how do you feel when you switch to Geico
and save on your car insurance it's like
finishing your laundry and successfully
matching all your daughter's baby socks
together on the first try let's see
Panda socks firetruck socks socks with
those cute little strawberries on them
you matched each and every one of those
tiny socks I mean has this ever happened
in the history of laundry and a penguin
wearing a cowboy hat socks done enjoy
the moment dad you've earned it yep
switching and saving with Geico feels
just like that get more with Geico
hello and welcome to gardening with Ben
your goto podcast for all things green
and growing I'm Ben your allotment 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 dig into tips
tricks and techniques to make your
garden and alotment th 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 alarm so sit back
grab a brew and enjoy today's
episode hey everyone and welcome back to
gardening with Ben for another brand new
episode well it's middle of the week
already we're nearly at the weekend
we're nearly at Christmas Christmas is
nearly here and I've still not bought a
single Christmas
present but yeah Christmas is soon upon
us but that doesn't stop me from doing
these podcasts and it certainly doesn't
stop me from going to the alotment and
doing my gardening and enjoying what I
do best and yeah it helps me so much to
get to the allotment and to the Garden
it's one thing that I can always look
forward to at the weekend getting down
to the alotment seeing how things are
getting on
and it helps motivate me as well doing
this for you guys and it pushes me and
keeps me going if I didn't do all this
I'd just sit back and lay on my bed all
day and do absolutely nothing so I do
love doing these podcasts for you all
and I hope that you all enjoy them too
if you're new to these podcasts make
sure you do click that Bell button give
us a follow on the platform you're
listening to or if you're listening on
YouTube follow us on Spotify and you'll
get updated when new podcasts are
available to listen to
so what are we going to talk about today
we're going to talk about utilizing
every area of your allotment to for its
potential same for your garden really
it's the same sort of
concept now whether you've got a massive
allotment whether you've got a small
allotment it's about utilizing the space
correctly and
appropriately as I've learned from the
past and I've
when I sew my seeds I never say uh tend
to save any of the seeds I just throw
them all into a seed tray and Chuck away
the plants that I don't need or I'll try
and plant them all and use too many and
you don't actually need to plant as many
plants as you end up planting because
you'll have not use them all that all be
ready at the same time or they'll just
go to
waste so only plant what you actually
need to plant
and by doing that you can grow other
stuff and fit more stuff in and it goes
down to companion planting as well as
I've not really done much companion
planting I know about certain things of
companion planting and how to plant
things to use less space like I know
when people say like plant sweet corn
plant your runner beans to grow around
your sweet corn and then grow marrows or
c along the floor to use that space up
so it's about utilizing the space
and using what's available and I have to
do this because I get a lot of shade on
my allotment so I don't have much areas
that I can grow stuff with sunlight so I
have to think about what can grow in the
shade okay without much sun and then
grow everything what needs sun in the
beds that need it
and obviously like at the moment I've
got my garlic growing I've got my onions
growing and they're in the beds that are
sunny and the thing is these will be
harvested around June time July time so
when I harvest them then I can use them
beds again and plant maybe beetroot in
them lettuce in
them uh marrows corett runner beans in
them I can use them spaces up once I
harvest the produce and it's about
timing about being being able to use the
space wisely like if I were to use the
sunny beds to plant brussel sprouts in
for instance the brussel sprouts you'd
be planting them out in March April time
and they wouldn't be ready to harvest
till November so I'd be wasting that
full bed a sunny bed on brussel sprouts
which I don't particularly like and I'll
end up using a shaded spot to grow
something that needs Sunny if you get me
so it's about using the space wisely and
obviously certain things you can grow in
tubs or in baskets like you can
grow tomatoes trailing Tomatoes what you
can grow in like pots on your fence or
in a hanging basket and they can Trail
down so you could if you're shorter
space grow stuff in baskets or in tubs
like lettuce can grow in tubs as well
and yeah make the use of all your Fen in
like grow your runner beans up your
fencing or hang some pots on your
fencing and grow lettuce in it spring
onions in it carrots in it it's about
using the space as much as you can and
making the most of how much space you've
actually got and man's a big allotment
and I could grow lots and lots of
different varieties of stuff if I had
time or if I had the patience to do it
but I tend to like to leave quite a bit
of space in between my plants so that I
can keep it weed freeze like like if I
was retired or something like that I
could go down every day and weed in
between all the
plants on a regular basis and because I
can't go down every day and I'm only
down there twice a week now I have to
leave a lot of space in between the
plants so that I can just quickly whiz a
hoe around and scrape off the top root
uh heads of all the weeds and keep on it
topper it that way but I could plant the
beds to be absolutely fully stuff like
you could have a row of beetroot you
could have a row of lettuce you could
have a row of carrots you could have a
row of spring onions and you could
squeeze them in as much as possible and
grow an absolute ton of vegetables on
your allotment if you wanted
to again utilizing that space and I know
there's a method called square foot
gardening I think it is and that's the
case of squeezing everything in in
different rows but organized and it'll
just be the right amount of veg to grow
for yourself and you can fit plenty of
vegetables in doing it in that method as
like obviously carrots don't take up
much room spring onions don't take up
much room beetroot doesn't take up much
room so you can plant them all in rows
like that if you want and again I end up
planting too much that I actually need
to actually grow like I've got 200
strawberry plants now you probably say
that's too much but it's not too much I
absolutely love my strawberries if I
could have an alment full of
strawberries I certainly would do and
the more that I do of strawberries I
would do all if I could I'd have them on
in baskets on the fencing and I'd have
them up the side of my shed but then
they dry out every single day and I'd
have to water every single day but yeah
there's so much stuff you can grow like
on the side of your fences and stuff but
obviously I can't get down every single
day to keep these
watered and I think it goes back to my
previous episode is that using this time
now to plan what you want to grow in
your beds and the layout of the plot it
all goes hand in hand in getting the
most out of your a lopment and garden
and trying to fit as much in as possible
and yeah I could grow absolutely loads
of stuff in my plot and I might possibly
try and do that this year I might see if
I can grow the most stuff that I've ever
actually grown down at the allotment
it's going to be hard it's going to be
tough because obviously I'm working 9
to5 Monday to Friday now but if I put in
enough of time and effort I could
actually do it because having an
allotment is like a full-time job people
think oh it's going to be easy it's
going to be so easy to just like go down
and do a bit every soften but no it's
definitely a full-time job and I
absolutely love it I do it as a
full-time job I'd love to be down there
at the allotment all the time but
unfortunately this podcast not gone
viral
yet once it does then I can do it
full-time keep sharing the podcast out
everyone but yeah hopefully we can grow
as much stuff as possible next year so I
might start looking in my seed catalogs
writing down all the seeds that I want
to do and plan my layout and see about
utilizing my allotment space a lot more
and trying to grow more and more stuff
this year and hopefully get some
fantastic results in some fantastic
harvests and share with you all how well
I've actually done and on the little
time that I have to do it and see what
results we can actually get so stay
tuned I will be sharing pictures and
tips and advice on how to do it all but
I hope that you do enjoy these podcast
make sure you do give us a follow until
next time everyone remember keep smiling
keep shining and keep gardening with
Ben thank you for joining me on this
episode of gardening with Ben I hope you
have found some useful tips and
inspiration for your own gardening and
alotment journey if you have enjoyed
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happy gardening and until next time
remember keep smiling keep shining and
keep gardening with Ben