Growing in containers and making the most of your allotment and garden
46K views
Nov 13, 2024
🪴 Growing in Containers and Making the Most of Your Allotment and Garden! Short on space? Containers can be your best gardening friend! 🌱🌼 In this episode, I share how you can grow more — even with less ground space — using containers creatively across your allotment and garden. From veg and herbs to flowers and fruit, learn how to maximise every inch of your plot. What’s your favourite crop to grow in pots? #ContainerGardening #GrowYourOwn #AllotmentLife #SmallSpaceGardening #GardeningPodcast #UKGardener #GardenTips
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0:00
hello and welcome to gardening with
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previous episodes sit back grab a brew
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and let's enjoy today's episode hello
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and welcome back to gardening with Ben
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well it's Sunday and it has been an
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extremely windy day again um yes I on
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nights last night so I've not had chance
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to go to the alotment today but I've
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heard how bad the wind and the rain has
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been while I've been trying to sleep
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today but it's my last night shift
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tonight so hopefully I may get to the
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alotment for a couple of hours tomorrow
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but we'll see what the weather's like
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usually when I've been on nights I don't
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fancy going into the alotment as I'm
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still tired and drained but come summer
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time I'll certainly be going down there
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in the afternoon when I wake up to make
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full use of the summer
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weather but hopefully we will start
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getting back to the allotment I'll be
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down there on Tuesday Wednesday and
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Thursday this week so in them episodes
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we will be talking about what we've been
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getting up to down at the plot and what
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is happening but first I just want to
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say thank you to all those that have
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recently subscribed I've seen the
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subscriber rate goow higher and new
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people are listening to it with which is
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absolutely fantastic so thank you for
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those that do listen to my podcast and
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of course I've got my second podcast
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Channel as well called gardening and
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allotment tips podcast and the link is
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in the description for that one so make
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sure you go and listen to that one as
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well there's new episodes on there every
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single day just like this one as well so
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you get two episodes a day from
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gardening with
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Ben so what are we going to talk about
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today today we're going to talk about
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you using the space in your allotment
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wisely and in your garden as there's so
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much room in an alotment and garden you
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don't realize how much room you have
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actually got when you're growing stuff
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like your uh vegetables and your herbs
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and stuff like that it's good to try and
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stick to the spacing between plants that
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it suggests sometimes a little bit wider
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because you you need to keep on top of
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the weeding and sometimes you'll try and
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think oh well I can fit another row in
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there uh or I can try and squeeze
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another vegetable in there but sometimes
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that's not always a good idea and the
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reason behind this is because you need
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to leave space in between the plants to
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be able to weed and sometimes if the
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plants are too close together they won't
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be able to get enough nutrients and
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enough water to make them flourish so so
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leaving the correct space in between the
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plants is important because when I first
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started out my allotment I used to cram
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as much stuff into a bed as possible to
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try and get as much vegetables out of my
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plot as possible and a lot of people
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will do that and like I said sometimes
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you don't get good results from doing
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this so it's always good to leave the
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spacing necessarily around it but this
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year I'm going to look more at growing
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upwards and using the space off the
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ground as well as I've never tried
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growing stuff in containers walls and
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stuff like that and obviously I mean on
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Instagram and I see so many ideas of
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trying to grow stuff in
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containers and I'm going to give it a go
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this year at trying to grow different
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stuff in containers and the one thing
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that I am going to try growing the
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container this year is my carrots I've
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never had any look at growing carrots
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they've always turned out useless when
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I've grow them in the soil in the ground
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because it's too Stony and they split or
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they don't grow well or the carrot fly
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get them and eat them and I have no look
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whatsoever with carrots have been doing
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them every single year for 16 years and
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I've never had a decent carrot out of it
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um but it's one thing that I will keep
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trying every single year to see how well
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I get on because the the packet of seeds
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that I buy they're cheap enough they're
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not expensive so I just find it uh
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useful to try it every single year um
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but this year I'm going to try growing
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some carrots in
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containers
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and obviously if you gr them into the
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Container you need to make sure that
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they've got holes in the bottom of the
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container so that they don't get water
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logged and stuff like that but if you
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grow them in the you'll obviously be
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growing them in compost which will not
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have stones in it like soil wood so
