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This video explains how to decide what to grow and how to plan a successful planting season.
The guide covers choosing crops, planning space, organising sowing schedules, improving soil and setting realistic goals. It also explains how good planning improves harvests and makes gardening easier to manage.
If you want a productive growing season, these simple practical tips will help you plan your garden with confidence.
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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 everyone and welcome back to
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gardening with Ben it's Wednesday
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already halfway through the week and
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we're nearly getting towards that big
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bird watch weekend I'm excited for it
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I'm definitely looking forward to it
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fingers crossed we get lots and lots of
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birds down at our lotman at the weekend
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but that will be talked about in
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tomorrow's episode we're going to talk
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about the big word watch tomorrow's
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episode so make sure you come back for
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tomorrow's episode to listen in on that
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one today we're going to talk about what
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our seed goals are this year what our
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plant goals what we're hoping to grow
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what we're hoping to gain from our
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allotment this year down at the
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allotment and what I'm going to put put
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into it and hopefully what I will return
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out of it so this year we're going to
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concentrate on growing all the usual
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things which I always grow which are
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sweet corn peas iceberg lettuce
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beetroot spring onions Runa beans peas
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if I've not said peas already tomato
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cucumbers so those are the main ones
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what we got be gr oh and potatoes and
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garlic and onions so those are the main
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ones which we're going to grow all the
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usual staple vegetables which you grow
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down at your
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allotment and I'm going to concentrate
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on trying some new things as well this
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year we're going to try some new
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varieties of produce we'll look for some
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different varieties unusual varieties of
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vegetables we're going to try lots of
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different types of pumpkins possibly
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different types of squash different
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varieties of C jetes so that we can see
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which ones do the best and hopefully try
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and grow them ones year after year I'm
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also going to try and grow a huge
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pumpkin this year now I've never
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actually focused on growing a massive
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pumpkin I've just let them grow and let
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the rain water them as and when and I
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get a decent size one just the smallest
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one just a size for me but I want to try
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and grow a big one this year and when
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you try and grow a big one you just have
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to focus on one or two growing on the
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plant rather than having multiple
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growing on it because the more pumpkins
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you have growing on the plant the less
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chance of it being a big one you will
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get because it's putting its energy into
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growing them all and obviously if we're
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growing a big pumpkin we'll have to feed
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it regularly we'll have to water it
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every other day main sometimes every day
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if it's hot so hopefully we'll get a
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decent Siz pumpkin so I'm looking
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forward to trying that this year down at
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the allotment we're also like I said
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we're going to try different varieties
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of squash cuz there's plenty of
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different varieties out there there's
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butternut squash there's trombone I
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think it's called There's
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um K I can't remember the name of it but
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yeah there's plenty of varieties out
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there there's a Turkish one as well so
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there's lots of different varieties of
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squash out there to grow and now that
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I've got my proper cook I've got my
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cooker top I've got my air fryer I can
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try and cook some different recipes so
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that is what I want to try and do try
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and grow some fresh stuff to eat this
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year and hopefully get some fantastic
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crops from and I've mentioned it before
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that I'm hoping to get a a soup maker
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this year so that I can make my own
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soups as well so I want to try that I'm
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going to try and grow leaks I've never
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actually focused on growing leaks I read
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them in the ground but I've not bothered
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with them I've just left them after a
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bit and I couldn't be bothered with them
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but I'm going to try and grow some leaks
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this year so that we can have some leak
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and potato soup which would be nice
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we're going to try and grow some
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possibly different colored beetroots
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different colored carrots different
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colored radishes cuz there's loads of
