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Top 5 Mistakes New Gardeners Make Without Realizing
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Jan 1, 2025
🚫 Top 5 Mistakes New Gardeners Make Without Realizing! Starting your gardening journey? Here are the common slip-ups many beginners make — and how to avoid them! 🌿🧤 From overwatering to planting too soon, these tips will save you time, money, and frustration. Which one did you make when you first started? Be honest! #GardeningTips #NewGardenerMistakes #GrowYourOwn #AllotmentAdvice #GardenHelp #BeginnerGardening #UKGardener
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0:02
hello and welcome to gardening with Ben
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your go-to podcast for all things green
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and growing I'm Ben your allotment guide
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and here to help you cultivate your
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garden and your passion for plants
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whether you're a seasoned Gardener or
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just starting out this podcast is for
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you each episode we'll dig into tips
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tricks and techniques to make your
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garden and alotment thve from planting
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sewing and growing we will share all the
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tips and AD advice we will also have
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regular episodes talking about what we
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have been up to on the alarm so sit back
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grab a brute and enjoy today's
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episode hey everyone and welcome back to
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gardening with Ben for another brand new
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episode this week well if you've not
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listened to my previous episodes we talk
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about everything that we've got up to
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down at the allotment on Saturday Sunday
1:01
we've braved the rain we've gone down to
1:02
the allotment and we have got some stuff
1:05
done so if you want to find out what
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I've got up to make sure you listen back
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to them
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episodes so in today's episode we're
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going to talk about all the common
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mistakes what gardeners do and I
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certainly make many of them and I'll
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certainly make plenty more of them and
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with gardening you're always learning
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every single day there's always
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something new to learn when you're
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gardening and I learn from mistakes I
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don't mind making mistakes because
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obviously that's how you learn and
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sometimes you fix the mistake and then
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you make the mistake again but you have
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to keep on trying and persevering and
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you will then achieve great things down
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at your alotment and
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gardening but the first we're going to
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talk about five different things down at
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the allotment the five things most
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common on making mistakes Stakes with
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now one of them is
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overwatering and you can commonly
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overwater plants now I didn't learn much
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about this until I actually worked at
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the Garden Center and they taught me how
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to keep things watered and how to check
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to see if they still damp and stuff by
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checking underneath them to see if if
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they're wet underneath because sometimes
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you can just stick your finger on on top
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think it's dry but it's not it might be
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wet deep down and that is where the
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roots are and overwatering them
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obviously can cause root rot which you
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obviously don't want now one of the main
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things that can get uh damaged by
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overwatering is pumpkins marrow squash
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if you're watering near the top of the
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plant they can easily snap off from over
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water and they can cause the rot and
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cause the plant to actually just snap
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off
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easy one thing I learned about watering
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my squash plants like your coet your
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marrows your pumpkins your zucchini if
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you're in America that's what you call
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it not Co
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yet but yeah one thing I learned about
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them is to plant a plant pot at the side
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of them down into the ground and when
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you're watering them water into the
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plant pot and it Waters straight to the
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roots right where the water is needed
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and where the plant needs it and where
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it'll soak it up from I even Chu some
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like chicken pets in it as well so then
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I water straight into that and the
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chicken pellet feed will go straight to
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the roots and feed them that way that's
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one way that I do look after my pumpkins
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and squash and that's one little tip
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that I've learned myself really I just
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saw the video online of people planting
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plant pots but they didn't show putting
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like a bit of food in it or something
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like that so that is how I get great
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produce from that so when you're
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watering make sure that they are fully
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dry or that they not too damp when
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you're watering stuff you don't want
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always want stuff sat in water as again
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sat in water doesn't help them it'll
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just rot them because the water will
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just rot away the roots and then you
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won't have any good produce so just keep
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them watered every few days and they
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should Thrive pretty much when I used to
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have stuff in my polyal growing like my
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peppers and my tomatoes and my cucumbers
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I used to have to water them every
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single day because it did dry out the
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compost dries out so easily and yeah you
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you have to water them every single day
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but just be careful when overwatering
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stuff like
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when we had a drought the year after I
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decided to plant all my tomatoes and my
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cucumbers outside because I knew I
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wouldn't be able to get down to the
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allotment to water them every day in the
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poly tunnel so I planted them outside
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because I knew that the ground holds
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water pretty well so I could water them
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like every three or four days rather
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than every single day and they
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absolutely thrived my cucumbers have
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dumped best that they ever did last year
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and it was the first time that I've ever
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grown them outside so I am going to grow
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my cucumbers outside from now
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on so on to number two ignoring soil
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Health now I didn't learn much about
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soil health for quite a few years down
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at the alotment I just used plant stuff
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every single year didn't used to bother
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looking into my soil and seeing if it
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needed any nutrients and stuff like that
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obviously you can get testers to see uh
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the ph and whether there's any nutrition
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in the soil and stuff like that and
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obviously you can feed your soil as well
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as well as feeding your plants you can
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feed your soil by add adding nutrition
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from adding manure
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adding um special soil food and compost
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or leaf mold
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stuff like that to improve your soil and
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to improve your plants if you don't look
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after your soil your plants will fail
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and they won't do very
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well so you need to start looking after
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your soil and use the winter time to
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improve that soil the winter is the
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perfect time to do it and add in that
