Up next in 10
This video explains what can still be grown during the winter season and how to keep your garden productive in colder conditions.
The guide covers suitable crops, protecting young plants, starting seeds early, managing cold temperatures and preparing for the coming growing season. It also explains how winter growing keeps plants established and gives an earlier start to harvests.
If you want to continue gardening even during colder months, these simple practical tips will help you keep your growing space active and healthy.
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welcome to gardening with Ben your go-to
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podcast for all things green and growing
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in
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2025 whether you are a seasoned Gardener
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a budding Enthusiast or just curious
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about cultivating your own slice of
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nature you're in the right place join me
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Ben as we explore practical tips
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inspiring stories and the latest trends
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in gardening to make your outdoor space
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Bloom with life from allotment
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Adventures to Wild life friendly
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gardening I'm here to help you grow your
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passion and reap the rewards so grab
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your gloves roll up your sleeves and
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let's get started on this year's
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gardening
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Journey hey everyone and welcome back to
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gardening with Ben for another brand new
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episode for you to listen to on this
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Sunday morning when it's meant to be
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actually starting to warm up today
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fingers crossed hopefully all that snow
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and ice will melt away because I've been
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stuck in my flat all week and I need to
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get out so I'm hopefully going to go out
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today and hopefully go down to the
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allotment I'm not going to do any work
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down there but uh I'm just going to make
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sure that my bird feeders are filled up
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because they'll have eaten all the bird
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feed that I put out last weekend so
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hopefully we can fill those bird feeders
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up and get them eating again like I said
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in my previous episode I'm going to
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invest in some squirrel prooof bird
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feeders so they're like10 each but hope
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hopefully we'll be able to get some of
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those and hopefully stop them eating all
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the seed not that I don't mind them
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eating it but when they eat it all it
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costs a lot of money to keep filling
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them up every single day so we need to
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get some of those on order hopefully in
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the next few weeks so yeah hopefully I'm
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down on the allotment today hopefully
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filling those bird feeders up and
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obviously feeding the cat as well my
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dad's been feeding that every day for
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those that wondering as we've got an
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allotment cat down there and it pops
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into my shed and yeah we give it some
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food every single day he's even going
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down even when it's been snowing and bad
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weather so good on him to keep feeding
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that cat obviously there's plenty
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of food around for it with the mice and
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the birds and stuff like that we've seen
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a few pigeon feathers around so
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obviously it's keeping uh plenty of food
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and keeping
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healthy so yeah what have we been up to
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well in yesterday's episode I going to
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tell you I said I going to tell you all
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about what I've got growing at home at
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the moment so the things that I've got
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growing at home are my onions my Peppers
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my
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chilies and some orber jeene that's what
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we've got growing at the moment at home
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and my onions are all starting to pop
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through my peppers and my chilies have
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not started sprouting yet like I said is
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that peppers and chilies need a
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temperature of about 25 degrees to
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germinate which is very hot it's h a
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very hot germination rate and obviously
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you can usually start them off in your
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allotment in like April time but last
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year when I saw them they were only just
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fru in around September time so they
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were very behind so we're starting them
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off really early to try and get ahead of
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the game and hopefully get some decent
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Peppers off the this year because I want
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to try and give them a good grow go in
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growing I'm also going to grow some
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melons this year so I'm looking forward
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to Growing them and sharing with you how
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well we get on with the melon growing
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I'm going to be growing loads of
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different stuff to say that I'm only
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going to be down there two days a week
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this
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year I'm going to try and put a lot of
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effort in it show you how well and how
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accomplished you can actually be we've
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going to the allotment for two days a
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week obviously all my allotments cleared
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and tided and don't need to do any work
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on it so it's case of just growing and
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keeping on top of things so my allotment
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is pretty sorted I've had it for about
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20 years now so we're pretty on top of
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it obviously we've got maintenance work
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and bits and Bobs to do but we are on
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top of getting it all tidied and ready
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so yeah I'm excited about that and we're
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not going to be starting any other seeds
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off at the moment we won't be starting
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out over seeds off till end of March
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Time beginning of April time some
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sometimes you get like a week's Heat
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Wave which you have to watch out for
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because when it comes that's when I
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start thrwing all my
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seat to get them all growing and
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germinated cuz I haven't got a heated
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Greenhouse or anything like that so I
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have to wait for the heat uh heat wave
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to come and get them started but I'm
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also going to try and grow a few Citrus
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plants at home as that's one thing I
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want to give another try I've done it
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before but I forgot to water it before
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and I ended up killing it off so I've
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got some grapefruit seeds the other week
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uh from out of a grapefruit so I've
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saved them so I'm going to try and grow
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some grapefruit I don't think we'll be
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getting any grapefruit on them and I
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also got some satsumas as well so I'm
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going to try and grow some of those and
