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This video explains the important gardening jobs to focus on at the start of the growing season and how to prepare your garden for planting.
The guide covers soil preparation, early sowing, checking supports, pruning, organising planting areas and protecting young plants from changing weather conditions. It also explains how early preparation helps plants establish quickly and grow more successfully.
If you want a productive start to the growing season, these simple practical tips will help you stay organised and ready for planting.
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hello and welcome to gardening with
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Ben's awardwinning podcast as voted by
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grow your own magazine and by my
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followers and listeners so if you're new
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to the podcast make sure you click that
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subscribe button to stay up to date with
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all our podcasts listen back to all our
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previous episodes sit back grab a brew
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and let's enjoy today's episode hello
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and welcome back to gardening with Ben
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for a new episode today well today it's
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Saturday and wow it's certainly been a
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different change of day compared to
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yesterday yesterday were absolutely
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awful down at the alotment it were
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raining it were miserable it were cold
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it were wet it was just awful awful
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awful awful yesterday down at the
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alotment but today it's been a decent
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day it's been coolish but I've had two
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hoodies on and it's kept me warm and the
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other thing is I've kept busy so that's
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a good sign and that keeps you warm most
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definitely well first off I've had a
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nice message from one of the people that
1:09
listen on my podcasts uh they were just
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saying how much they've been binge
1:13
listening to the podcast and how much
1:15
they've enjoyed it so thank you for that
1:17
message and also they did laugh at the
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comment about me talking about my plot
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neighbor tasting my
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plums it still made me laugh that one so
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yeah
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um today has been one of the busiest
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days that I've spent down on the
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allotment and if you don't follow me on
1:38
YouTube make sure you check it out
1:40
gardening with Ben on YouTube and you'll
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be able to see my allotment video from
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today I'm going to start sharing
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allotment videos of what I'm getting up
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to down at the plot so that people can
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see in person exactly what I'm doing to
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be honest because it's okay talking
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about it on the podcast but people do
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like visual as well a lot of the times
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so make sure you go and check that out
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that's been uploaded just now and it's
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about 8 minutes long so it's not
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massively long and you can just see what
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I've been getting up to down at the plot
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and how it's all progressing but today
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has been very very busy I got there for
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about half n and I left about
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2:00 um and there's still loads loads
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more to do uh as I've mentioned I
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managed to dig over all my beds in March
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that was my March's task to do
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and I mean February I'm losing track of
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months
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now but my jobs for March is to do all
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the maintenance on the plot which means
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rebuilding beds tidying them up making
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any repairs to fencing and just getting
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it all back in ship shape looking good
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ready for April because in April it's
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going to be a month of painting now I
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don't think it'll take a full month to
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paint but I do absolutely hate painting
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them uh but hopefully we can get it all
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painted and get it all looking good but
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the more things I build out of wood the
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more it will need
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painting but you never know we'll
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hopefully get it all sorted come May
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time when I'm starting to plant stuff
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outside once the frost is gone um I've
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set myself these tasks so that it's all
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manageable jobs to do and I'm not
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pushing myself to much in getting stuff
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done and what we have been up to today
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we have been first off we repaired my
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poly tunnel as I've mentioned it had a
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massive split down the side of it and
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splits tend to appear on polyon where
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they originally folded it because it's a
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lot weaker and it will easily split on
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them lines on them creases where they
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folded it so it was a case of having to
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order some poly tunnel tape which set me
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back about
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$7.99 which isn't bad compared to a new
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poly tunnel cover uh so I ordered some
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of that and the reason why I go for the
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polyl tape is because it's waterproof
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it's strong it lasts and it does its job
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just don't use any
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normal Cellar tape or brown tape or duct
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tape use the proper poly tonel tape and
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it will last you a couple of years at
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least season so at least um it will hold
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the poly tunnels strong together for the
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year to come and hopefully for a few
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more years and you never know we might
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buy a new poonal cover next year we'll
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see we'll see if it holds uh while ever
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I can save money and not having to
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repare playet the better really because
