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Growing flowers at the allotment and garden
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Nov 13, 2024
🌼 Growing Flowers at the Allotment and Garden! It’s not just about the veg — flowers bring beauty, biodiversity, and joy to the plot! 🌻🐝 In this episode, I share why I grow flowers alongside crops, the best varieties for cutting and pollinators, and how to make your allotment bloom with colour and purpose. What flowers are you growing this season? #FlowerPower #AllotmentFlowers #GrowYourOwn #GardeningPodcast #UKGardener #PollinatorGarden #AllotmentBeauty
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0:00
hello and welcome to gardening with
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and let's enjoy today's
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episode hello everyone and welcome back
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to gardening with then well it's
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Wednesday we're halfway through the week
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which means it's nearly time to get back
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to the allotment and I can't say fast
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enough roll on the weekend because I
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can't wait to be back down in my
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allotment and wow what a week it has
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been so far I've obviously hit 10,000
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followers on Instagram so you got that
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bonus episode last night uh two episodes
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in one day so once again thank you for
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all those that do support me and that
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have subscribed to this podcast and
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listen to it on a regular basis it does
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mean the world to me and everything that
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I get from the ads goes back in towards
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my allotment and being able to share
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more tips and advice with you all and
1:16
sharing what I get up to so thanks for
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those that are loyal supporters and that
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have subscribed to it and yeah and
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thanks for those that do message me
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about the episodes it's great to hear
1:26
from you all and that you enjoy
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listening to them
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so what are we up to at the moment well
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obviously I'm on night shifts at the
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moment so I'm not getting down to the
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allotment but I am getting planning on
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what I'm doing at the weekend and stuff
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like
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that so when it comes to this time of
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year it's great to start thinking about
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what flowers you want to grow on your
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alotment because flowers are the one key
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thing that bring the
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pollinators to your plot and to help you
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get more produce and I've been going on
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about that for quite a while now that
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obviously growing flowers encourages the
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Beast to the allotment and you will get
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more produce from it and that is one key
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thing that I've learned over the years
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and I'm always looking at new things to
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try growing on the allotment and
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different flowers and stuff like that
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and growing flowers is obviously a
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fantastic part of it as well because
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when you when you've got an allotment
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and you're just growing fruit and veg it
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can just be completely green because
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there's not much color in it and all you
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get is just a few flowers what form them
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thing but it's mainly just a green color
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so adding flowers to your allotment can
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improve the color and the look of it and
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make it really really nice and that is
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what I'm doing mainly this year and
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hopefully over the years to come as we
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learn more about different flowers that
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we can grow on the
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allotment so what flowers are good
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flowers to try and grow if you're a new
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way that is a good question because
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you've all got to start somewhere and I
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tend to want to B grow all the flowers
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from seed if possible uh if I do spot
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Bargains in shops of plants I will buy
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them and plant them because I'm trying
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to get as many perennials as possible so
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that I don't have to grow as many
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flowers further down the line obviously
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I'll still still be growing them but I
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won't have to grow as many as I get more
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perennials to fill the gaps in and keep
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growing really because the perennials
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come back year after year whereas a lot
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of the ones that you grow from seed will
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just be annuals and they'll just grow
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for the year and need replacing the year
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after so some fantastic flowers to try
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and grow are obviously sweet peas which
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I've talked about quite a lot in these
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podcasts and they are one of the best
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flowers that you can grow and they don't
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take up much room whatsoever you just
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need something to for them to grow up
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against and you can be getting blooms
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all the way through Summer and the more
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you pick them the more flowers you will
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get on them and your friends and family
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will love you love here because you'll
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be picking them literally every single
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day cuz they produce that many flowers
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on them and you can get a fantastic
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return from the seeds that you purchase
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some seeds can be quite expensive for
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sweet peas but you can pick up some
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bargain ones as well so have a look
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around and see what seeds you want to
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buy next up is sunflowers now sunflowers
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are something that I've grown from a kid
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really I've always been into growing
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sunflowers for the joy of just seeing
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how tall you can grow your sunflower and
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with the right care and attention you
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can get a massive sunflower going up 12
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to 14 foot depending on how much you
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actually look after it and it's all it's
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enjoyment it's one that you can grow
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with the kids if you've got children or
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the grandchildren uh I've not got no
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kids so I'm just growing it for the fun
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of myself really uh which is always fun
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and it it's great to see the color that
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you get from the sunflower
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and I've purchased 1,800 sunflower seeds
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it's a mixed sunflower pack uh for this
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year I purchased one last year and we
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got some fantastic looking sunflowers in
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them uh so I've purchased one again this
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year so hopefully we can get a massive
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array of sunflowers down at the
