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This video is all about appreciating the things we love most about our gardens. I talk about the satisfaction of growing your own food, the peace that comes from time outdoors, and the sense of achievement that builds over each season.
I also reflect on community, shared experiences, and the simple joys that keep us coming back to our growing spaces. A positive and uplifting celebration of gardening and everything it brings to our lives.
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hello and welcome to gardening with Ben
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the awardwinning gardening podcast as
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voted for by the grow your own magazine
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relax grab a brew and let's enjoy
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today's gardening podcast with
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Ben hello and welcome back to gardening
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with Ben for a brand new episode and
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guess what this week is it's National
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allotment week yes I didn't even realize
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until I checked it out when it was I
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know it's every year but I had to check
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it out and this week is National
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allotment week and wow we'll be
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celebrating all things allotments this
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week obviously this being a allotment
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and gardening podcast we will definitely
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be celebrating it and I'll also be
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celebrating it on my Facebook page and
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on my Instagram so make sure you get
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involved in the comments and get
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involved with national allotment week so
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yeah get sharing those allotment
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pictures and sharing what you enjoy most
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about it because that is what allotments
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are all about so what have we been up to
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today obviously like I say the episodes
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are later in the day when I'm off work
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because I I like to talk about what I've
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been up to at the plot and a lot of
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people like to hear and Sh uh me share
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what I've been doing down at the
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alment so we have been very busy today
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in the boiling hot heat yes it's been
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boiling hot again hotter than it was
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yesterday I think so we got down there
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possibly around half Nish today I might
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try and get down there even earlier
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tomorrow cuz I think it's going to be
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even hotter tomorrow it's certainly
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heating up now uh as you all see from my
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Instagram
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pictures but yeah it's certainly getting
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hotter
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now and obviously first thing I did was
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give it all a good water in uh yes it's
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probably a bit too late at 10:00 but
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that's the only time I can get down
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there so that's when it had a good drink
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of water and everything's surviving
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pretty well at the moment it's all
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looking Healy uh nothing seems to be
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dying off as the ground does store a lot
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of water but obviously they do like a
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good drink every soften and as all my
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strawberries have sending out the
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runners and stuff now they need the
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water to help them take rot and to
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survived to be honest so yeah we're
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giving them plenty of water and
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obviously my pumpkins need plenty of
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water as well to make them swell and get
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bigger and hopefully get a decent size
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one I I had to take one off yesterday
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one had gone a bit rotten so we took
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that one off which will encourage other
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ones to grow bigger and stronger so
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hopefully they won't rot but we'll see
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how they get on and see if they survive
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so hopefully fingers crossed we do get a
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decent Siz pumpkin this year I do like
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to give it a try every single year even
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if it's just for the fun of it and I
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don't necessarily eat it I just like to
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have a go at growing a nice big pumpkin
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so we've been doing that and then my mom
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came down to the allotment and she was
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going around and I was helping her pick
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the black bre because I picked some
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cooking apples yesterday uh and
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obviously I have have been having lots
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of apple crumble at the moment and she's
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actually took some plums home with her
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and also some more cooking apples some
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raspberries so I'm looking forward to
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that crumble coming up and I I'll be
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living on crumble for the next couple of
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months
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definitely whever the produce is coming
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I'll be living on crumble and and once
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all they've done all my cooking apples
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I'll be on to the eating apples and you
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can make crumbles with eating apples as
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well uh so yeah
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definitely and possibly pears I don't
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know I've never tried a pear crumble
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maybe that's something new but yeah um I
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I do love a good pudding uh for
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tea especially with cold custard on it's
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absolutely delicious so we've been doing
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that today and one job that I wanted to
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do is that my plum tree has really grown
