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hello and welcome to gardening with Ben
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your go-to podcast for all things green
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and growing I'm Ben your allotment guide
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and here to help you cultivate your
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garden and your passion for plants
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whether you're a seasoned Gardener or
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just starting out this podcast is for
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you each episode we'll dig into tips
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tricks and techniques to make your
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garden and alotment thve from planting
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sewing and growing we will share all the
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tips and AD advice we will also have
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regular episodes talking about what we
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have been up to on the Alum 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 I hope these podcasts are
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sounding a lot more better and no more
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noisy police or ambulances driving up
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and down the road like they always were
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since I've moved into my new flat and I
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hope that you're all enjoying that the
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podcasts are back we've been
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concentrating this week on talking about
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all the plants that you can plant this
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month all the jobs which need doing in
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the fruit vegetable and flower gardens
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and also in yesterday's episode we
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talked about the jobs which need doing
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in the sheds and the poly
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tunnels well today's podcast episode
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we're going to be talking about my
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allotment Journey how my allotment
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Journey has been has it been a good
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journey has it not been a good journey
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well we're going to talk about all that
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episode and why not we need to start off
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with a Christmas joke for you all so
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today's Christmas joke is why did the
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brussel sprout bring a shovel to the
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Christmas party why did the brussel
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sprout bring a shovel to the Christmas
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because it wanted to dig the
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vibe it wanted to dig the vibe trust me
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these jokes get a lot
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better or worse should I say but yeah I
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hope you're enjoying all these Christmas
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jokes that we're sharing with you on a
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regular basis if you're not following us
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on Facebook Instagram Tik Tok and
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YouTube make sure you give us a follow
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just search for gardening with Ben and
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you'll be able to follow us and see up
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videos so yeah we're going to talk about
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my allotment journey and to say that I'm
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39 years old it has been a long
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allotment journey in my lifetime to say
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like a lot of people would just be
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getting into allotment in at my age now
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people think oh it's not cool to
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allotment when you're young and meant to
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be going out and everything like that
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but times are changing and younger
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people are getting into growing their
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own produce which is absolutely
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fantastic I absolutely love it and this
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is why we do these podcasts to encourage
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more and more people to get involved in
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doing it so I started my allotment
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Journey back when I was 14 14 or 15
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and what it was is that in my local area
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there were this alotment site there were
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one person left on the allotment site
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all the rest of them had gone devic
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they'd overgrown and yeah the count was
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saying if we can't get them back up and
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running again we're going to get rid of
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them because nobody's using them it's a
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waste of land you know how it all is so
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the local community formed a group and
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the council cleared them all and they
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managed to rent them all out and they
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got funding for the allotment site to
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get roads put in uh stand pipes put in
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so that there were water on site which
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is a key benefit if you're looking for
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an alotment always look for that's got
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water on it yes you might be able to
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catch some in winter when it rains but
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you'll soon run out of water trust me
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we've had heat waves in the past and I
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know people have struggled with getting
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water to the alotment site so always
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look for water so yeah I I then started
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helping my dad on his allotment because
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my dad was part of the organization he
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had an allotment and I used to go and
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help my dad Garden on his alotment and I
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absolutely loved it and obviously
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tasting all the the vegetables that you
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were growing were fantastic so when I
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turned 18 I thought why am I helping my
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dad do his allotment when I can have my
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own allotment now I'm old enough I'm
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allowed to have one and I was still
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living with my parents and I often used
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to think I just need to get out of the
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house and just be away you know what I
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mean you need you need your own space so
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I applied to get my own
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allotment and I got it and back then
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obviously L allotments weren't trending
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back when I was 18 uh which is nearly 20
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years ago and they were no waiting lists
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no waiting lists for the allotment so I
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got one straight away and got my own
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piece of land and from then on I've
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never looked back all my friends used to
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say Ben why have you got an allotment at
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18 you should be going out enjoying
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yourself why you got an allotment and
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you sad basically obviously called your
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names and stuff like that saying like
