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Where It All Began | My Allotment Garden Journey from the Start
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Nov 13, 2024
📖 Where It All Began at the Allotment Garden! Every journey has a starting point — here’s a look back at where mine began on the plot. 🌿💚 In this reflective episode, I share the story of how I first got my allotment, what it looked like back then, the early challenges I faced, and the small victories that sparked a passion for growing. It’s a reminder that every gardener starts somewhere — weeds, wonky rows and all! Where did your allotment or gardening story begin? #AllotmentJourney #WhereItAllBegan #GrowYourOwn #AllotmentLife #GardeningWithBen #UKGardener #GardenInspiration
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0:00
hello and welcome to gardening with
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Ben's awardwinning podcast as voted by
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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
0:21
and let's enjoy today's episode hello
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and welcome back to gardening with Ben
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it's Thursday it's nearly the weekend
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and hopefully the better weather will
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come because yesterday was absolutely
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awful I think the weatherman has finally
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realized that I'm working so he's
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sending the rain while I'm working on
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shift because it never seems to rain
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when I'm off thankfully touch wood I
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feel fell lucky this week with the
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weather one of the days it was
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absolutely boiling but yesterday it was
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chuing it down all day so hopefully it
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will help water in all the new plants
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that have been planted and it's not it
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is cold but it's not that cold so
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hopefully it will get them waking up and
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get them growing again and I'm looking
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forward to my gra Vine waking up and
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starting to grow as it does look quite
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dormant at the minute my followers did
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tell me that that's how it's meant to
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look and it will start to wake up soon I
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have put a plastic clutch over the top
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of it to give it a bit more warmth to
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help say wakey wakey It's Time to Get
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Growing so hopefully that extra bit of
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warmth will get it growing and get it
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going faster really because I do want
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some good grapes on it and I realize I
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won't get many grapes on it for a few
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years um so hopefully in a couple of
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years time we be picking some decent
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grapes off
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them so what are we talking about today
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well I had a lot of feedback from
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yesterday's episode if you've not
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listened to it yet make sure you go and
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check it out it's talking all about The
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Love yard Garden episode what was on the
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TV the other night with Alan titch Marsh
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and Kate gway and wow was it an amazing
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episode everybody agreed how good it was
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they weren't a bad word said whatsoever
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about that episode and I learned so much
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from it and I'm sure all the my
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followers learned so much from it and
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there's so much out there that can be
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learned from that episode so if you've
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got the ITV Hub go and check out the
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love your garden episode and one thing
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that I got from that episode is that
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they were talking about honey be honey
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berries I think they're called and it's
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something I've never seen before and
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apparently it's um a cross between a
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blue Bri and another fruit and it's just
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amazing how good they are fire they're
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three times better than blueberries in
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how good and healthy they are for you so
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I'm going to go out and purchase a
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couple of those I think that's on my
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shopping list next and yes I do keep
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buying more and more plants to go on my
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plot but it's something that I want to
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do like I said buying fruit plant you
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reap the rewards from it and you get
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your money back from it because like my
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allotment it costs me 90 a year and I
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definitely get £90 worth of fuit off my
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plot uh if not quadruple the amount in
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uh fruit of it so I definitely get my
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money's worth from the
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allotment so watching that episode made
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me
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want to talk about where it all began
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with me on the allotment I've talked
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about this before and I've got a lot of
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new followers now and subscribers on
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this YouTube so I thought it'd be good
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just to go over my backstory and what
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I've been through and where it all began
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to be honest because it is quite
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interesting um you never know one day it
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might be in a book I doubt it somehow I
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don't think anyone's going to sign
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gardening with Ben up for book yet but
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yeah um it all started way way way back
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ago back when I was a child back when I
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was young back when I was didn't have a
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beard back when I was only small now I'm
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6'5 but yeah it started way way back and
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I was about 12 years old
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and there was an allotment site near me
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and the council was putting adverts up
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because there was only one person left
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on this allotment uh somebody had been
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in touch with the council and they
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talked to this one person that were left
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on this plot and this person said that
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if
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nobody else takes on the plots they're
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going to get rid of it because nobody
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was taking up the allotments it was just
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a de deric ground it were Baron uh just
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Wasteland and this chap said to the
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council
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if you can clear it I will get the
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allotment site full again and there was
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a list up of vacant plots that were
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going to become available and my dad put
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his name down for one and he was
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successful and they joined a committee
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and they helped get the allotment site
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up and running they got funding in to
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get new roads in get water pipes put in
