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What We've Been Doing in the Allotment & Garden | Catch-Up & Progress Update
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Nov 13, 2024
🧤 What We Have Been Doing in the Allotment and Garden! From planting to prepping, tidying to tending — here’s everything we’ve been up to lately! 🌿☀️ In this catch-up episode, I share all the recent jobs we’ve been working on around the garden and allotment. From seasonal tasks and sowing updates to general plot progress, it's a great look at how the growing season is shaping up. What jobs have you ticked off your list this week? #AllotmentUpdate #GardenProgress #GrowYourOwn #AllotmentLife #GardeningWithBen #GardenCatchUp #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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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 I
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hope you're all okay and I hope you've
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listened to the recent episodes what we
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have uploaded as one of the episodes was
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all the jobs that need doing in March
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and then the other was all the seeds
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that you can plant in March so two very
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important episodes for you to listen to
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and get some tips and advice on what you
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should be doing this month down at the
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alotment or in the garden so as you know
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I'm off work for 4 days so so in the uh
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so in today's episode we're going to be
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talking about what we've been getting up
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to down at the allotment and what we
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have managed to get done down there well
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today it's absolutely chucked it down so
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we've not done
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anything there you go there's the
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episode thanks for listening to
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gardening re Ben only
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joking but no um yesterday was an
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extremely busy day down at the alotment
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it was really
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really a nice day so we got absolutely
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lots and lots done you may have seen on
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my Instagram story and Facebook that I
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have purchased quite a lot more bits and
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Bobs to go on the allotment and to plan
1:51
really because I am looking towards
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Summer now so I'm starting to look at
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what things to plant down at the
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allotment and
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I'd been seeing quite a few Bargains
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here around and everywhere to be honest
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um I'd seen some longera what had been
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reduced to 90 p in my local supermarket
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from2 so I bought three of them whether
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they sprout or not because obviously
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supermarkets don't tend to water them
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and they're in the cardboard boxes so
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they can't get water to them and yeah
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they dry out pretty fast
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so I'm hoping that they are still alive
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what we've done with them is we have put
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them to soak for 24 hours so that they
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can drink the water and hopefully spring
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back to life if they are alive that is
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and to be honest it's longer than 24
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hours that they've been in that water
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because like I say it's been raining
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today so we've not been able to plant
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them and the same goes I've managed to
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by four Victoria plum trees now I've
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talked about my Plum Tree quite a lot in
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these episodes I've had it on the plot
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for now what goes 16 years and I get the
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most beautiful tasty plums from it that
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you've ever tasted so soft so juicy
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tender absolutely
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delicious and I've got one Plum Tree um
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and I've got like a couple of apple
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trees and I thought you know what I'm
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going to get another plum tree for my
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allotment obviously it'll take a few
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years to grow and start bearing fruit
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but we are going to get another plum
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tree so I decided to get two Victoria
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plum trees for my allotment and plant
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them in the new fruit area that I've
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designed this
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year and that we've got going on at the
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moment there's still quite a lot of work
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to do on that fruit new fruit area but
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we wanted to have some trees on it and
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obviously planting fruit trees requires
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four because they are going to be there
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for years to come and you won't be
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obviously digging them up out of the
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ground pretty soon so you need to think
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about where you're going to be planting
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your fruit trees and these Victoria plum
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trees had been reduced from £7 down to2
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£66 so like I said I bought four two for
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myself for my plot and two for my next
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door neighbor's plot because he tasted
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those plums from that tree I won't say
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he tasted my
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plums he tasted those plums from my tree
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and he couldn't get over how tasty they
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were so I've purchased him two fruit
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trees as well to put on his plot and
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hopefully he will be able to plant them
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and get some delicious plums from them
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as
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well so we've got four plum trees
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between us and obviously you you should
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really plant some fruit trees in twos to
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help with pollination and stuff like
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that um so I've got two for myself and
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two for him so again I've put them to
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soak for 24 hours because they've just
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been sat in one of these little bags
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with no water possibly for a month two
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months now so we don't know if they are
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alive
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if they're going to start again start
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growing so we've given them a good good
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drink and again I've not been able to
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plant them today so they're still sat in
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that bucket waiting to be planted
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hopefully we may get them planted
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tomorrow we'll have to see how we get on
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down there but I'm hoping that we do get
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them planted tomorrow we will definitely
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get them planted while I'm off work if
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it's still raining I'll still get them
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planted uh as they do need to go in the
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ground and get growing so yeah I'm
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looking forward to a lot more fruit on
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my plot then we have managed to get some
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red gooseb now I've been talking about
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these in my episodes quite a bit that
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red gooseberries are a lot nicer than