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allotment this year to show off and for
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you to enjoy uh in all the photos that
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I'll be sharing of it uh but yeah
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another good thing with sunflowers is
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that they produce fantastic canes as
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well uh once you let them dry out and
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die off they'll become lock hard the
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stalks and you can use them for canes
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the year after if need to be uh say if
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you're having to buy canes so the more
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sunflowers you grow the more canes you
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will have for the allotment and you can
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use them that way as well so there's
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always benefits in growing
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sunflowers another good flour that I've
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learned how to grow is geraniums now
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geraniums are quite expensive to buy
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from the shops uh for the amount that
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you get in a pack of like six or
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something and they actually really
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really easy to grow um you don't get
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many seeds in a packet uh but they are
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fantastic and easy to grow and I've had
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success year after year with geraniums I
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really can't believe it now you can get
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just set colors or you can get a mixed
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bag uh depending on what you purchase
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but all I'll be doing is sewing my seed
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now and they will be flowering from like
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August to October and I've dug all my
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geraniums up what I planted last year
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and I've put them in pots and put them
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in the shed and they flowered all the
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way through winter they're still
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flowering to this day um my plot
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neighbor keeps telling me that I need to
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cut off these flower heads or they won't
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shoot out at the bottom so I need to
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listen to him soon and cut the flowers
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off and let them start growing from the
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bottom to Bush out a bit better but yeah
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I really can't bear to cut them flowers
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off because they're brightening up my
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shed at the moment and it's absolutely
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fantastic to see so I do love geraniums
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and they don't take much care and
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attention whatsoever you just snip the
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top off once the flowers have died and
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it'll
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encourage to grow so if you've not tried
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gr geraniums before go out and get a
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packet and give them a try they are
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really really easy to
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grow now another good flower that I do
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grow on my allotment which does bring
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fantastic colors every time I grow or
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kalunda and I can never say that word
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right I don't know if I'm saying it
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right to you uh but they you get so many
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seeds in a packet for that one for the
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price and they're extremely cheap and
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the best thing about them is that they
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just flow after flower after flower all
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the way through Summer and Autumn and it
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can add so much nice color to the plot
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and the bees absolutely love them and
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the best thing about kalunda is that if
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you forget to chop the heads off once
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they've died they'll go to seed and they
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just set the seeds out everywhere they
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fire the seeds off everywhere and some
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allotment people say they're worse than
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weed because they just set the seeds all
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over the place but I don't care if this
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flowers growing all over my plot I
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really don't care because it's
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attracting the bees and it's free
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flowers
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as well so that is one fantastic flower
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to grow and I'll certainly be growing
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some more this year if not there'll be
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plenty popping up around the plot from
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last year uh you can never get the ball
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out but yeah one fantastic flower to
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grow that is so I'll be growing some of
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them and then there is I'm growing
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gladiol eyes as well this year gladiol
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eyes uh I purchased I think it was 100
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bul 100 corns should I say they're not
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called bulbs they're call corns glad
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eyes 100 corns for 9 and they mixed bags
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so all different colors and the thing is
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with gladiol is you can plant the corns
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now and they'll be flowering towards
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July August
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time and you can use them obviously for
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vasas and stuff like that but you learn
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to yet one flow on the corn so it's up
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to you if you cut them off on I
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certainly won't be cutting them off
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um but they do stand proud in the uh
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borders of your plot uh they look
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absolutely fantastic and the color that
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comes from them as well and I asked my
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followers about cuz I'd read that you
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meant to dig the corns up and store them
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in a shed and then replant them the year
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after but I asked my followers what they
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they do and a lot of people just tend to
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leave them in the ground and they come
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year after year uh they just need to be
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deep enough so that they don't get
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affected by the frost and kill them off
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uh but yeah gladi eyes are one of the
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best things that you can grow on the
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plot so yeah those are some of the
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flowers what you can try and grow and
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have success with let me know if it's
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your first year in growing flowers I
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always love to hear what everybody else
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is doing and if I've encouraged you to
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grow flowers let me know because I do
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get enjoyment out of encouraging other
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people to do stuff as well so I hope
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that you have a f fantastic
11:00
Wednesday the weekend is nearly here uh
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it's fast approaching thankfully and
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hopefully this nice weather will
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continue and hopefully I'm still hoping
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for that heat wave in March so hopefully
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we get one of those as well too so until
11:17
next time remember keep smiling keep
11:20
gardening and keep listening to
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