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see how well we get on you never know if
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we have a massive Heat Wave we might get
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some on them but I I really do doubt it
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and I'm going to try and grow some lemon
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again I've grown lemon uh plants before
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like I said but forgot to water them so
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they
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died but I've got a secret way of
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getting the seeds to germinate and grow
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so I'll be sharing that with you all
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when we get them all started and
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hopefully get them germinated hopefully
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it works and I'm not proven wrong but
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the last time I germinated my lemon
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seeds I managed to get them to germinate
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within a fortnite so hopefully we can
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work do that trick on the grapefruit and
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on the satsumas as well and get them
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growing
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so yeah I'm looking forward to doing
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that and I just want to try a loads of
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different things this year and I put a
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post out on Facebook the other day
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saying about obviously it's cold weather
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it's uh frozen over and everything like
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that but now is a perfect time to be
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planning and writing down all the seeds
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that you want to grow this year and
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making a plan of your allotment and
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garden and showing what you want to grow
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where and how you're going to grow it or
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if you're going to draw any improvements
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on it what you want to do and bits like
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that and I've got so many sweet peas
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growing in my shed in my uh alotment
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hopefully they're still alive hopefully
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the cold weather's not killed them off
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hopefully they're still going to grow
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but we'll see we'll see fingers crossed
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they will uh knowing my look when I go
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down to the alotment tomorrow they'll
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all be
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dead but like I always say I'm an open
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and honest Gardener I tell you how it is
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and how well I'm growing I'm not one of
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these uh gardeners that just show you
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all the good things I show you all the
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bad things as well because then it uh
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makes it more relatable to everybody
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because people think well they always
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seem to manage to get them to grow well
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no I
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don't but yeah I love being open and
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honest with
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everybody so we'll be trying lots of
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different things this year we still got
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to make our seed list uh I've got a load
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of things in my Amazon uh shopping cart
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of what I want to buy uh in my shopping
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cart I've been looking at flower seeds
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at the moment uh cuz I want to try load
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different flowers a lot of my vegetable
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seeds I tend to get them from uh wil
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Wilkers which is obviously now in the
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range so if you've got a range near you
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have a look at their wilker seeds
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because they're usually pretty cheap and
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they usually germinate pretty well I
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usually have good success with them uh
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so I'll be doing all my vegetable seeds
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from there but my flower seeds I like to
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look all different unusual vegetables
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which we probably won't see in a garden
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center uh I tend to get them off Amazon
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or from a seed supplier and at the
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moment in my Amazon shopping cart I've
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got a load more even though I've got
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loads of sweet peas growing I've got a
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load more different varieties of sweet
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peas in my shopping cart I've literally
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gone through every different variety and
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put them in my shopping cart CU I want
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to try as many different varieties of
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sweet peas as possible this year I've
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also done the same for sunflowers I've
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got different varieties of sunflowers
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and different varieties of geraniums as
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well uh did have poppies in my shopping
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cart but I've ordered all them we've got
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all them we've got loads of different
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varieties of poppies so I'm trying lots
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and lots of different varieties of stuff
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this year so it'll be exciting to see so
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fingers crossed it they all grew and we
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hopefully get some good displays for you
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all some good pictures because if not
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it'll be a big waste of
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money but I don't care about losing out
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on money on my allotment and garden it's
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just about being outside enjoying it
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learning new things giving it try and if
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it fails it fails but yeah I absolutely
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love being outside in the garden and
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that's a thing I've
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missed uh this weekend is not being out
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in the garden and being able to do stuff
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but I've been concentrating on other
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stuff I've got these podcasts back I've
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been sharing posts on my Facebook page
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uh about what to plan and what jobs need
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doing and stuff like that so I'm been
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pushing out my social media instead and
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keeping everyone
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updated so if you don't follow me on my
9:28
social media channels give me a follow
9:31
on Instagram and Facebook just search
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for gardening with Ben and you'll see
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all my posts and updates on there so
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yeah that is hopefully what we're going
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to be getting up to today on Sunday
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obviously I've pre-recorded this episode
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before I've gone down to my allotment
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and hopefully we're going to have be
9:49
able to get onto the plot if not I'll
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park away from the allotment and walk
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down to the plot because I do want to
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get down there and I do want to have a
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little look around and get some nice
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wintry pictures as well that would be
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nice so yeah hopefully I'll get down to
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the allotment and hopefully get some
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stuff
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done so until next time everyone
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remember keep smiling keep shining and
10:15
keep gardening with Ben
10:20
everyone Thanks for tuning in to today's
10:23
episode of gardening with Ben I hope
10:26
you've enjoyed our chat and picked up
10:28
some tips to help your garden and
10:31
allotment Thrive don't forget to stay
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connected with me on all social media
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remember keep smiling keep shining and
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keep gardening with B
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