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the green ones because red gooseberries
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are sweet they're not sour and they
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taste absolutely delicious so I've been
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wanting some red Gooseberry bushes for a
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while on my plot we used to have some
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when I first started my allotment years
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ago honk honk I don't know if you could
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hear that um but yeah um we used to have
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some uh on my plot absolutely years
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ago and I've always wanted to get some
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more so we managed to get two from B
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andq so we've got them planted in my new
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fruit area as well so this new fruit
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area is going to be absolutely fantastic
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we've planted obviously my strawberries
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they're all in we've planted
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some um raspberry canes down the side of
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my plot uh which are starting to Bud up
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and take root so they're starting to
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look good so it shows that they're
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taking then we've planted
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our forless black pris down the sides
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which hopefully they will grow and take
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root if they do fantastic I can't wait
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to taste them at least we won't have to
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deal with all the phones on them and get
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prickled as we try to grab some black
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bre so that's going to be good what else
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have we planted down there and I've got
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on order coming in the next few days
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some grapes I've wanted a grape rine for
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my allotment for ages and it's going to
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take a lot of work and a lot of training
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to get a good grip Vine but hopefully we
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do get a fantastic result from it and we
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do get some delicious grapes from it
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because
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of if you grow your own grapes fantastic
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because again they're expensive to buy
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in the shops so hopefully if we can get
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some great gra Vine a good grape vine
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growing and get some delicious grapes
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that will go down a storm with me my
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friends my family and they will
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absolutely love them so it's going to be
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jam-packed the only thing I've not
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managed to get is the yellow raspberries
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which I wanted to get uh so I may have
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to look into getting some of them from
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somewhere else but we'll keep an eye out
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we'll keep his eyes peeled you never
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know we might be able to get some uh so
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yeah it's getting pretty jam-packed my
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plot and after that our next job we have
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planted some Mars summer bulbs now I
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want to grow stuff what will keep coming
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back every single year that you don't
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have to keep growing from seed so
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getting summer bulbs will help in that
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process and hopefully we can get some
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fantastic color from them when they'll
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be reliable and grow good every single
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year so what flowers did we get well we
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have purchased 100 gladioli call ones
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and I've grown gladioli in the past and
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they look absolutely fantastic on the
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allotment so I've bought two packets of
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50 uh so that's 100 all different
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colored ones not the same colors and we
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have filled all my entrance rows with
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gladiola icons so it's going to look
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absolutely stunning in the entrance come
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summer if all those grow and the
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squirrel doesn't pinch them all and we
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will get get some fantastic results down
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there and it's just going to look
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absolutely amazing my plot this year I
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really can't wait to see how well it is
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going to grow and how well it's going to
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get going and the end result uh I'm
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certainly putting a lot of effort into
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getting beautiful flowers this year on
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my allotment uh to attract the bees down
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to my plot and get some fantastic
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results next up after the gladiol eyes
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we got some lily bulbs now I've not
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grown lilies before so I asked my
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followers about Liles because like I say
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I don't know everything so I often go
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back to my followers and ask them
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questions and they said to me to make
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sure that you can get Lily beetle with
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them so I need to look into ways of
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preventing Lily Beetle uh and what Lily
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Beatles do whether they eat the whole
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plants and stuff like that so I need to
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do a bit of research on
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lies and I've planted all them near my
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entrance as well so that they'll get a
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nice strong whift of Lies as I walk onto
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my plot and hopefully we'll get some
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beautiful flowers from them I'll just
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have to make sure I don't knock them or
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I'll keep getting stained from the
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pollen on them but
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yeah I can't wait to have the lilies
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growing on my
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plot and then we have got two packs of
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Summer bulbs mixed summer bulbs and in
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those mixed summer bulbs are some more
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gladiola IC corns so I've got even more
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gladiol eyes um my plot is going to be
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absolutely packed with gladiol eyes this
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year uh but hopefully it will make it
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look nice and it'll make it look
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attractive so we might get some nice
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color from them so we'll have I'll
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definitely be sharing lots and lots of
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pictures come summertime if those
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gladiol eyes all do pop up because the
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the show's going to be absolutely
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fantastic then please do forgive me if I
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don't say some of these names right like
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you like I always say I'm not very good
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at pronouncing flower names so then we
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have got some in this summer bulb
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collection we've got 15 and animate
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Blues so they do look nice on the
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picture then we've got 30 ox
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oxus and they're like a pinky color so
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they'll certainly look nice we've got
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two daia cacti a white stroke pink one
