hello and welcome to gardening with Ben
your go-to podcast for all things green
and growing I'm Ben your alotment guide
and here to help you cultivate your
garden and your passion for plants
whether you're a seasoned Gardener or
just starting out this podcast is for
you each episode will'll dig into tips
tricks and techniques to make your
garden and allotment thve from planting
sewing and growing we will share all the
tips and AD advice we will also have
regular episodes talking about what we
have been up to on the Alum so sit back
grab a brute and enjoy today's
episode hey everyone and welcome back to
gardening with Ben for today's episode
it's a bit later than usual but the
episode is here and we have been
enjoying the sunshine wow today has been
phenomenal it said it were like 20
degrees but I'm sure it must have been a
lot lot warmer than that it's absolutely
roasting today and I feel like I've
caught some sun today and I think this
is the first proper day of summer that
we've had even though yesterday was the
actual first day of summer the longest
day so yeah it's been absolutely
gorgeous down at the alotment today and
we are busy we are busy at the allotment
and what have we been up to well let's
find out what we've been up to we have
been harvesting our garlic and I didn't
actually know this till yesterday is
that you actually are meant to
pick your garlic on the longest day of
summer because by for for Gardener's law
you meant to plant it on the shortest
day and then it'll be ready on the
longest day so I never actually knew
that when I picked it yesterday so I've
learned something new myself there and
so we've harvested it all we've hung it
up in our poly tunnel so it can dry out
and let all the soil fall off it what's
uh currently around it so I'll keep
shaking those every day so let the soil
fall off it and yeah we'll be making
some meals with it so if you've got any
suggestions for a single person living
on their own what to make with garlic
let me know and I will try and make
something from it we've also planted uh
where we' pulled the Paul as garlic
we've planted a load more sweet corn
plants now I started these off in my
shed a couple of weeks ago not that long
ago to be honest uh they probably should
have been a bit bigger but I wanted to
get them out in the ground get them
rooted and get them growing so we
planted possibly around 20 more sweet
corn plants so hopefully we're going to
have a lot more sweet corn growing so I
need to make sure I keep those watered
over the next few days and get them
growing in this so because they'll dry
out and they'll die if not so we need to
make sure that we do keep his eyes
firmly peeled on them and get them
growing
well we've also planted some more sweet
corn plants where my other sweet corn is
currently as there were a few gaps where
ones hadn't taken they died off or yeah
or they just not taken at all so I
planted a few more around there so
hopefully fingers crossed this year
we're going to have a lot of sweet corn
and sweet corn I absolutely adore it's
delicious so
nice I can't fault having sweet corn
grown from home you have to pick it when
it's ready don't pick it all at once
because it loses its flavor as soon as
you pick it so pick the amount that you
want take it home and cook it and eat it
that night so I'll only like pick a
couple of days
and just keep keep eating them every day
every time you've been to the allotment
so it loses its flavor and that's a
well-known fact that so only pick what
you actually require don't store it
because it'll lose its flavor as soon as
you pick
it so we've done that and what else have
we planted we planted a lar pece today
absolutely hundreds uh I had two trays
full of peas grow well I had three
actually my dad asked me for a tray so I
couldn't really take turn him down cuz
he's being watering him but yeah we've
planted two more trayf Falls of peas
today and when I say trayf Falls there
like a 100 plants in each one so we've
planted absolutely loads we've got some
peas currently growing at the moment
they are doing really well they're about
getting ready they just need to start
swelling up now and start getting bigger
the peas so we planted a little more pce
so that we get a second crop later on in
the year uh obviously when the peas are
ready they're usually all ready at the
same time so hopefully we'll get some
decent peas and if you like me the peas
won't even make it home you'll end up
eating them down at the allotment raw
that's what I always do they're so juicy
and tender they absolutely phenomenal so
we've done that what else have we done
we planted some cucumber remember me
telling you that I'd planted like 50
plants 50 seeds and they've literally
all grown well quite a few have got
nibbled away so we've lost a few but
we've planted them all and this is the
first year that I'm planting some
cucumbers outside I thought rather than
waste money on lots and lots of compost
and spend a fortune I'll plant them
outside and give it a try as obviously
it's turning warm now you never know how