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why why are you having an allotment at
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that age and the best thing is is that
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now contacting me ask give me for tips
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and advice on growing stuff so it it
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isn't sad after all and I encourage more
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and more people to get into it and like
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I say it's getting a lot more trendier
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and more people are wanting to that's
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why there's these big waiting list now
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because everybody's wanting to do it and
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a lot of times people post photos
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showing what they produced and people
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think oh that's an easy thing to do
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trust me it's not it's nearly a
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full-time job growing uh fruit and
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vegetables I don't know how I'm going to
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manage on two days a week now going to
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my allotment uh because it is a lot of
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work and yeah I started off with my
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allotment uh I got a greenhouse from
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somebody else down at the allotment site
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but I had to go to his house to get it
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because it were his house and
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unfortunately with that rust day we
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managed get the glass out but we
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couldn't get the frame apart so me and
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my dad ended up walking about 1 and a
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half miles with a greenhouse frame and
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that wasn't pleasant at all and that has
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to be one of my biggest regrets getting
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a greenhouse because obviously I'm 6 fo
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five I struggled to be in it yes it were
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good to start off with but obviously the
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glass breaks it smashes pieces fall out
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and there glass everywhere and stuff
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like that so I don't always recommend
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getting a glass greenhouse on an
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alotment site uh I'd recommend to have a
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plastic one or building your own like I
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now so we started off with that then
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we got my I organized my plot I got some
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trees uh I started off with a cherry
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tree a plum tree a nectarine tree and a
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cooking apple tree and my cooking apple
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tree and my Plum Tree still there to
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this day they're still growing fantastic
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my nect treine tree never did anything
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so I chopped that down same with my
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cherry that never did anything so I got
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rid of that as well and since then we've
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more um apple trees eating apple trees
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we've also got two pear trees which do
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absolutely fantastic as well as eating
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apples they do fantastic as well and two
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years ago I planted two more plum trees
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because my plum Tre struggling a bit
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these days and last year was absolutely
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terrible it like literally half died off
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when it were growing so I don't know
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what happened to it last year so
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hopefully these new two plum trees will
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do fantastic down at my allotment and
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these are Victoria plum trees uh they're
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absolutely gorgeous so if you're looking
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at plum trees get a Victoria plum
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because it's absolutely
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delicious I then planted some rhubarb
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which I've still got down there to this
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day I've got about 16 crowns of that now
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um because over the time I've cleared
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the area and dug it all up and spit
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split the crowns replanted them and got
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more rubar plants growing down there
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we've also obviously got a
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strawberries which are originals from
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the beginning of my plot every year I
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keep taking the runners off and me
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and getting new plants and sharing them
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with other people on the site as well so
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my strawberry plants all over the
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site we've also got our uh blackberries
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we've got as raspberries as raspberries
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have been in there from the start as
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well they they've been doing absolutely
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fantastic year after year they grow and
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they get fantastic produce on so I've
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still got some of my same stuff what
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I've had down there since I started like
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when I were 18 and obviously we've got a
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polyon which has been up about 16 years
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that cost me500 when I bought it but
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20 foot poly tunnel I think it is or 25
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foot by about 15 foot wide so it's a
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decent size poly tunnel but like I said
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it cost 500 but it was a brilliant
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investment and it's ideal for growing
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stuff in there in the winter obviously
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all your Tomatoes your cucumbers and
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stuff like that I messed around with
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irrigation over the years self
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irrigation which has wor fantastic when
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I've got it all set up working
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so yeah it's been a fantastic
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and I started blogging probably
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about seven years ago or so and that was
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just sharing pictures and little videos
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of what I were getting up to I blogging
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weren't a massive thing back then and I
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was just sharing tips and advice of what
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doing and basically keeping a diary of
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what I had planted when where and how
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I'd planted it and what did well and
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stuff like that just for my own purpose
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little did I know that people would
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actually start following me um and then
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I started building like an audience up
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on Facebook it all started on Facebook
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to start off with I started building a
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little audience people were getting
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involved they were interacting they were
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enjoying it and I thought yes I'm loving
