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This video explains common beginner gardening mistakes and how to avoid them to improve plant growth and harvests. Learn why problems such as overwatering, poor soil preparation and incorrect spacing affect plants.
The guide covers simple adjustments that help plants establish properly and grow more reliably. Understanding these mistakes helps new gardeners prevent setbacks and build confidence.
If you are new to gardening, this video provides practical advice to help you grow vegetables and flowers more successfully.
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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
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the allotment and we have got some stuff
1:05
done so if you want to find out what
1:08
I've got up to make sure you listen back
1:10
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
7:00
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
8:19
whenever I'm doing these podcasts I do
8:20
like Research into things so I'm
8:22
learning every single day and I think oh
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I'm going to do that oh that's happened
8:26
to me but yeah you're always always
8:29
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
8:51
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
9:01
don't plant them outside yet because you
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can still get a frost um that's the
9:07
saying never cast a cloud till May is
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out and that is to do with the gardening
9:13
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
9:35
look around when you should be planting
9:37
stuff so never get too eager to plant
9:40
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
10:01
forgetting to label plants hold your
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hands up everybody who does it nearly
10:07
every year forgetting to label your
10:09
plants yeah I hold my hands up I am a
10:13
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
10:21
plants and I've done in the past like
10:23
I've sewn all my seeds I put my seed
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packets underneath the seed trays and
10:28
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
10:34
looking at your core Jets your squash
10:36
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
10:51
you pumpkin barer and coet then all your
10:55
brassas look the same like your
10:57
cauliflower your cabbage your
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cauliflower your brussel sprouts they
11:01
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
11:10
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
11:18
plant labels it's cheap enough to do
11:20
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
11:35
I've not labeled them up make sure you
11:37
commented it Ben label your plants Ben
11:40
label your
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plants I know I'll end up forgetting
11:44
them to do them again but yeah those are
11:47
the five Big M mistakes what you can
11:49
make when you're gardening an alotment
11:51
in and remember one thing that you've
11:55
got to remember is that mistakes help
11:57
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
12:09
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
12:15
Gardener I'll tell you what I've done
12:16
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
12:27
give us a follow click the Bell so that
12:29
you get notified when new podcasts come
12:31
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
today's episode please make sure to
13:07
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13:12
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13:30
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13:33
happy gardening and until next time
13:36
remember keep smiling keep shining and
13:39
keep gardening with Ben
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