well the summer might be it might be
nice and obviously if it rains it Waters
them for me uh but obviously the more at
risk of being attacked
by mice rats pigeons and stuff like that
so we're going to have to keep an eye on
them and keep them protected until they
get quite
tall but we'll see how they get on and
hopefully Mr squel doesn't like cucumber
so we'll have to keep an eye on them so
I planted them all outside today I've
given them a good water a good
drink because like I say is 22° today
and I think it's only going to get
warmer so we need to keep an eye on them
over the next few days
and keep them watered and well hydrated
cuz as you know cucumbers they are full
of water so they do like a good drink so
we'll keep it on on them we'll see how
they go even if we get about 10 plants
growing outside I'll be happy with that
uh but I have planted all the plants
what we're growing in the tray so you
never know we might be inundated with
cucumbers you'll have to wait and see
for the pictures for them oh my Logan
berries are starting to ripen they're
starting to look nice they starting to
look tasty and I'm looking forward to
having some nice fruit to go with my
Greek yogurt water I'm on as you have
probably seen on Instagram I've gone
back to the gym I'm trying to get my
fitness back in order I weighed myself
for the first time the other day wow
I've clapped some weight
on and the camera had1 pound so it worse
on
camera that's why I'm doing a podcast
but yeah um I've got myself back to the
gym like I'm always talking about I
struggle with my mental health my
anxiety and even after the first session
of going to the gym I absolutely felt
tons better in myself I felt fresh this
morning I must be working hard there
because I ate like mad but I'm still
happy that I went and I accomplished it
and that I went to the gym and got
myself there and yeah I'm going to be
keeping track of my progress uh I'll
keep sharing posts and stuff with you
how I'm getting on and you never know I
may have a sixpack for World Naked
gardening Day next year you never
know we'll see we'll see about that but
yeah I'm hoping to put a lot of effort
into it and I've also purchased one of
those eyew watches as well an Apple
Watch so we've got the little circles on
it I don't know if those have got an
Apple Watch I'm not that up on it yet
not worked out how to use it so we need
to work out how to use it and hopefully
start cracking on it and start working
on getting my fitness back to how it was
that's the plan anyway you might think
that being in allotment all the time is
keeps you fit yes I probably would be a
lot way a lot more than I actually do
but I do a job where
it's 12 hour shifts sat at a desk
so I don't get much activity apart from
when I'm at the Alman so hopefully this
will kick me back into action and get me
started on becoming a fit of myself and
get better in the uh how I am so stay
tuned for that so hopefully we're going
to be back down at the allotment
tomorrow we have got it's Saturday
tomorrow so I'm back at work on Sunday
so we need to get plenty done tomorrow
we're going to have to give it a really
good soaking if it is going to be a hot
few days we need to give it a good
soaking I may even have to go down one
night but we'll see I don't tend to like
going down to alotment at night on my
own I know it's uh daylight and I'm like
38 years old I just don't like going
down there at night you never know who's
around so tomorrow we might be planting
some
beetroots some climbing beans we maybe
harvesting some
lettuce but yeah hopefully we're going
to get a lot done tomorrow
and as you know I'm posting lots more
videos on YouTube now I posted a tour of
my allotment so if you've not checked
out that video go and check it out it's
a tour of my allotment it's an
up-to-date one so you can see how well
things are growing and how badly things
are growing I'm an open honest Gardener
and I share everything that I've been
doing so if you want to look around my
plot go and have a look on my YouTube
channel called gardening with Ben
so I hope you've enjoyed today's episode
I hope you've got a lot out of it and
yeah hopefully we'll get some more
episodes recorded tomorrow for the next
few days the tomorrow's episode won't be
on until the afternoon time as I've not
pre-recorded any for the time being so
yeah I hope you all have a fantastic
weekend make the most of this Sunshine
don't forget to put the suntime cream on
make sure you water all your plants
early in the morning or late at night
but it's better early in the morning
because the Slugs aren't around in the
daytime they only come out at night time
mainly so make sure you water them early
in the morning get up 6:00 give it a
water go back to sleep and then get on
with your day that's my little tip for
you so until next time's episode
remember keep smiling keep shining and
keep gardening with Ben
everyone thank you for joining me on
this episode episode of gardening with
Ben I hope you have found some useful
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then