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this I'm actually loving talking to
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everybody and sharing what I'm getting
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up to and suddenly I'm at like 20,000
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followers on Facebook I can't believe it
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and then I obviously started doing stuff
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on Instagram as well sharing pictures on
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there and obviously I do my YouTube
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videos as well now on there my first
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ever YouTube video on my YouTube channel
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I don't know if you can find it you can
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usually sort them by age and it's when I
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actually first built my shed and yeah
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Standing from when I built that video
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it's had a few a major revamp over the
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years but the framework is still up and
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still standing which is a bonus for me
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you know what I'm like with building I'm
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absolutely rubbish with and we didn't
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actually start live streaming till
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I to lock down because I thought people
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are enjoying what I'm doing I'm going to
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go live and talk to people but then I
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was scared thinking what if people ask
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me questions that I don't actually know
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about because I don't don't know
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everything about gardening I've just
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learned what I've done myself if you get
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me I'm not a professional I don't have a
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certificate to say that I'm a
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Gardener so I got started with that and
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I absolutely loved it talking to people
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people interacting with me on
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live obviously I don't do my Facebook
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lives anymore these days because I don't
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have time for it cuz it takes about half
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an hour to do all that so I have to
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crack on with my allotment these days
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that's why I do a lot videos for you to
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watch that way and over these years I've
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learned so much different methods
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growing uh different varieties what work
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and some years like in my first few
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years I was successful with so much
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stuff growing and then after that it
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failed and I'm like well what have I
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done wrong but that is gardening one
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year you might be absolutely fantastic
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with growing something and then a few
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years later it might be absolutely
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rubbish and you think what am I doing
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wrong but that's just the art of
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gardening and one thing I've learned
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about gardening is never give up keep
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keep trying and it's yes it's you get
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produce from it but it's fun and it's
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enjoyable and if something grows success
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if it doesn't oh well you just try again
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next year or in a few more months when
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it's a bit warmer but it's all about
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having fun and enjoying it and yes it
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can be quite expensive it's not as
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always as cheap as people say that it is
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to grow your own stuff some stuff's
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cheap to grow but some stuff you might
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just be cheaper off buying at the
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supermarket but it's the taste you know
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it's organic it's fresh and you know
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your hard work time and efforts got into
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it and that is what I absolutely love
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about gardening so over these 20 years
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of gardening my allotment Journey has
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absolutely fantastic the people that
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I've got to know through doing my social
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media and getting involved in my posts
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yes I may not always reply back to posts
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and comments but I do read them and I do
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love to see all the comments on the
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posts if I replied back to every post
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and comment it would be a full-time job
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and unfortunately this podcast doesn't
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that if we get millions of people
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listening to this podcast then maybe we
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can retire and do it fulltime hint hint
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share but yeah uh I absolutely love it
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and I wouldn't change it for the world
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and I'm going to keep on doing these
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podcasts keep on doing the live uh the
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the videos for you to watch the photos
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that I share the Little Christmas jokes
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and stuff like that I absolutely love
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doing it all and finding new stuff for
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you to to listen to and to watch so if
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you've ever got anything that you want
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me to talk about or think that i' do
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well on the the podcasts or on my videos
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or on posts please let me know you can
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always message me on Instagram I'm
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always a message way so I hope you've
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enjoyed this podcast if you're not
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following us on these podcasts please do
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give us a follow click the Bell to get
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the notification when the podcasts come
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up as well and until next time everyone
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remember keep smiling keep shining and
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Ben thank you for joining me on this
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episode of gardening with Ben I hope you
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have found some useful tips and
15:34
inspiration for your own gardening and
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allotment Journey if you have enjoyed
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today's episode please make sure to
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follow And subscribe to the podcast so
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you never miss a new episode and if you
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have a moment I'd love for you to leave
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a review and share the podcast with
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fellow gardening enthusiasts your
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support helps us grow this community and
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continue bringing you great content you
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can also follow us on social media on
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for daily gardening tips and updates
16:08
happy gardening and until next time
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remember keep smiling keep shining and
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keep gardening with Ben