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Storm Darragh vs. the Garden: Aftermath at the Allotment
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Jan 1, 2025
🌪️ Storm Darragh vs. the Garden: Aftermath at the Allotment The winds were wild, the rain relentless — and now it’s time to assess the damage. 🛠️🌱 Come along as I check the plot post-storm, salvage what I can, and share tips on protecting your garden from future weather battles. How did your allotment hold up? #StormDarragh #AllotmentAftermath #GardenStormDamage #GrowYourOwn #UKGardener #WeatherOnThePlot #AllotmentLife
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0:02
hello and welcome to gardening with Ben
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your go-to podcast for all things green
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and growing I'm Ben your allotment guide
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and here to help you cultivate your
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just starting out this podcast is for
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garden and alotment thve from planting
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tips and AD advice we will also have
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regular episodes talking about what we
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have been up to on the AL so sit back
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grab a brew and enjoy today's
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episode hey everyone and welcome back to
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gardening with Ben for another brand new
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episode well we said we'd be back today
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to let you know how we got on with the
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storm damage of storm Dara down at the
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allotment well I was dreading absolutely
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going down there like I drove down there
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and I could see on different plots
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issues what had happened from the storm
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like people's poly tunnels and stuff
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ripped and I thinking no what's going to
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be happening on mine so I got down and
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got to my shed and had a look at it and
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one of my pieces of perspects had come
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off the front so that's easily
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replaceable I've got some spare
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perspects to stick on it
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and also a piece of the roof had come
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off as well which is in an easy position
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because I can just lean over and fasten
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a new piece
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on thankfully it's not right in the
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middle or I wouldn't be able to get up
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to replace it but yeah not much damage
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done to the shed thankfully and then I
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went on to obviously check my poly
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tunnel and my poly tunnel was still all
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stuck together with tape I thought how
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the hell as that managed to stay
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together because every year I end up
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like putting new tape on it etc etc the
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water washes it off eventually and
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loosens it up and then obviously it
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comes unstuck and it just needs be
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sticking again with fresh tape but yeah
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it's still in one piece which I'm
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absolutely surprised that but thankfully
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not much damage done to my plot that I
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know of well that I've seen so far so
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hopefully we'll get them pieces replaced
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and fixed over the coming weeks when
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it's a bit nicer down at the allotment
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well what did I do down at the allotment
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today well I did absolutely
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nothing basically I did nothing down
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there um I just went to inspect it and
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then I came home again I thought I can't
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be bothered going do staying at the plot
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today it was cold it was absolutely
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chucking it down and yeah I just did
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didn't fancy being down at the plot
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today so I thought I'll come home and
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have a chilled day so basically this
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weekend I've hardly done anything down
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at my plot I've just put some plastic on
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my shelving to stop the rain from
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rotting it as my shed does drip all over
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the place so I've put some plastic down
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to protect the shelving and hopefully
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stop it from rotting so hopefully
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fingers crossed come next week we'll be
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able to get back in the mood for
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gardening and get some work done so it's
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been a bit of a lazy weekend this
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weekend we all deserve a weekend off
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every now and then don't we so then I
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did actually go to Morrison's on the way
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home as I needed a few bits and I ended
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up picking up a PO Setter uh I could
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never say the word properly but we
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picked up one of
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those as obviously that is a Christmas
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plan and you can never seem to keep the
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leaves on them can you uh I don't know
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if you can but let me know any tips if
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you manage to be able to keep the leaves
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on them pretty well and we also picked
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up a red amarillis as I like to grow one
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of these every single year in my flat
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because the flowers on them look
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absolutely fantastic when they come up I
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may even pick a few High SS up uh
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soonish uh we'll have to have a look
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into them because obviously they had a
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nice smell into your flat as well so I
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might pick up a few of them and get them
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growing as well in the flat just to add
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a bit of color and a bit of fragrance to
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to my flat and make it smell
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fresh not that it doesn't smell fresh
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already but yeah you can understand what
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I mean so yeah it's been a bit of a
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waste of a weekend a bit of a wash out
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alog together uh we do have some of
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those weekends but like I said I'm
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pretty ahead of schedule for getting my
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plot ready for next year uh all my beds
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are dug over it's just a case of Tiding
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it up and basically sorting out my shed
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and polyol ready for next year so we've
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got about until May time when we're out
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in the actual allotment so we've got
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plenty of time to get it already but
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March time is when we'll start sewing
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all our seeds as
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well and talking off seed growing well I
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wanted to start some onions off I've
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been talking about these for a few
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episodes uh I want to start some onion
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seeds off so I went and had a look at
