:09
that they Bush out more as well as I
10:12
read that as a tip they don't produce
10:14
big flowers but they produce more
10:16
flowers so we'll try that as well for
10:18
next year so they're still currently
10:21
alive as well in here we also grew some
10:23
geraniums which did well but I'm going
10:26
to start some off from seed as well this
10:28
year I'm going to try a a variety of
10:31
geraniums different colors different
10:32
varieties and see if we can get
10:34
geraniums growing and obviously with
10:36
geraniums if you dig them up and put
10:38
them somewhere warm over winter they
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will survive and you can plant them out
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again next year and have save money and
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plant them and have beautiful color
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again so again they're currently alive
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in this shed at the moment but yeah I'm
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trying lots of different flowers for
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next year I've also got some
11:00
um I forgot aqual Lees growing as well
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and some loopings as well what I've
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started from seed they're currently here
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in the shed so hopefully they'll all
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stay alive throughout the winter period
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hope obviously this is not a heated
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Greenhouse or a heated shed it's just
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got the natural elements so hopefully
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they stay alive throughout the winter
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period fingers crossed it doesn't get
11:23
too cold and they survive so hopefully
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next year we'll have lots more color
11:28
down here and again sunflowers
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absolutely amazing but again next year
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we're going to try lots of different
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varieties of
11:37
sunflowers so hopefully next year we're
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going to have a
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fantastic range of
11:44
vegetables fruit and flowers down here
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on the
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alotment I always encourage everybody to
11:51
grow flowers down at the alotment
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because it encourages the bees to the
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plot and without the bees you don't get
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pollination so the more bees that you
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get to your alotment and to your garden
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The More Produce you will get so
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encourage them by planting flowers on
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your alotment and in your garden and you
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will reap the rewards from it so yeah
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it's been a very successful year this
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year I hope that you have been enjoying
12:16
all these videos we've started doing
12:18
more content for you and lots more
12:21
podcasts and if you're not following my
12:23
podcast do give him a follow just look
12:25
on Spotify or apple music Apple podcast
12:29
or even ask Alexa to play gardening with
12:32
Ben and you can find it and obviously
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you can follow all my social media
12:35
channels down at the front so hopefully
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next year we'll be bringing you tons
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more content for you to watch and to
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follow so until next time everyone
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remember keep smiling keep shining and
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keep gardening with bed everyone
#Gardening
#Home Improvement