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they do set you back a lot of money and
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admittedly yeah I've had this one 10 to
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12 years so it's done a fantastic FC job
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it's last I can't believe how long it's
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lasted to be honest every single year I
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I say to myself I'm going to have to end
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up replacing it soon it's going to come
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off uh it's going to rip or something
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like that and it's lasted
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everything
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longer but yeah it's going to last
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another year at least uh so we'll get
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another year out of it and hopefully
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I'll be growing absolutely Lo in there
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I've just had delivery today of some
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watermelon seeds
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and yesterday I had some canteloup seeds
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delivered so I'm going to be doing a lot
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of melons this year so make sure you
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stay tuned to my YouTube videos because
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I will be documenting it and showing how
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well they get on and hopefully you'll be
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able to see how well the Watermelons
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grew whether we'll get some on it that's
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another question but we'll give it a
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good try and a good shot and see how it
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gets
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on so what else have we been up to well
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we we did the polyl cover first and then
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I planted my Victoria plum trees I had a
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look at the trees and they've been
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soaking for 48 hours in a bucket of
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water because they've been stood in the
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supermarket for months now and they'
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reduced them from £7 to
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266 so I couldn't resist a bargain I am
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one person that cannot resist the
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bargains if I see one I will buy
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it however many I've got on my plot I
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will still buy new stuff all the time
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I'm dangerous I really am uh but we've
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got two new Victoria plum trees planted
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I've got one Victoria plum tree already
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and it does absolutely fantastic it's
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been in 16 years now and it just the
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amount of food I got off it last year
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was unbelievable I really cannot believe
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how much how many plums I got off it and
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so yeah I thought I'd invest in a couple
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more and obviously buying too helps with
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pollination and stuff like that so it
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really does help and I'd bought four two
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for my neighbor and two for me so I've
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planted them two today on the plot I'm
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going to be giving them a good drink of
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water over the year to come so that they
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do take root really well and that they
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settle into the ground I just have to
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make sure they grow straight because a
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couple of my trees I've done in the past
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they've not grown
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straight but they're still standing and
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they're still will get fruit on them so
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that's the main thing so we've got them
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to do what we've done and after that I
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then planted my longer Sera on my plot
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which again had been soaking for 48
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hours these had been reduced to 90 P
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instead
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of2 and I thought I don't know if
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they'll grow or not it's worth a try
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again they've been sat in these plastic
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bags in a box uh so they've not had any
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water for the last few weeks so whether
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they're alive or not is another question
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but we've had them to soak for 48 hours
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and I did have a look at them today
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before I planted them and they had got
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little green shoots on them so that is a
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good sign that they are still alive and
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they're still growing so hopefully they
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will take rout and start growing on my
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allotment because the longest area that
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I've purchased it's a nice pink color so
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it will look absolutely beautiful on a
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plot and add some fantastic color to it
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and hopefully attract the bees because
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that is my vision this year to have so
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many bees on my plot I I just want the
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bees to be living on my allotment and
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say no we're not going to anybody else's
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plot we're going to gardening with
8:46
Benz but yeah we got all them planted
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then we went on to starting a new flower
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bed now this is a new flower bed in
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front of my shed which I've never grown
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any anything there before but I want to
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make the most of the space I've got and
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get as much out of it as possible on the
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allotment and make make use of the space
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it's okay having this black membrane
9:12
down to stop the weeds but if you're not
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going to grow anything in it it can be a
9:16
bit disappointed really so I'm trying to
9:18
make use of a lot more space and grow a
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lot more things on my plot so we've
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planted another hundred summer bulbs
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uh the same packet as what I planted the
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other day I purchased two packets of
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them so I've planted 100 bulbs in this
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flower bed I will still be planting
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other flowers in there I just wanted to
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put the summer bulbs in today so that