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for stand pipes and yeah they got the
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allotment turned around and back in use
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again and it were fantastic because
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everybody had that same vision nobody
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knew about gardening and growing their
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own vegetables it was all new to them so
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everybody was in the same boat and
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everybody had that excitement when they
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moved onto the site and it became a
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great Community uh with all these new
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people and we're having barbecues and
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little parties and stuff like that and
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getting to know one another they even
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had a special open day where the May
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came and officially reopened the
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allotment site and yeah it was a
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fantastic community and I used to help
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my dad on the alotment every weekend
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helping doing the weeding obviously
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doing all the jobs that he didn't want
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to do uh but yeah I had I had to go
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growing some seeds and stuff and my dad
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was showing me what to do and then I
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must have got to like 16 177 and I
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thought why am I helping my dad on his
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plot when when I turn 18 I can get my
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own allotment and bear in mind I was
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still living at home at these at this
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rate and obviously being an 18yar old
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you want somewhere to escape till
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somewhere that you can just chill out
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and your parents aren't around so you
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can just do what you want relax not get
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nagged not get bossed around but yeah um
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it were nice so I applied for this plot
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and I got it and luckily enough it was
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bang opposite my dad's plot um and I got
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into the gardening and first off I
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planted uh some fruit trees I planted a
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nectarine a cooking Apple a
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cherry and a plum tree and I've no
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longer got the cherry and I've no longer
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got the nectarine they didn't do
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anything very good so I got rid of them
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and I planted some rhubarb I bought some
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rhubarb to start off with I bought my
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Autumn
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raspberries I purchased 16 strawberry
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plants and that's all I started off with
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on my plot and I've still got the
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strawberry plants I've still got the
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rhubarb I've still got the autum
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raspberries I've still got the plum tree
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and I've still got the cooking apple
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tree and that's like 16 17 years later
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and I've still got all them same crops
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on my plot uh obviously the strawberry
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plants have died off but the runners
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they've all been from them same plants
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from 16 years ago uh it's amazing how
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I've managed to keep them going all
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these years
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and I'm really impressed with how it's
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come on and that is how I got into
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gardening I didn't read no books on it I
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didn't have the internet back then
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um I just learned everything through
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trial and error and learning from my
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mistakes and it was absolutely brilliant
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um yep I didn't manage to get it all
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cleared in time sometimes it were a mess
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sometimes I got warnings off the council
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saying if you don't hurry up and tidy
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your plot up we're going to evict you
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and stuff like that which was
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disheartening at the time and it did
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make me feel like wanting to give up
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sometimes and I battled on I set myself
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targets I set myself missions and I got
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it cleared and I got on top of it and
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sometimes I feel like I'm the only ever
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one that's down at the allotment site I
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never see anybody else down there I see
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my dad every s and my neighbor but
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that's it I don't hardly ever see anyone
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down there and it's bizarre how I never
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actually see people down at the
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allotment site uh but they seem to keep
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on top of the plots so they must Venture
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down when I'm not around uh whether they
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don't to be on my blogs or not but yeah
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that is how I got into gardening and it
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all started about four or five years ago
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uh I just started taking pictures for my
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own benefit um of where I planted stuff
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how I planted it where I planted it when
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I planted it how well it did and stuff
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like that just for like a record really
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is a diary as a visual diary and I just
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started posting them to a Facebook page
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just just for myself
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and I thought yeah uh I need to keep up
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this dat and then suddenly I had a
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follower and I thought what wh why is
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somebody following my page it's just my
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diary of what I'm getting up to on the
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plot and then a few more people started
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following I thought okay all right
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people are starting to see what I'm
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getting up to should I be worried that
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they following my allotment page will
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they come down will they do stuff to my
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plot stuff like that um then it started
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growing and and i' got 100 followers and
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I thought blind me a 100 people
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following me on Facebook and they want
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to see what I'm doing down at the plot
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and it just start it just snowballed
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after that and I got more and more
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followers uh got a thousand then it went
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to 5,000
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10,000 now it's at 18,000 followers on
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Facebook book and it it absolutely
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baffles me still to this day that people
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want to listen to me and see what I get
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up to down at the alotment like I said I
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still class myself as an amateur
