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This video explains how simple DIY upgrades can improve a garden and make everyday gardening tasks easier. Learn how adding practical features such as workspaces and storage areas can increase efficiency and organisation.
The guide covers improving layout, upgrading work areas and making small changes that enhance productivity throughout the growing season. These upgrades help create a more functional and enjoyable garden space.
If you want to improve your garden setup and make maintenance easier, this video provides practical ideas suitable for gardens, raised beds and outdoor growing areas.
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0:00
hey everyone and welcome to gardening
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with Ben for your New Year Roundup
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episode so sit back relax and enjoy
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today's episode
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[Music]
0:21
[Music]
0:29
[Applause]
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so welcome back to our new year Roundup
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special where we talk about all the
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things that we have done throughout this
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year all the success all the failures so
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I hope you enjoy this episode but first
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off we need to give this desk a lick of
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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
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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
3:08
wetter but yeah we got certainly lots
3:11
and lots of rubab and plenty of crumbles
3:15
from them as
3:16
well then uh apple trees we didn't get
3:20
many cooking apples because we gave it a
3:21
massive pruning last year I've not
3:23
pruned it much this year so hopefully we
3:26
get a lot of cooking apples next year
3:29
because of obviously pruning it too much
3:31
can stress the tree out and reduce crops
3:35
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
4:26
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
4:43
get them watered much and the year after
4:46
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
4:52
tomatoes outside and obviously it saves
4:55
money on buying loads of compost as well
4:57
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
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I'm going to get them germinated at home
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where it's a lot warmer because they
5:22
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
5:42
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
5:52
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
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fantastic so want to continue that this
6:02
year what else beetroot beetroot again
6:05
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
6:21
grow them in the ground start them off
6:23
in the ground and let them just
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germinate where they grew but obviously
6:27
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
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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
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as lettuce did
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fantastic they always do well as lettuce
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uh we grow the iceberg lettuce down
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here and yeah that's about everything
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that I grew this year uh fruit wise
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strawberries did absolutely rubbish I
7:20
planted 200 plants this year from
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Runners so hopefully we get some good
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crops next year down on the allotment as
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blackberries this formless blackberries
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absolutely amazing it's growing so well
7:34
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
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off as well we're going to grow some
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chilies this year and one of the next
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projects is to tidy out all my poly
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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
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year next year as flowers as flowers did
8:34
absolutely amazing we grew some poppies
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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
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of poppular is so look forward to seeing
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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
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absolutely phenomenal they were black
9:21
current type one which smell a black
9:23
currents and that was absolutely
9:26
beautiful so I've took lot of cuttings
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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
9:40
next year in springtime and hopefully
9:43
have a lot more Salvia down at the
9:45
alotment we grew lots of fuches sweet
9:48
peas did amazing as well we got some
9:50
great sweet peas off but this year I've
9:54
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
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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
10:40
will survive and you can plant them out
10:42
again next year and have save money and
10:47
plant them and have beautiful color
10:49
again so again they're currently alive
10:51
in this shed at the moment but yeah I'm
10:54
trying lots of different flowers for
10:55
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
11:08
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
11:15
Greenhouse or a heated shed it's just
11:18
got the natural elements so hopefully
11:19
they stay alive throughout the winter
11:21
period fingers crossed it doesn't get
11:23
too cold and they survive so hopefully
11:26
next year we'll have lots more color
11:28
down here and again sunflowers
11:31
absolutely amazing but again next year
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we're going to try lots of different
11:35
varieties of
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sunflowers so hopefully next year we're
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going to have a
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fantastic range of
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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
11:54
plot and without the bees you don't get
11:57
pollination so the more bees that you
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get to your alotment and to your garden
12:01
The More Produce you will get so
12:05
encourage them by planting flowers on
12:07
your alotment and in your garden and you
12:09
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
12:34
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
12:42
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
#Home & Garden
#Home Improvement