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they're in the ground and ready and then
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I've put a big fresh layer of compost on
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top filled all this flower bed up with
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compost and giving it a new lease of
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life to be honest so in the entrance of
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my plot it's going to look absolutely
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fantastic once it's all flowering and
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once it's all growing it's going to look
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unbelievable uh I just can't wait for
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that day and I'm just hoping Mr squirrel
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doesn't go and pinch them all or Mr rat
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yes I've seen a massive rat on my plot
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today absolutely massive um but
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hopefully he won't do too much damage he
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did some damage last year um he was
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digging all over the place and creating
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holes and bringing all the soil into my
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polyol and compost into my shed it did
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cause a big mess um but hopefully he
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stops making a mess this year but we'll
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see we might have to catch
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him but yeah we've done that and then
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now that I've done that um I've been
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busy starting all my maintenance work on
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my plot and by maintenance I mean I've
11:01
got some raised beds what was starting
11:03
to rot what the wood had had enough and
11:07
it's certainly not um going very well so
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I've I got delivered a massive load of
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wood last year from one of my followers
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and he gave me so much wood and one of
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these people that if somebody says that
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they've got wood I will take it
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literally uh I definitely like to
11:27
collect wood on my allotment
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and I I do make use of it I'm definitely
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making use of it I don't waste it
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whatsoever um it's something that always
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comes in handy and it gave me a load of
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decking and obviously I've been making
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all my shelv in on my plot uh in my shed
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and everything out of all this wood and
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also I've started I've used some of that
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to repair my raise beds and then all the
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offcuts I've started putting down the
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sides of my plot I've got my borders but
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I then I've got no wood between
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separating my plot to my neighbor's plot
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so I've started creating edging out of
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all that and as I get more I'll continue
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and finish off down all of the plot and
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hopefully that will make it look nicer
12:18
and again it will all need painting I'll
12:20
have to keep it all painted but as it
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will last a few years and then as it
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rots away then I can replace it and etc
12:28
etc people are always giving wood away
12:31
so there's always plenty to replace it
12:33
with so I've got quite a lot of stuff to
12:36
do
12:38
and I've managed to do all the entrance
12:41
to my plot I've done all the edging
12:44
around there and next up tomorrow will
12:47
be sorting out maintenance in my rubar
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patch I'm going to be giving them a nice
12:53
feed in the morning and then I've got to
12:57
sort out all the edging down around my
13:00
rhubarb and it's just had black membrane
13:03
down for the last few years I've never
13:04
grown anything between mine and my
13:07
neighbors plot I've got some summer Ras
13:09
uh Autumn raspberries but they're on my
13:11
entrance but I've got nothing in the
13:13
middle of my plot so I'm going to look
13:15
at putting flowers in there as well I'm
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trying to make use of every little bit
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of space and make as much use of it as
13:23
possible so this year is going to be one
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hell of a year I've put so much effort
13:30
into the work done on my plot this year
13:32
hopefully next winter I can just sit
13:34
back and
13:36
hibernate but we'll see there's always
13:38
stuff to do on the allotment uh but the
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more building stuff that I do this year
13:44
the less I'll have to do next year
13:46
because it'll all be done and all be
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completed and it'll be a case of just
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ticking it over every single year and
13:53
doing any repairs that I needed to be
13:55
done but I'm really am enjoying it down
13:58
at plot this year and obviously I can
14:02
spend a lot of time down at the alotment
14:04
I work four shifts on four shifts off so
14:07
I get 4 days down at the allotment and
14:11
at the moment I'm getting down there for
14:12
about half n but as the days get earlier
14:16
and lighter I'll be down there when it
14:19
gets warmer at half 6 in the morning um
14:22
and I'll be down there until dinner time
14:24
and still at least so I'll be spending
14:26
longer down there I prefer to go early
14:28
in morning and then relax for the rest
14:31
of the day so yeah there's so much that
14:35
we have got to do down there but I'm on
14:38
track I've still got all my seeds to
14:40
plant but I don't start them Towing
14:43
until end of March middle of March
14:45
because it's a lot colder up north
14:47
obviously so I'm a bit behind people
14:50
down south so we've got all that to do
14:53
and that should take a few days to do to
14:56
sew all my seeds but once we've got all
14:58
them sewn again then we can get back to
15:00
doing the work on the plot and getting
15:02
it all ready and before all them start
15:05
growing and I'll have to pop them all up
15:07
and everything but we're on track it's
15:09
I'm pleased with how it's all coming
15:11
along and it's encouragement I get from
15:14
the followers that makes me do it and I
15:16
just love sharing my story with
15:18
everybody and I'm pleased that so many
15:21
people are enjoying it because it does
15:23
make me smile the messages I do receive
15:25
from people like I said at the beginning
15:27
of the podcast somebody had messaged me
15:29
to say how much they' enjoyed it and how
15:31
much they were binge listening to them
15:32
all uh there's certainly a lot of
15:34
episodes to binge Listen to If you are
15:36
new to the podcast but make sure you do
15:39
click that subscribe button to stay up
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15:43
get notified as well when a new podcast
15:45
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15:46
uploaded so we'll keep these going and
15:50
yeah make sure you do check out my
15:52
YouTube videos uh if you're not
15:54
following me on YouTube check out
15:56
gardening with Ben and you'll be able to
15:59
listen watch all my YouTube videos as
16:01
well as well as listening to my podcasts
16:03
and you'll be able to see my face rather
16:05
than just hear my
16:06
voice looky you but yeah I hope you all
16:10
have a fantastic weekend make the most
16:13
of this weather as much as possible
16:15
while it is nice again like we said I've
16:18
not we've not had a bad winter yes we've
16:20
had the wind but we've not had the snow
16:23
which it can be for weeks uh and stop
16:27
you from doing work for weeks so make
16:29
the most of this weather who knows what
16:31
March is going to bring it could bring
16:33
snow later on in the month but yeah make
16:35
the most of it and get them jobs done
16:37
out in the garden and the alotment now
16:40
is the time to be preparing ready for
16:42
Springtime so I hope you have a good one
16:45
as always remember keep smiling keep
16:48
gardening and keep listening to
16:49
gardening with Ben's podcasts so thank
16:53
you for listening to today's episode of
16:55
gardening with Ben we hope that you've
16:57
enjoyed this episode
16:59
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17:21
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