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manure and dig it in or layer it on the
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top of the ground and then dig it in in
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the springtime to feed the soil and get
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the nutrition back and hopefully grow
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some fantastic produce down in
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allotments and Gardens I so can't wait
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to get growing again next year it needs
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to hurry up and get to
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Springtime so next up is planting
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without planning now I always go on
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about this at this time of year I draw
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up a plan of my allotment and I write
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down where things are going to grow I
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look at the shade on my allotment where
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trees are what's shady and what's not
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shady what gets full sun all the time
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and plant accordingly and obviously you
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need to look at your spacing as well
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when you're planting plants don't try
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and cram too much in I've done that in
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the past I've got loads of plants
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growing so I've just crammed them in and
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hoped for the best because I don't like
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wasting plants that have grown but if
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you don't leave enough space in it's
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hard to weed in between the plants and
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then the plants won't survive and they
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won't be able to get established and
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grow as well without the good space in
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so you need to keep plenty of space in
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between your plants to keep them weeded
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it's best off to have less plants keep
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them weeded and then you'll get
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fantastic produce as well so look into
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the spacing and also look into companion
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planting I've not really learned much
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about companion planting I need to learn
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about that that is one thing that I need
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to start looking into like I know that
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there's the three sisters if you plant
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like sweet corn Runa beans and something
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else as well they meant to help each
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other when growing them but yeah there's
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different plants that you can plant near
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each other and they will help grow
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better plants so have a look into
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companion planting as well and so do I I
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need to look into that so maybe I'll do
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an episode on companion planting and
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then we'll both learn at the same time
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I'm always learning with gardening
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whenever I'm doing these podcasts I do
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like Research into things so I'm
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learning every single day and I think oh
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I'm going to do that oh that's happened
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to me but yeah you're always always
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always learning with
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gardening so neglecting seasonal timing
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so you need to look into the importance
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of understanding planting calendars you
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need to think of when you're going to
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start sewing your seeds at the right
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time of the year and planting out at the
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right time of the year as well everyone
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gets so excited at the beginning of the
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year when it starts getting warmer like
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sometimes we can have a heat wave around
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Easter time and people start planting
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plants outside and I'm thinking no no
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don't plant them outside yet because you
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can still get a frost um that's the
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saying never cast a cloud till May is
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out and that is to do with the gardening
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that you shouldn't plant outside until
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May is gone because you can still get
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Frost if you're down south in the UK
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possibly you'll be all right but up
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north where I am in Yorkshire you've got
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to think about when the
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frost has passed them when we won't get
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no more frosts and keeping on the
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temperatures and the weather and have a
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look around when you should be planting
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stuff so never get too eager to plant
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stuff outside because if the frost comes
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it can just wipe the lot out so look at
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the calendar and think about when you're
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going to be growing stuff as
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well now the next one the last one which
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is the most important one of the lot and
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I should listen to this yes Ben you need
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to listen to this this and this is
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forgetting to label plants hold your
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hands up everybody who does it nearly
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every year forgetting to label your
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plants yeah I hold my hands up I am a
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plant labeler
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forgetter I'll stand up to that
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one but yeah you need to label your
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plants and I've done in the past like
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I've sewn all my seeds I put my seed
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packets underneath the seed trays and
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then I water them all and the plant
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packets become disintegrated and I can't
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tell what's growing there and then you
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looking at your core Jets your squash
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and your Mars and you're thinking which
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one's which what variey is which oh no
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uh and then you don't know what it is
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until it actually starts growing produce
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on it what actually plant it is it's
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like all the squashes look the same like
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you pumpkin barer and coet then all your
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brassas look the same like your
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cauliflower your cabbage your
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cauliflower your brussel sprouts they
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all look the same and you're thinking no
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what am I doing here I don't know what
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I'm planting and you think no I need to
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label them I need to label so make sure
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you spend time and label all your plants
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up and obviously you can make your own
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plant labels it's cheap enough to do
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just use a milk carton slice it up into
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strips and write down the name of the
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plant with a permanent marker
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and then you can label your plants up
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and if you ever see me doing a video and
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I've not labeled them up make sure you
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commented it Ben label your plants Ben
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label your
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plants I know I'll end up forgetting
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them to do them again but yeah those are
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the five Big M mistakes what you can
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make when you're gardening an alotment
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in and remember one thing that you've
11:55
got to remember is that mistakes help
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you grow just like your plants so it
12:01
doesn't matter if you make mistakes I
12:03
make mistakes all the time and sometimes
12:07
to learn from them sometimes I don't
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learn from them and obviously a lot of
12:11
times I share them with you all the
12:13
mistakes that I do cuz I'm H his
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Gardener I'll tell you what I've done
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good and what I've done rubbish but yeah
12:18
I do share everything with you so I hope
12:21
you've enjoyed that podcast for today if
12:24
you're new to this podcast Channel make
12:26
sure you give it a like make sure you
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give us a follow click the Bell so that
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up because they coming up every single
12:32
day at the moment we usually put them on
12:34
for about half 6 in the morning for you
12:36
to listen to from the morning so I hope
12:39
that you enjoy these podcasts I'm glad
12:40
to be back every single day for you so
12:43
until next time everyone remember keep
12:45
smiling keep shining and keep gardening
12:48
with B
12:51
everyone thank you for joining me on
12:54
this episode of gardening with Ben I
12:57
hope you have found some use tips and
12:59
inspiration for your own gardening and
13:02
allotment Journey if you have enjoyed
13:04
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13:36
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