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they've got a better chance of growing
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straighter and better and I've also seen
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people grow them in drain pipes as well
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to try and get them to grow nice and
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long and straight and they've had some
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fantastic results from them so there's
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different ways of doing stuff and
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again the same goes for
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strawberries but if you've got a shed
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wall or something like that or fencing
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up I've seen people put drain pipes on
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the shell on the walls to grow
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strawberries along e or grow herbs in or
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even they've set up growing lettuce in
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it cut and come again lettuce and it
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looks absolutely fantastic the shed wall
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is just covered in different lettuces
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growing and they have fantastic results
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from it and obviously the only issue is
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growing in like drain pipes and pots and
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stuff like that is that you got to keep
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them watered because they will dry out a
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lot faster than they would do if you
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grew them in the ground so it's great to
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make use of the full space around you
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and you could literally double this uh
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the amount of stuff that you grow if you
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make use of that as much as possible and
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the same goes for fencing you can
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obviously put pots on the side of the
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fences and grow herbs and even you can
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grow like runner beans in pots and grow
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them up canes in pots and stuff like
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that so if you're living in a flat or a
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balcony and you've got some space you
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can grow stuff in pots and again you can
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grow potatoes in pots potatoes do well
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in pots and as long as they're deep
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enough you can get a good crop from them
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and there's so many things that you can
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grow in pots like corett you can grow
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melons in pots you can obviously grow
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tomatoes in pots and cucumbers so
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there's so much that you can grow in
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pots that you don't have to plant in the
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ground there's only certain things that
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you do need to plant in the ground so
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that they can grow well and get good
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rootage and stuff like that so it's
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about making use of every bit of space
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possible so I'm either going to try
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growing some strawberry is in drain pipe
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cuz I have got some drain pipage down on
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the allotment and I need to make use of
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it it's just being chucked on a rubbish
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pile for years um so I'm either going to
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grow some strawberries in it or I'm
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going to look at growing some lettuce in
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it now I will have to make sure that
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it's screwed on well because obviously
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when the lettuce gets bigger and you're
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watering it it will become heavy so make
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sure that it's fastened up well and
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secure so that I don't end up collapsing
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knowing my luck it will do because I am
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absolutely rubbish at
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DIY um I follow someone on Instagram
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called LOL Dean Timber and he's put he
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may be rubbish growing flowers but he's
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fantastic at Woodwork and if you've not
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checked him out he sells some fantastic
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stuff for the garden I bought a trug off
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him years ago when I used to be called
8:25
the ultra Gardener before I became
8:27
gardening with Ben and I've still got it
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now uh I did say to him the other day
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I'm going to have to order a new one
8:33
with gardening with Ben on uh just so
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that I've got a new one with my branding
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name on it but they they are absolutely
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fantastic trugs and they're all handmade
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as well and you can have your own name
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put into it uh so check it out LOL Dean
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Timber uh on
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Instagram and have a look at his page he
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sells bird houses and bird tables and
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boxes to keep your seeds in and stuff
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like that some fantastic stuff and I I
9:03
find supporting other people that are
9:07
doing little bits here and there a lot
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better than these big companies because
9:12
I do enjoy supporting independent
9:15
businesses and helping them really
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because everybody wants to get by and
9:20
this is what Dean does as a living so
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yeah have a look at it and check out his
9:25
page and order a trug and I'm sure he'll
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be happy to make Q
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one so yeah I'm looking forward to
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getting back to the allotment this week
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um obviously fortn nights take is a long
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week uh on night's 12 hour shifts so
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it's and obviously I'm working from home
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at the moment so I don't get much fresh
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air so it's good to get back out in the
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allotment again and I'm really looking
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forward to spending the day on Tuesday
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down at the plot hopefully like I said
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I'll try and get to the plot tomorrow
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but it all depends on what time I wake
10:00
up if I'm tired or not and if the
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weather's decent but we'll definitely be
10:04
down on
10:06
Tuesday so I just want to say thank you
10:09
for those that do message me that do
10:11
share all my podcasts that have
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subscribed to my podcast as well because
10:17
it seems to be getting bigger and bigger
10:19
every single week like I said I'm quite
10:21
sad I like to look at Stats and 300
10:24
downloads a day I'm getting at the
10:26
moment and that's great to see from
10:28
where it was
10:30
last year I got like 1,000 downloads in
10:32
a month and now it's like nearly 6,000
10:36
downloads in a month so thank you very
10:38
much for those that do support me that
10:40
do listen to me and thank you for those
10:42
that have looked out my um gardening
10:45
shop and purchase some cards or a
10:47
t-shirt or a hoodie it's always great to
10:50
see how many people are supporting me so
10:54
I look forward to bringing you some
10:55
brand new episodes next week talking
10:58
about my tals from the allotment so
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until then remember keep smiling keep
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gardening and keep listening to
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