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what gardening magazines are out at the
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moment cuz I used to get my gardening
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magazines all the time the grow one and
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the kitchen Garden Magazine but um they
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went downhill a bit recently uh the grow
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your own magazine you don't get as many
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seed packets in as you used to you used
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to get 10 packets in all together and I
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think the same for the kitchen Garden
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Magazine uh but you don't get as many
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seed packets in now so it's not as worth
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it uh to buy them I we only buying them
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for the seeds uh mainly but I saw the
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kitchen Garden Magazine had got onion
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seeds in in them so I went and got the
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kitchen Garden Magazine I've not opened
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the magazine up yet actually there's
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other seeds in there so I'll have to
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have a look what's in there and I had a
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look at the grow your own magazine but
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there were just herbs in there so it
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were a bit pointless really so I weren't
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just buying it for the seeds this time
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so we've got the kitchen Garden Magazine
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so we've got some seeds in there so I've
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got my onion seeds so hopefully over the
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next couple of weeks I might be starting
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my onion seeds off and getting them
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started as I once did an experiment
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where I grew onions from seed and also
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from set to see which ones do better
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obviously you start your seeds off
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around December January time you start
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your sets off around March April time
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and the seeds actually did better than
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the sets so I might do an experiment
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again this year and do uh see which ones
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do best out of both just to show you all
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how well each of them do to be honest so
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we're going to start some seeds off and
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I need to start looking into getting my
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pepper seeds and my chili seeds and my
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or jeene seeds as well for next year as
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those are going to be the next
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vegetables that we're starting off down
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at the allotment I want to start them
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off pretty early and get them growing
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and established because the quicker you
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get them going the quicker obviously
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they'll start fruiting next year the
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bigger the plants will be Etc so
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hopefully we get some decent produce off
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them next year so that's our plan for
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the coming weeks but there's not much
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else that will be be doing down at the
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allotment coming up obviously like I
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said I want to start painting inside the
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shed freshing it all up obviously I've
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got some repairs to do on it now
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hopefully we don't get any more big
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storms that we've had like we have this
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weekend down there but I saw Mr pussycat
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or Mrs pussycat this morning gave her
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food gave her some treats and yeah she
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absolutely loved it so
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hopefully we can start planning our
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alotment next week and start thinking
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about what seeds I'm going to be growing
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I'm going to be starting off all my
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Amazon shopping basket start popping in
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all the seeds that I want to grow next
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year and hopefully start some growing
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but I'm excited for next year I'm
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excited to try some new things as well I
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want to look at some new varieties on
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what I'm going to be growing down at the
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alotment I'm always up for trying new
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things and different ideas down at the
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alotment but yeah basically storm D
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didn't do much damage AG overall which
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is what I wanted um it's just that
8:34
thought of not being at your allotment
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obviously if you've got a garden where
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you do all your gardening you can look
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out of your window and see what it's
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like but when you've got an allotment
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and it's not at home you have to like
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travel there to see what it actually
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looks like so I can feel a pain of a lot
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of people and I've seen like a lot of
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posts online of people's green houses
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and
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um popups that I've been damaged and
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bent and broken and I've seen it
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trending on Google like uh I look often
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like gardening Trends and stuff like
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that on Google and today's trending
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topic is um Greenhouse glass replacement
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so quite a lot of people have obviously
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got Greenhouse glass and that is one
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thing that I do recommend on moving away
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from if you've got a greenhouse is to
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replace them with the perspect panels uh
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my dad's Greenhouse used to be glass and
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he replaced it all with perspects uh
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sheeting rather than glass um the
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perspects can blow out but obviously
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it'll stay in one piece if it blows out
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rather than the glass blowing out and
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it's smashing and having to replace it
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but my dad's made my his Greenhouse so
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solid that none of the plastic ppcs
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blows out he like screwed pieces of wood
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behind it so that they don't pop out and
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yeah we uh obviously we inspected this
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morning and my dad came down just to
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have a look because my dad will be the
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one that helps me repair it he's the one
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who's got all the DIY skills and he
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checked his greenhouse and it's still
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solid still still in one piece still
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fantastic but yeah he knows what he's
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doing and he's the man who gives me all
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the tips and advice it's good to learn
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from somebody and my dad's my
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inspiration of my gardening so I hope
10:25
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