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Saturday on the Allotment in March | Spring Garden Jobs & Updates
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Nov 13, 2024
🧤 Saturday on the Allotment Garden in March! It’s the weekend — and the perfect time to crack on with key spring jobs! 🌿☀️ In this March Saturday diary entry, I share what I got up to on the allotment — from seed sowing and bed prep to a bit of tidying and planning. There’s no better way to spend a weekend than with your hands in the soil! How are you making the most of your March Saturdays in the garden? #AllotmentSaturday #MarchGardening #GrowYourOwn #WeekendOnThePlot #AllotmentLife #GardeningWithBen #UKGardener
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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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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
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listen on my podcasts uh they were just
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saying how much they've been binge
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listening to the podcast and how much
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they've enjoyed it so thank you for that
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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
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YouTube make sure you check it out
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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
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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
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down to stop the weeds but if you're not
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going to grow anything in it it can be a
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bit disappointed really so I'm trying to
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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
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got some raised beds what was starting
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to rot what the wood had had enough and
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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
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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
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and again it will all need painting I'll
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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
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etc people are always giving wood away
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so there's always plenty to replace it
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with so I've got quite a lot of stuff to
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do
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and I've managed to do all the entrance
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to my plot I've done all the edging
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around there and next up tomorrow will
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be sorting out maintenance in my rubar
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patch I'm going to be giving them a nice
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feed in the morning and then I've got to
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sort out all the edging down around my
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rhubarb and it's just had black membrane
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down for the last few years I've never
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grown anything between mine and my
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neighbors plot I've got some summer Ras
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uh Autumn raspberries but they're on my
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entrance but I've got nothing in the
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middle of my plot so I'm going to look
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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
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possible so this year is going to be one
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hell of a year I've put so much effort
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into the work done on my plot this year
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hopefully next winter I can just sit
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back and
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hibernate but we'll see there's always
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stuff to do on the allotment uh but the
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more building stuff that I do this year
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the less I'll have to do next year
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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
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doing any repairs that I needed to be
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done but I'm really am enjoying it down
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at plot this year and obviously I can
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spend a lot of time down at the alotment
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I work four shifts on four shifts off so
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I get 4 days down at the allotment and
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at the moment I'm getting down there for
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about half n but as the days get earlier
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and lighter I'll be down there when it
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gets warmer at half 6 in the morning um
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and I'll be down there until dinner time
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and still at least so I'll be spending
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longer down there I prefer to go early
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in morning and then relax for the rest
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of the day so yeah there's so much that
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we have got to do down there but I'm on
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track I've still got all my seeds to
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plant but I don't start them Towing
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until end of March middle of March
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because it's a lot colder up north
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obviously so I'm a bit behind people
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down south so we've got all that to do
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and that should take a few days to do to
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sew all my seeds but once we've got all
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them sewn again then we can get back to
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doing the work on the plot and getting
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it all ready and before all them start
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growing and I'll have to pop them all up
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and everything but we're on track it's
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I'm pleased with how it's all coming
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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
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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
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click that subscribe button to stay up
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15:43
get notified as well when a new podcast
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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
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have a fantastic weekend make the most
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of this weather as much as possible
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while it is nice again like we said I've
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not we've not had a bad winter yes we've
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had the wind but we've not had the snow
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which it can be for weeks uh and stop
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you from doing work for weeks so make
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the most of this weather who knows what
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March is going to bring it could bring
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snow later on in the month but yeah make
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the most of it and get them jobs done
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out in the garden and the alotment now
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is the time to be preparing ready for
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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
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