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so again daas they do fantastic they
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always look good and always look
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nice and we've got
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30
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tiia
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tra I don't know how to say that at all
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I really am not good at saying these
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words but we've got 30 of them alt
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together there's 100 bulbs in these
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summer flower collections so again we've
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been filling the borders up and getting
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all them bulbs and corns planted down
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the sides of my borders of my main plot
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so yeah it's going to look good if all
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this does grow so we've planted all them
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and what I've done as well in these
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borders is is I filled them up with all
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the old compost what I whenever I've got
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old compost I just Chuck it all into a
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wheelie bin and put it all in there and
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I've got a wheelie bin full of compost
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so I've just been filling these beds up
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with all the old compost obviously it'll
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still do the ground good because it's
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got some food in it and stuff like that
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and it'll improve the soil content but
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yeah we've filled all these borders back
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up with compost so they all look really
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nice and neat at the moment I've posted
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a picture today on my Instagram of some
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of the borders that are filled back up
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with compost and they do look a lot
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nicer than the soil looks so yeah
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hopefully we do get some fantastic
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blooms in there and as well as all the
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bulbs what I'm planting we are going to
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be planting a lot of flowers as well I'm
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growing lots and lots of flowers from
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seed I've talked about all the SE flower
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seeds that I've purchased in one of my
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episodes recently and shared that with
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you so if you've not listened to that
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episode make sure you do go and have a
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listen to it and see what all the
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flowers are what I'm growing this year
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so we need to look start looking soon at
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starting them flower seeds because some
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do need a long time to get going and get
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growing so I need to find out where I've
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put my bag of flower seeds if you like
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me you'll put things away and then you
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never find them again until year after
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I I did that when I moved out uh I
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realized how many packets of seeds I'd
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put away and then when I came here I
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realized blim me I've got all these
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seeds uh to sort out but hopefully I
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know where I've put them and we can get
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those flower seeds started because I
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really do need to get things moving
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along now we've got all the sweet peas
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to get going and get them growing
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because I want to make a spectacle of
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them as well this year
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as well as the gladiol I want a good
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display of sweet peas on my plot as I
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know they're fantastic and easy to grow
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once you get them growing so we want a
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good result from them this
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year so yeah and then obviously I've
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been down to the allotment today and I
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said it's been absolutely chucking it
15:50
down which it has it was awful down on
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the plot but we have been working in the
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shed today and I'm trying to do some
15:59
improvements in there there's a lot left
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to do uh don't get me wrong but we are
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doing improvements week on week down
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there at the moment and what we've been
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doing is we have rebuilding started
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rebuilding some of the shelves in the
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shed because they've been up quite a few
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years now some of the uh shelves and I'm
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starting to make some new shelving and
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hopefully make the shelving a lot bigger
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so that we can put more plants on this
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shelving and hopefully get some fantas
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fantastic flowers and uh vegetables grow
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because I need to get it all tidy and
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Ship Shape ready for starting these
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seeds off and once I've started them all
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off then we can go full steam ahead and
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get our allotment jammed packed to the
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rafters making the most of every
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available bit of space on the plot so
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make sure you do follow me over these
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next few weeks because it's going to be
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one hell of a it's going to be very busy
17:00
down at the alment so make sure you
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follow in my Facebook and my Instagram
17:04
and you'll be able to stay tuned with
17:06
everything that I get up to down there
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cuz I do like sharing lots and lots of
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pictures with you all so yeah I hope
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that you have a fantastic weekend and I
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hope that you
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have plenty to do it looks like it might
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rain tomorrow fingers crossed it doesn't
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rain cuz I want to be outside in the
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garden tomorrow I don't want to be stuck
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in the shed for a second day running
17:30
I've still got lots to do in the shed
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don't get me wrong but I would much
17:33
rather be outside getting things done
17:36
because we've also got a repair tape for
17:39
the polytonal come so that I can get
17:42
that up and fastened back together again
17:45
and repaired because like I said we're
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going to be going full steam ahead with
17:49
growing in the polyol again this year
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last year we didn't grow anything due to
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not having enough time uh so I'm going
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to be growing some tomatoes some chilies
18:00
some cucumber some peppers and also
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we're going to be growing melons down on
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the allotment this year so I'm looking
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forward to sharing that with you all and
18:09
getting some great results from the
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melons because we are going to put a lot
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of time and effort into growing them
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melons and hopefully get the results and
18:18
some melons from the plants but we'll
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have to wait and see uh I'll have to
18:22
share with you what melon seeds I've
18:24
purchased to try growing so we'll have
18:26
to have a good that and hopefully
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like I said hopefully we'll get some
18:31
melons down at the
18:33
allotment so I hope you have a great
18:35
weekend everybody until next time
18:38
remember keep smiling keep gardening and
18:41
keep listening to gardening with Ben's
18:44
podcasts so thank you for listening to
18:47
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