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Gardener I don't agree that I know
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things very much sometimes and um I'm
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still learning all the time literally
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every single day I'm learning new things
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like I said with that honey berry plant
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that's something new to me I've not seen
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it before uh so I need to research up on
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that and see what it's all about see
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what compost it soil it grows in and
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stuff like that and see where to plant
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it so that is something else that I'm
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going to learn about this year and
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research so we're going to be getting
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into all that again this year and so
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then I started up an Instagram page and
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that started getting followers again
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it's just reached 10,000 followers which
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I still can't believe so I'm posting
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more and more photos on Instagram now
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cuz everybody seems to enjoy them they
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seem to like what I post and then about
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a year ago I started this podcast
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Channel
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and I I I I sometimes struggle to find
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videos to uh film on my allotment uh I I
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don't always know what to film so I
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thought I'll I'll try podcast uh
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podcasts were starting to become the
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craze to be honest I'd never listened to
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a podcast in my life so I didn't even
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know what happens on a podcast and I
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still don't cuz I don't really listen to
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podcasts now um but I thought yeah I'll
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record an episode or two and people are
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enjoying
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it
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and I just talk Straight From the Heart
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uh on these podcasts I don't do no
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editing whatsoever PE I'm in like
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Facebook groups and people get special
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editors in to edit all the podcast make
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them so that they don't keep saying uh
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and no blank spaces and stuff like that
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um but yeah I I I just do it raw and
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straight from the heart and all my
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followers seem to enjoy it so I was
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posting it like once a week to start off
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with and then I thought I'm going to
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start doing few more so it went to like
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three episodes a week and now whenever I
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can literally it's nearly every single
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day most
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times and sometimes I think about what
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do I actually talk about on these
14:05
podcasts but then I was just chatting to
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um one of my followers
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um and he was
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saying just talk about what you've been
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up to on that day even if you've not
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been to the alotment just talk do an
14:21
episode and talk about what you've been
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up to what you're getting up to and
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stuff like that people enjoy listening
14:28
to these podcasts and sometimes you just
14:32
want to have a listen and catch up with
14:34
gardening with Ben so I thought
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yeah that's true and yes I'm sad I do
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look at the stats to see how many people
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have been listening to episodes and
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every month I'm getting more and more
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listens to my
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podcasts and I can only see how many
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people have subscribed on Spotify I
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can't see what other platforms people
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have subscribed on which is
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unfortunately so I don't know how many
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people follow me on Apple podcasts or I
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don't know how many people have
15:06
subscribed on Amazon Echo and stuff like
15:08
that but I can see how many people have
15:10
subscribed on Spotify and I think it's
15:13
up to
15:15
360 so if that goes the same for the
15:18
other pod uh podcast platforms wow thank
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you and thank you for listening to all
15:25
these episodes and I do love recording
15:29
them and I do love uploading them every
15:32
day like I said some days I struggle to
15:34
find stuff to talk about so please do
15:38
get in touch with me and send me a
15:41
message and send me suggestions on what
15:44
to talk about because I do want to post
15:47
these every day if possible because I
15:49
know people do love
15:52
enjoy listening to them and I'm enjoying
15:54
doing them and obviously the more that I
15:57
do them the more people listen and more
16:00
followers I will get so please do keep
16:03
sending them suggestions and keep me up
16:05
to
16:06
date and I hope that you do actually
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enjoy these podcasts because I do get a
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lot of messages from people that have
16:14
listened to them and it's always great
16:17
to get feedback on episodes uh there's
16:20
certain people out there that do send me
16:21
messages after every episode which I
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really do appreciate you're not bugging
16:25
me whatsoever uh it's just good to
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listen and talk to people
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and my allotment has helped me so so
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much over these past couple of years I
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have struggled
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absolutely truthfully with mental health
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so much that I don't talk to my family
16:48
all the time uh I don't talk to my
16:50
friends all the time I've not got many
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friends uh I'll hold my hand up I've got
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not got many friends out there uh that I
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talk to uh so talking to other gardeners
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really does help me because I don't have
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many people to talk about my enjoyment
17:06
on the uh allotments about and it's good
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to talk to other people so please do
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reach out if you've not got anybody to
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talk to or if you do want a chat just
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reach out and let's have a chat uh I do
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love talking to all my followers and
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yeah I'll never meet half of you uh if
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you do live in Sheffield do send me a
17:28
message and maybe you can get me a pain
17:31
and I'll give you an autograph but yeah
17:34
um do get in touch it is good to listen
17:37
to uh other people and talk to people
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and I I do appreciate the support that
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you do give me and being on my allotment
17:47
sharing my stories with everybody does
17:50
bring me so much enjoyment and happiness
17:53
to My Life um I really don't know what
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I'd do without it if I could do this
17:58
full time I would do it full time at
18:02
heartbeat but to do that we would have
18:05
to have a million downloads today uh and
18:08
at the moment we're only getting 300 so
18:11
keep on listening to these podcasts keep
18:14
on sharing them to your Instagram
18:16
stories uh get followers to follow it
18:20
and listen to it and share it with all
18:23
your friends please do um so until next
18:27
time we will have episode tomorrow where
18:29
we'll be talking about all the stuff
18:31
what we need to be getting up to at the
18:33
weekend so make sure you do join us for
18:35
that if you're new to this podcast do
18:38
click that subscribe button do click
18:40
that follow button do click that share
18:43
button until next time remember keep
18:47
smiling keep gardening and keep
18:50
listening to gardening with Ben's
18:52
podcasts so thank you for listening to
18:55
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18:58
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