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massive this year for some reason it
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seems to have shot up out of nowhere
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I've not got many plums on it this year
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cuz I had a big Harvest last year um so
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it's sort of recovering from producing
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all the Harvest last year so I wanted to
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give it a good pruning this year because
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it is getting too big and too out of
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hand we're not meant to let them grow
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too big on our allotments they meant to
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be dwarf uh trees but yeah sh so we have
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got to give it a good pruning back and
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apples pears
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and them sort of trees you can prune
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them back in Autumn wintertime plums
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cherries apricots anything that's got a
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stone in them cherries you prune them in
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July June time obviously we're in August
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now but it's not cold so we need to get
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that pruned before winter so that's what
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we're doing we're giving it a good
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pruning and yes I'm going in there and
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giving it a really good hacking back but
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every so often I do like to do that and
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it seems to come back bigger and
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stronger EV every time I've done this I
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don't know much about pruning whatsoever
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so don't ask me about pruning I know you
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meant to uh not let any branches hang
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down or cross each other and you meant
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to let the air get through the tree so
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that stuff doesn't rot and stuff like
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that and sweat but that's all I know
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about pruning I'm not a very good pruner
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I just go in there and hack it and hope
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for the
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best that's what gardening's all about
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it's about just giving it a go and
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hoping for the best and I've done that
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for the past few years with my fruit
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trees and yeah I I've cracked it every
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year I've uh I seem to get good harvest
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uh so I'm not complaining but this year
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I really do want to give my Plum Tree a
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good prune back uh I won't be expecting
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any plums on it next year possibly or
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the year after I might just get a small
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little Harvest but yeah sometimes you
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got to give to put back in
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so it's going to have a massive haircut
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it's going to have a good trim back and
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hopefully in a couple of years time
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we'll be getting a good harvest and I
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did plant two new Victoria plum trees
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this year uh obviously they're still
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small so they'll possibly take about
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four or five years to develop and get
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some fruit on them so we'll have to wait
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for them unfortunately but then we'll
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have three Victoria plum trees and
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hopefully each year I'd have a big
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Harvest off each tree but
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yeah absolutely beautiful and Brilliant
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so I'm looking forward to them so yeah
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that has been what we've been up to
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today so the topic today for National
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alotment week is I'd say what are the
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benefits of having an allotment uh what
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are the good things about having an
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allotment and getting from it well the
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best thing about me having my allotment
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is that it's somewhere for me to go I
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live in a flat on my own and I don't see
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anybody or whatsoever uh obviously being
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cooped up inside in a flat when you're
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working as well I work from home most
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days uh when I'm on shift and that's for
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like 12 hours so I don't get much
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daylight apart from being outside on the
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alotment so it's a good place to go and
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get out of the way I sometimes I don't
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even do anything down at the alotment I
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just sit there relax listen to my music
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and just enjoy being out in the open
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space look all the wildlife this year
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I've got so many bees so many
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butterflies are flying around it's so
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nice to see everything out and enjoying
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it and that's what my allotment is about
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and it's great when I go go down and I
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see my plot neighbor down there uh I
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talk to him quite a bit and all his
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family and go and say hello to the other
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plot holders and it's funny because
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sometimes when I don't go down to the
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alotment my plot neighbor won't go down
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to his alotment uh so it encourages him
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to go down as well if I don't go down he
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doesn't go down um but yeah it's good to
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see him come down as well and enjoy it
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and I try to encourage him as well for
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to work through the winter and I'll be
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doing that again this year to encourage
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him uh to get through with the winter
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because he's got quite a few tasks he
