welcome to gardening with Ben your go-to
podcast for all things green and growing
in
2025 whether you are a seasoned Gardener
a budding Enthusiast or just curious
about cultivating your own slice of
nature you're in the right place join me
Ben as we explore practical tips
inspiring stories and the latest trends
in gardening to make your outdoor space
Bloom with life from allotment
Adventures to Wild life friendly
gardening I'm here to help you grow your
passion and reap the rewards so grab
your gloves roll up your sleeves and
let's get started on this year's
gardening
Journey hey everyone and welcome back to
gardening with Ben for another brand new
episode for you to listen to on this
Sunday morning when it's meant to be
actually starting to warm up today
fingers crossed hopefully all that snow
and ice will melt away because I've been
stuck in my flat all week and I need to
get out so I'm hopefully going to go out
today and hopefully go down to the
allotment I'm not going to do any work
down there but uh I'm just going to make
sure that my bird feeders are filled up
because they'll have eaten all the bird
feed that I put out last weekend so
hopefully we can fill those bird feeders
up and get them eating again like I said
in my previous episode I'm going to
invest in some squirrel prooof bird
feeders so they're like10 each but hope
hopefully we'll be able to get some of
those and hopefully stop them eating all
the seed not that I don't mind them
eating it but when they eat it all it
costs a lot of money to keep filling
them up every single day so we need to
get some of those on order hopefully in
the next few weeks so yeah hopefully I'm
down on the allotment today hopefully
filling those bird feeders up and
obviously feeding the cat as well my
dad's been feeding that every day for
those that wondering as we've got an
allotment cat down there and it pops
into my shed and yeah we give it some
food every single day he's even going
down even when it's been snowing and bad
weather so good on him to keep feeding
that cat obviously there's plenty
of food around for it with the mice and
the birds and stuff like that we've seen
a few pigeon feathers around so
obviously it's keeping uh plenty of food
and keeping
healthy so yeah what have we been up to
well in yesterday's episode I going to
tell you I said I going to tell you all
about what I've got growing at home at
the moment so the things that I've got
growing at home are my onions my Peppers
my
chilies and some orber jeene that's what
we've got growing at the moment at home
and my onions are all starting to pop
through my peppers and my chilies have
not started sprouting yet like I said is
that peppers and chilies need a
temperature of about 25 degrees to
germinate which is very hot it's h a
very hot germination rate and obviously
you can usually start them off in your
allotment in like April time but last
year when I saw them they were only just
fru in around September time so they
were very behind so we're starting them
off really early to try and get ahead of
the game and hopefully get some decent
Peppers off the this year because I want
to try and give them a good grow go in
growing I'm also going to grow some
melons this year so I'm looking forward
to Growing them and sharing with you how
well we get on with the melon growing
I'm going to be growing loads of
different stuff to say that I'm only
going to be down there two days a week
this
year I'm going to try and put a lot of
effort in it show you how well and how
accomplished you can actually be we've
going to the allotment for two days a
week obviously all my allotments cleared
and tided and don't need to do any work
on it so it's case of just growing and
keeping on top of things so my allotment
is pretty sorted I've had it for about
20 years now so we're pretty on top of
it obviously we've got maintenance work
and bits and Bobs to do but we are on
top of getting it all tidied and ready
so yeah I'm excited about that and we're
not going to be starting any other seeds
off at the moment we won't be starting
out over seeds off till end of March
Time beginning of April time some
sometimes you get like a week's Heat
Wave which you have to watch out for
because when it comes that's when I
start thrwing all my
seat to get them all growing and
germinated cuz I haven't got a heated
Greenhouse or anything like that so I
have to wait for the heat uh heat wave
to come and get them started but I'm
also going to try and grow a few Citrus
plants at home as that's one thing I
want to give another try I've done it
before but I forgot to water it before
and I ended up killing it off so I've
got some grapefruit seeds the other week
uh from out of a grapefruit so I've
saved them so I'm going to try and grow
some grapefruit I don't think we'll be
getting any grapefruit on them and I
also got some satsumas as well so I'm
going to try and grow some of those and
see how well we get on you never know if
we have a massive Heat Wave we might get
some on them but I I really do doubt it
and I'm going to try and grow some lemon
again I've grown lemon uh plants before
like I said but forgot to water them so
they
died but I've got a secret way of
getting the seeds to germinate and grow
