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This video explains essential winter gardening jobs and simple planning tips to prepare for the growing season. Learn practical tasks such as checking soil condition, protecting plants from frost and organising planting areas.
The guide covers maintenance work, garden preparation and planning future crops to avoid common problems later in the year. These steps help gardens stay healthy through cold weather and make spring planting easier.
If you want to stay productive during winter and prepare for successful planting, this video provides practical advice suitable for gardens, raised beds and small growing spaces.
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0:00
hey everybody happy New Year and a happy
0:04
2025 so yes we're down on the allotment
0:07
so sit back relax and enjoy today's
0:10
episode
0:12
[Music]
0:18
[Music]
0:31
so yes a happy New Year and a happy
0:34
2025 we're down here on the alotment on
0:37
1 of January ready to start this season
0:40
off to a good start and hopefully a
0:43
productive one hopefully we get lots and
0:46
lots of produce this year fingers
0:48
crossed the weather's warmer than it was
0:51
last year as well cuz it wasn't too
0:52
brilliant but we did get lots of produce
0:55
as I talked about in my last video so
0:59
yeah what are our plans for this year
1:01
and what are our New Year's resolutions
1:04
will we succeed or will we fail we will
1:08
talk about the ups and downs through our
1:11
allotment throughout this year and how
1:13
well we get on down at the allotment so
1:17
my New Year's resolutions are I've not
1:19
got a C I've not got many for the
1:22
allotment but I've got a few the first
1:24
one is to be more of a tidier gardener
1:28
I'm absolutely rubbish at being tidy
1:30
when I'm gardening I'll leave stuff out
1:33
all over the place I'll not tidy up
1:35
after myself I'll leave pots and Trays
1:37
around but yeah that is one New Year's
1:40
resolution that I hope to do because
1:43
come winter time I end up tidying up
1:45
everything and I could be doing other
1:48
stuff so hopefully next year we won't be
1:50
tidying up in winter time like I am
1:53
doing this
1:55
year my next New Year's resolution is to
1:58
put
2:00
labels on all my produce that I grow I'm
2:04
a pain at just sewing my seeds putting
2:07
the seed packet underneath and then it
2:10
rains or gets wet and it disintegrates
2:13
and I don't know what's growing in what
2:15
certain stuff obviously I know what it
2:17
is like beetroot because of the purple
2:19
color but certain vegetables look the
2:21
same when they start growing like your
2:24
pumpkins and your corett they all look
2:26
the same and you don't know what they
2:28
are until they actually stop growing
2:30
produce on
2:32
them so that is my New Year's
2:35
resolutions for the allotment let me
2:38
know what your New Year's resolutions
2:40
are and whether you will have any for
2:44
this year the next up is what are we
2:48
planning on growing this year down at
2:50
the allotment what are our plans for
2:52
this year Well I'm going to stick to
2:54
everything that does really well
2:56
obviously I'll be growing my peas again
2:58
this year they fantastic I grew them in
3:01
seed trades this year and then planted
3:03
them out when they were tall enough and
3:05
they did absolutely fantastic the
3:08
best Harvest of peas I've ever had in my
3:12
years down here at the alotment
3:14
absolutely fantastic this year I'll also
3:17
be growing my sweet corn my sweet corn
3:19
always does well and obviously we have a
3:22
lot of trouble with rats and squirrels
3:24
down here so I put plastic bottles over
3:27
the ends of the cobs when they're
3:30
getting ready for harvesting stop them
3:32
from being pinched which works a tree
3:34
and we have 100% success rate with them
3:38
we never get any eaten by animals so if
3:42
you have trouble growing your sweet corn
3:44
save your plastic bottles to put over
3:46
the end of the cobs and yeah that will
3:49
protect them and you'll see how I do it
3:51
when we get on throughout the year as
3:54
we're going to be sharing lots more
3:55
videos with you this year now that we've
3:58
got this new bench we're going to be
3:59
sharing videos on a regular basis so
4:02
make sure you are following mate on here
4:04
and on YouTube and you will see how well
4:07
my videos are so we're definitely
4:11
growing a sweet con we'll grow as usual
4:14
light potatoes we grow them in boxes we
4:16
don't plant them in the ground anymore
4:18
we plant them in boxes as I have a
4:21
better success rate with them as well
4:23
they don't get attacked by um the wire
4:27
worms or slugs don't destroy them they
4:30
grow a lot better obviously it costs a
4:32
lot of money for the compost to fill
4:34
them up which is probably cheaper to buy
4:36
the potatoes from the shop but they
4:38
don't taste as nice so we'll be growing
4:40