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wants to do as winter projects
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and before like I used to say I used to
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hibernate over winter I didn't used to
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go down to the alotment whatsoever
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during the the winter months I just used
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to leave it and start again in February
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but obviously the main benefit from the
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allotment is the fresh produce yes I
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don't eat it all yes I give quite a bit
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of it away but it's great to get
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fantastic produce from out of the
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allotment and especially at the moment
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if I could just grow fruit all over my
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allotment I would do but you're not
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allowed to just grow fruit you meant to
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grow a mixture of
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everything but the fruit I'm getting at
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the moment the blackberries The
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Raspberries the plums the apples and the
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pen will be ready in September possibly
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October time uh I've had strawberries um
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but yeah the fruit is just phenomenal
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and I could just live on that and yeah
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my allotment costs me about 80 a year uh
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with water
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included but I definitely get monies
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back from the amount of food that I get
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from the plot and all the crumbles I get
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from it as well all the
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puddings as uh crumbles aren't expensive
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to make all you need to do is make the
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crumbl on top and that certainly doesn't
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cost much whatsoever not unless you're
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using L
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pack but yeah
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definitely um it it brings me so much
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joy and the more I'm there the more that
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I enjoy it and the community of people
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that I've met during my blogging my live
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streams my Instagram posts from the
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gardening Community it's absolutely
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fantastic I absolutely love it and I
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wouldn't change it for the world from
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just starting that allotment blog like
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so many years ago to where it is now
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with over 20,000 people following me on
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Facebook 10,000 on Instagram uh a couple
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of thousand on Tik
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Tok uh but yeah uh where I am now it's
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absolutely brilliant so thank you for
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those that do support me and and do
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enjoy everything that I do I had a nice
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message today from somebody who likes
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seeing all my Instagram posts I had
11:06
somebody the other day message me about
11:07
my podcast about how much they enjoy
11:10
them and how much they love listening to
11:13
it even if it's my broad yor accent
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which I don't think I've got a broad
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yorra accent let me know if you think
11:19
that I've got a very broad yor accent
11:21
somebody said that at work the other day
11:23
they said I'm the most yoria person in
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our office but I really don't think so
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so let me know if I do come across as a
11:31
broad Yorkshire person obviously if
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you're are not from uh Yorkshire uh
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you'll have seen Yorkshire films and
11:38
stuff with Shawn Bean in and stuff like
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that so let me know that's how claim to
11:43
fame Shawn Bean in Sheffield I have met
11:46
him a few times I used to knock around
11:47
with his nephew but yeah definitely um
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this is the best thing that I've done
11:55
and hopefully I will continue doing this
11:58
podcast and all my blog
11:59
until the end of life um I'm hoping that
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my allotment will keep going until I am
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a pensioner until I can retire and enjoy
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it even more and Technology might be a
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lot different then you might be virtual
12:13
guests on my allotment and be there with
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me standing there watching me talk uh
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rather than over a phone who knows what
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technology will be like then and how
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I'll put things across podcast might not
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even be around then so yeah thank you so
12:30
much everybody I hope you enjoy National
12:32
allotment week and make sure you do
12:35
encourage people to get allotments make
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sure you do encourage people to Garden
12:39
make sure you do encourage people to
12:41
grow their own fruit and vegetables and
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get involved in growing especially
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children get them started while they're
12:47
young let them taste the benefits of
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growing produce and let them enjoy it as
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well and they'll grow up and when they
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get older they'll want to do their own
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growing the veg and that is how I
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started my allotment so until tomorrow's
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episode remember keep smiling keep
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gardening and keep listening to
13:07
gardening with Ben's
13:09
podcast thank you for listening to
13:11
today's gardening with Ben's podcast I
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hope that You' enjoyed it if you haven't
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subscribed to this Channel please do
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click that subscribe button and feel
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13:31
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13:33
build my listeners up as well and get
13:35
more people listening to it feel free to
13:37
check out all my social medias Facebook
13:40
Instagram YouTube and Tik Tok yes I'm on
13:44
Tik Tok go check it out check out my
13:47
dancing gardening with Ben and check out
13:51
the link as well in the description of
13:53
this podcast where you can check out my
13:55
gardening T-shirt shop where I sell
13:57
funny t-shirts with all different funny
14:00
logos and designs on and feel free to
14:03
support me by purchasing one and all the
14:06
money obviously goes back into my
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allotment where I can share more
14:10
gardening tips with you all so until
14:12
next time remember keep smiling keep
14:15
gardening and keep listening to
14:17
gardening with Ben's podcasts
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