so I'll be sharing that with you all
when we get them all started and
hopefully get them germinated hopefully
it works and I'm not proven wrong but
the last time I germinated my lemon
seeds I managed to get them to germinate
within a fortnite so hopefully we can
work do that trick on the grapefruit and
on the satsumas as well and get them
growing
so yeah I'm looking forward to doing
that and I just want to try a loads of
different things this year and I put a
post out on Facebook the other day
saying about obviously it's cold weather
it's uh frozen over and everything like
that but now is a perfect time to be
planning and writing down all the seeds
that you want to grow this year and
making a plan of your allotment and
garden and showing what you want to grow
where and how you're going to grow it or
if you're going to draw any improvements
on it what you want to do and bits like
that and I've got so many sweet peas
growing in my shed in my uh alotment
hopefully they're still alive hopefully
the cold weather's not killed them off
hopefully they're still going to grow
but we'll see we'll see fingers crossed
they will uh knowing my look when I go
down to the alotment tomorrow they'll
all be
dead but like I always say I'm an open
and honest Gardener I tell you how it is
and how well I'm growing I'm not one of
these uh gardeners that just show you
all the good things I show you all the
bad things as well because then it uh
makes it more relatable to everybody
because people think well they always
seem to manage to get them to grow well
no I
don't but yeah I love being open and
honest with
everybody so we'll be trying lots of
different things this year we still got
to make our seed list uh I've got a load
of things in my Amazon uh shopping cart
of what I want to buy uh in my shopping
cart I've been looking at flower seeds
at the moment uh cuz I want to try load
different flowers a lot of my vegetable
seeds I tend to get them from uh wil
Wilkers which is obviously now in the
range so if you've got a range near you
have a look at their wilker seeds
because they're usually pretty cheap and
they usually germinate pretty well I
usually have good success with them uh
so I'll be doing all my vegetable seeds
from there but my flower seeds I like to
look all different unusual vegetables
which we probably won't see in a garden
center uh I tend to get them off Amazon
or from a seed supplier and at the
moment in my Amazon shopping cart I've
got a load more even though I've got
loads of sweet peas growing I've got a
load more different varieties of sweet
peas in my shopping cart I've literally
gone through every different variety and
put them in my shopping cart CU I want
to try as many different varieties of
sweet peas as possible this year I've
also done the same for sunflowers I've
got different varieties of sunflowers
and different varieties of geraniums as
well uh did have poppies in my shopping
cart but I've ordered all them we've got
all them we've got loads of different
varieties of poppies so I'm trying lots
and lots of different varieties of stuff
this year so it'll be exciting to see so
fingers crossed it they all grew and we
hopefully get some good displays for you
all some good pictures because if not
it'll be a big waste of
money but I don't care about losing out
on money on my allotment and garden it's
just about being outside enjoying it
learning new things giving it try and if
it fails it fails but yeah I absolutely
love being outside in the garden and
that's a thing I've
missed uh this weekend is not being out
in the garden and being able to do stuff
but I've been concentrating on other
stuff I've got these podcasts back I've
been sharing posts on my Facebook page
uh about what to plan and what jobs need
doing and stuff like that so I'm been
pushing out my social media instead and
keeping everyone
updated so if you don't follow me on my
social media channels give me a follow
on Instagram and Facebook just search
for gardening with Ben and you'll see
all my posts and updates on there so
yeah that is hopefully what we're going
to be getting up to today on Sunday
obviously I've pre-recorded this episode
before I've gone down to my allotment
and hopefully we're going to have be
able to get onto the plot if not I'll
park away from the allotment and walk
down to the plot because I do want to
get down there and I do want to have a
little look around and get some nice
wintry pictures as well that would be
nice so yeah hopefully I'll get down to
the allotment and hopefully get some
stuff
done so until next time everyone
remember keep smiling keep shining and
keep gardening with Ben
everyone Thanks for tuning in to today's
episode of gardening with Ben I hope
you've enjoyed our chat and picked up
some tips to help your garden and
allotment Thrive don't forget to stay
connected with me on all social media
for even more gardening inspiration
updates and behind the scenes content
you can find me on Facebook Instagram
and YouTube just search gardening with
Ben hit that follow button or subscribe
button and join our growing community of
garden lovers until next time everyone
remember keep smiling keep shining and
keep gardening with B