them in boxes again this year we'll be
4:42
sewing them
4:44
on Good Friday that is a rule that we
4:48
always stick by even though Good Friday
4:49
changes every single year we will be
4:52
growing our potatoes on Good Friday it's
4:55
an old Gardener's tale what everybody
4:57
does it's to do with the moon and yeah
5:00
we always plant ours on Good
5:02
Friday we'll have our garlic growing
5:05
which is out there at the moment we'll
5:08
have onions growing as well this year
5:09
I'm going to grow some from seed and I'm
5:12
going to grow some from set to show you
5:14
which ones do better whether they grow
5:16
better from a seed or whether they grow
5:18
better from the set which is those
5:20
little bulbs that you usually get in a
5:21
bag I'm just listening to this pigeon
5:24
above me
5:25
now but yeah we will be doing that this
5:28
year we've already planted our onions
5:29
seeds I'll will be sharing the video
5:31
with you later on that so we' started
5:34
out onions off we've started as Peppers
5:36
off with and some chilies we're growing
5:38
chilies this year we're going to give
5:40
them a try and see how well they get on
5:42
hopefully we'll have our poly tunnel all
5:44
tided up soon and yeah we'll be growing
5:47
them in the poly tunel obviously I've
5:49
started my onions and my peppers and my
5:51
chilies off at home as it's warmer there
5:55
then uh peppers and chilies need the
5:58
temperature to they need about 24° so
6:01
they're on our window they need plenty
6:03
of light make sure they have plenty of
6:05
light or they'll grow Ley and they'll be
6:07
a waste of space so make sure you have
6:10
plenty of light when starting them off
6:13
and then hopefully come March April time
6:16
we will move them back down here to the
6:18
allotment where it'll be warmer fingers
6:20
crossed and then we'll continue them and
6:23
keep them
6:24
growing so we'll be doing them we'll be
6:27
growing as beeto as spring onion then do
6:29
fantastic every single year we'll also
6:32
be growing our lettuce we always grow
6:35
iceberg lettuce I've always had success
6:38
with iceberg lettuce absolutely
6:40
fantastic does really well so we'll be
6:44
growing as iceberg lettuce we'll also be
6:47
growing some melons this year we're
6:50
going to try melons again this year
6:52
caler melons I did those quite a few
6:54
years ago and I managed to get a few
6:57
produce off them so hopefully we're
6:59
going to try them again this year and
7:01
see how well we get on we might even try
7:02
a couple of watermelon and just give
7:04
them a shot you never know we might get
7:06
a hot summer and we may get some great
7:09
crops so stay tuned for them I'll also
7:13
be growing my tomatoes and my cucumbers
7:15
my tomatoes I always start them off from
7:17
seed from the supermarket and just buy a
7:20
pet of mixed Tomatoes scrape the seeds
7:23
out and put them straight into soil I
7:24
don't dry them out or anything and they
7:27
grow fantastic and I grow grow them
7:29
Outdoors now myato because I used to
7:32
goow in my polyon but we had a heat wave
7:34
one year and it was struggle to keep
7:36
them watered whereas if you grow them
7:39
outside obviously the smaller ones will
7:42
do better outside rather than the bigger
7:44
ones they'll ripen easier but they might
7:46
be a bit
7:47
tougher but we'll be doing them outside
7:50
at least there'll be plenty of water in
7:51
the ground and if it rains at least
7:53
it'll get watered as well we also group
7:57
our cucumbers outside for the first time
7:59
last year the market more variety which
8:02
is the bubbly ones we usually grow them
8:04
in the poly tunnel we had a few growing
8:07
in the poly tunel last year which got
8:08
some good crops off but I had a load of
8:11
spare plants and rather than buy a load
8:12
of more compost I thought I'll just
8:14
plant them outside and see how well they
8:15
do they did absolutely fantastic better
8:19
than the ones in the poly tunnel I had
8:21
loads of crops off them they tasted
8:23
fantastic and yeah I'm going to keep
8:26
growing them outside my cucumbers so
8:28
every year you're learning something new
8:30
when you're
8:31
growing new produce and different
8:33
varieties it's always a learning curve
8:36
when you're growing in the
8:38
alotment we'll be trying carrots again
8:41
every year we try carrots don't have
8:43
much success but hopefully we will do
8:45
this year my neighbor on his allotment
8:47
he had some big drain pipes and he
8:50
filled them with soil and he got some
8:52
fantastic huge carrots from him so I
8:55
might copy him and do that on my plot so
8:58
stay tuned for
9:00
that so yeah fruit wise we planted 200
9:04
strawberry plants at the end of last
9:06
year so hopefully they will produce a
9:08
lot of produce this you can see we're
9:10
rubbish last year my strawberries so
9:12
hopefully we'll have a lot more
9:14
strawberries next year we might protect
9:15
them better from birds and squirrels and