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different colors of vegetables out there
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they don't necessarily just come as your
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standard vegetable color as obviously
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you won't know about them because they
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won't sell different color in the
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supermarket they'll only sell sell the
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standard variety because people won't
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buy them if you saw a black radish or
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a purple cauliflower which there is a
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purple cauliflower out there which have
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grown many of times which does really
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well so people won't possibly buy them
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so you can actually buy these seeds and
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just be careful away buy them for if you
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saw some on Amazon or Ebay that look
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Dodge you don't necessarily buy them or
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always buy them from a repal place as
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long as you know that they're real or a
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proper
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company and you'll know that they're
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actually real seeds and you not being
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con so we're going to try and grow lots
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of different varieties out there we're
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also going to focus on growing lots of
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different varieties of flowers this year
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as I'm getting so well into growing
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flowers I absolutely love it now and we
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have got absolutely loads of different
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varieties of poppies we' bought about 15
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varieties I literally just went on
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Amazon and clicked every variety of
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Poppy and ordered it I'm not going to
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sew the seed straight into the ground as
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knowing me I'll dig them up thinking
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that they're weeds and stuff like that
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not that I weed
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often but knowing me I'll probably dig
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them up so I'm going to start them all
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off in seed tray so that I know what
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varieties I want and plant them out
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where I want them to grow and obviously
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once they've grown and the seed heads
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are on the top they'll burst and they'll
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land the seeds in the beds and they will
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come back year after year and hopefully
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get more puppies growing we're going to
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grow different varieties of sweet peas
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as well I've looked Amazon at them
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there's loads of different varieties of
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sweet peas we're also going to grow
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different varieties of sunflower you get
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your normal yellow ones or your uh
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extremely tall ones which are the
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Russian ones but there's like red
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varieties there's a black variety of
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sunflower there's a teddy bear sunflower
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which is all fluffy and looks fantastic
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so there's lots of different Vari is out
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there so we're going to try and grow
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some different varieties of flowers down
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at the alotment I just want it to be
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bright colorful attractive have all my
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borders filled with flowers and make it
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look absolutely gorgeous and I'm going
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to the gardeners world live again this
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year we've got us tickets booked for
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that we'll be going on the
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Saturday and I'm going to buy some more
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Salvia plants this year I'm going to
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take some money for a lot more varieties
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of salvia because we purchased three
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last year and the best one was the black
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Cur smelling one which absolutely
7:35
gorgeous I took loads of cuttings off
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that so hopefully we'll get some more
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salv plants growing next year down at
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the allotment fingers crossed and I'm so
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looking forward to this year down at the
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plot it's going to be absolutely
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astonishing like I said I'm only there
7:50
twice a week now not like I used to be
7:53
like 4 on four off with my old job where
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I could spend four days down there but
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we're going to try and focus and get it
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all done within two days every weekend
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and get as much done as possible so I
8:04
hope that you're looking forward to this
8:06
journey if you're new to these podcasts
8:08
because I'm getting 500 new followers a
8:10
day on Facebook at the moment it's
8:12
absolutely amazing one of my posts gone
8:15
viral and I'm getting absolutely loads
8:17
of followers from it so thank you if
8:19
you're new to this podcast and thank you
8:21
for following me I do love the community
8:24
that we built up and hopefully it will
8:26
continue to grow so tomorrow we'll be
8:29
back with our big bird watch podcast
8:33
where we're talking about what we're
8:34
going to do for the birds this year and
8:37
I hope that you're all going to try and
8:38
get involved even if it's just popping
8:40
out and getting some bird
8:42
seed but yeah we will see you all
8:45
tomorrow so until next time everyone
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remember keep smiling keep shining and
8:50
keep gardening with Ben
8:55
everyone Thanks for tuning in to today's
8:58
episode of gardening with Ben I hope
9:01
you've enjoyed our chat and picked up
9:03
some tips to help your garden and
9:06
allotment Thrive don't forget to stay
9:08
connected with me on all social media
9:11
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9:14
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9:16
you can find me on Facebook Instagram
9:19
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Ben hit that follow button or subscribe
9:24
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9:26
Guardian lovers until next time every
9:29
want remember keep smiling keep shining
9:32
and keep gardening with Ben
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