9:18
hopefully get some great strawberries
9:20
off we've obviously got our fruit trees
9:22
we've got us cooking apple tree as
9:24
eating apple tree and our plums our
9:26
plums last year did rubbish the plum
9:29
tree died off halfway through the year
9:31
for some reason whether it got Silver
9:33
Leaf or not I don't know but yeah it
9:36
died off it's cooking apples we got a
9:37
few on it but we given it a massive
9:39
prune the year before so I think I
9:41
stressed the tree out but we didn't give
9:43
it a prune this year so hopefully we get
9:46
some great cooking apples next year and
9:50
to go with that I rubab as rubab always
9:53
does well really really well we've had
9:55
our plants in about 16 years now and
9:57
they do absolutely fantastic so
9:59
hopefully lots of root Barb crumble and
10:02
apple crumble coming this year we've got
10:06
our forless Blackberry that does
10:09
fantastic I planted that a few years ago
10:12
it grows massive blackberries on them
10:14
better than the for blackb the wild
10:17
blackb they do absolutely fantastic so
10:19
if you're want to grow some blackberri
10:21
get some formless canes from the garden
10:24
center or from the supermarket I think I
10:26
got man for Morrison and they do
10:29
absolutely fantastic so yeah we've got
10:32
them we've got us raspberries we've got
10:34
as gooseberries we've got blueberries so
10:36
got lots of fruit growing for next year
10:38
as well well this year should I say not
10:40
next year it's this year now so we've
10:43
got them we'll also be doing lots of
10:46
flowers again this year we've already
10:47
got a sweet peas growing we started them
10:50
off early to get them stronger and we've
10:53
prune them all back so that they Bush
10:54
out the flowers won't be as big
10:57
apparently if you prune them back but
10:59
you will get more flowers on them so
11:03
hopefully we get some great sweet
11:05
peas we'll also be growing lots of
11:07
varieties of sunflowers again I did that
11:11
a few years ago and they were absolutely
11:13
beautiful last year I just grew a normal
11:15
standard sunflowers but this year we're
11:17
going to try all the different varieties
11:19
all the different colors so hopefully
11:21
we'll get some red ones and some black
11:23
sunflowers down here at the alotment
11:25
this year we're also going to try and
11:27
grow some geraniums and I've done that
11:29
in the past from seed and they did
11:31
absolutely fantastic so I need to order
11:33
all my draum seeds get them ready for
11:35
growing and hopefully like get lots of
11:38
different varieties of geraniums we also
11:40
grew some poppies as well for the first
11:42
year we didn't just sprinkle the seeds
11:44
into the ground cuz knowing me I'll just
11:46
dig them up thinking that they weeds I
11:49
grew them all in seed tray and when they
11:50
were big enough I planted them all out
11:52
and we had some nice varieties so I've
11:55
spent a load of money this year on
11:57
different varieties of poppies love
11:59
loads of varieties I just went through
12:00
Amazon and chose every variety and
12:03
hopefully we're going to get some
12:04
beautiful poppies down here this year
12:07
for you all to see we've got loads of
12:10
cuttings as Salvia which were absolutely
12:13
gorgeous last year it would smelt
12:15
beautiful it like black current flavored
12:17
one and we took loads of cuttings of
12:19
those all those have taken so we'll be
12:22
planting all those out in the springtime
12:24
to get them
12:25
growing but yeah we're going to be
12:27
trying lots of different flowers as well
12:28
this year because I always say that the
12:31
flowers encourage the bees without the
12:33
bees you won't get pollination so the
12:36
more bees that you get to your allotment
12:38
into the garden The More Produce you
12:40
will get on your fruit and vegetables
12:43
because without the bees we won't get as
12:45
fruit and flowers and vegetables so yeah
12:48
hopefully we're going to have a
12:50
fantastic year of
12:52
produce so that is what we're hoping to
12:55
plan to do this year hopefully you'll
12:58
enjoy following my Journey down here on
13:00
the allotment this year and see how well
13:02
I do I always share the good things and
13:05
the bad things because how do we learn
13:08
if we don't show the bad things and I'm
13:10
an honest Gardener I'll show you
13:12
everything so I hope you've enjoyed this
13:15
episode make sure you follow all my
13:17
YouTube and my Spotify to stay up to
13:20
date with all my videos if you're not
13:22
listening on Spotify go and search for M
13:25
gardening with Ben for new episodes on a
13:28
regular basis sharing our tips and
13:29
advice of what we're getting up to so I
13:33
hope you've enjoyed it until next time
13:34
everyone remember keep smiling keep
13:37
shining and keep guarding with P
13:38
everyone
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