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 we'll dig into tips
tricks and techniques to make your
garden and alotment 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 when is the summer
coming well somebody please tell
me sorry if that came over loud but um
I'm wanting summer to come it's Sunday
and it's in July and yeah the summer
still hasn't come yet it came briefly
for one week the other week but yeah we
seem to have lost it again it I went to
the alotment this morning it was nice
and warm when I left the house and guess
what it absolutely chucked it down while
I was at the alotment so when it Chucks
it down it's a case of doing job jobs
inside the allotment poly tunnel and in
my shed
usually and one of the daily tips I
shared today on my Instagram and
Facebook was to make sure you're tying
up all your climbing plants Etc make
sure you keep on top of that as the do
start to grow fast when it is warm and
with the rain they'll start to shoot and
sometimes get out of control so you need
to make sure that you keep them well
trained and that is one thing that we
did today
I've sorted out my cucumbers I've
fastened all them up fasten them to the
netting you have to watch cucumbers if
you're growing them up netting because I
use a small square netting and sometimes
like the leaves will get stuck in the
netting and sometimes they get all
caught up so you have to pull them out
gently and tidy them back up and tie
them all back up gently but make sure
when you tie in the Cucumbers up don't
pull the wires too tight because just in
case the stems get a bit fatter or stuff
like that you can actually damage them
so just fasten them Loosely around the
plant as you fasten them onto the eting
so we've tied all them up and I've even
posted a photo on Instagram today of my
cucumbers growing and yeah I've got a
decent size one growing and I did notice
quite a lot growing on the plants now
I'm only growing I think four or five
plants in my poly tunnel a lot didn't
grow very well so we started some Mar
off and we planted all them ones
Outdoors so obviously they're running a
bit slower than the ones in the poly
tunnel and the reason why I planted them
Outdoors is because I'd got a new well
an old Border what I'd filled with
compost uh to fill it back up and I
thought why go out and buy loads of
compost to fill my buckets up when I can
just plant them outside so this is the
first time that I'm growing my cucumbers
outside I don't know how well they'll
get on whether we'll get any cucumbers
on them they're growing very slowly at
the moment the Slugs haven't eaten them
yet so that's one main thing sorted but
yeah we're growing them outside I keep
feeding them with some chicken pallets
every week and throwing some blood and
fish oil uh bone meal
down and yeah they are taking they are
growing a bit so hopefully once we get
some warm weather they'll start to shoot
up because once they do start growing
cucumber plants they do see seem to
start shooting up and expanding and
before you know you've got cucumbers all
over the planet and they often hide to
say how big cucumbers are they often
hide and you'll find one that's been
growing massive and you'll suddenly
realize you've got a huge cucumber that
needs
eating so we've been tying all them up
and sorting all them out and we've also
been sorting out out my climbing rose as
I've got a climbing rose in my entrance
to my plot it's been in a few years now
it's getting taller and I've got an
archway over the entrance of my plot uh
it's not very sturdy to be honest with
you I would prefer a nice wooden one or
something like that it may be on my
to-do list to get a nice wooden archw on
my entrance my plot but it's a metal one
for the time being and they are quite
flimsy I don't know if anybody else has
had one uh I find them quite flimsy
so we've been fasing it all up to the
archway and sorting all that out tidying
it up and yeah as I've been tidying it
up I've been deheading it all as that's
one thing that you've got to make sure
you do with Ros make sure you keep
deheading them so then they'll keep
flowering because if you don't dehe head
them they'll think that they're going to
seed and they'll stop flowering so you
need to make sure you keep your head in
your roses even if it's just going
around once a day round your allotment
around your garden just snipping off the
dead heads and yeah it'll encourage more
growth on the Roses so we've tided them
all up and they look a lot better now
and obviously I got spiked to death
while I was doing it uh as I didn't wear
gloves I never usually do um and we've
also took some cuttings from it because
there was some scraggly bits what
weren't growing in the right places and
stuff like that so I trimmed them off
and I've poed them up uh I'm no good at
honestly taking cuttings I learn by my
mistakes and stuff like that same with
anyone now often people would obviously
put them in a jar for them to rout but I
thought I'll just plant them straight
into the soil uh in some compost in my
poly tunnel and yeah water a in have uh
potted up about
20 cuttings so we'll see if they come
even if we just get three or four I'll
be happy with it it's trial by error and
obviously I can take loads more cuttings
if I want to so fingers crossed if they
all take then my allotment will be a
massive red roses all over the place but
we'll see how we get on hopefully we get
some nice roses growing but it's nothing
to lose and now is the time to be taking
cuttings and stuff like that so if
you've got a favorite plan or a favorite
flower go around taking some cuting off
them because you're not wasting any
money whatsoever and I'm tempted to go
and get some cting off my lavender plant
as I do want more lavender bushes on my
alotment I'm sorted with all my fuches I
could take loads of cting off my fuches
but I've got loads of fuchsia PL in and
I'm really happy with how they've all
come on So eventually we might get some
more fuches growing but they're still
quite a small plants so I don't want to
disturb them and take any cuttings off
my fuches at the moment and yeah I want
to get some lavender plants growing so
I'm going to try and take some cuting of
some lavender this this week hopefully
get some flowering and get them started
ready for planting out next year on my
allotment so you'll have to stay tuned
for that but I'll I'll keep you all
updated on how well the rose cuttings
are doing like I always say I'm an
honest Gardener I tell you how it is if
it's worked if it's failed if I'm
rubbish at it it's better to be honest
with people like one year can do
absolutely brilliant and have f
fantastic crops and stuff like that and
then the next year you could have a
total failure and you're not wanting to
hide stuff on people you want to be
honest with people I don't know
everything I've always said that I'm I'm
always learning I've been on my
allotment now for 20 years and every day
I'm learning new things and I see tips
online and stuff A lot of times you
don't know if it's real or if it's fake
just to get clickbait but like I've seen
like people start roses off in potatoes
as well
just shove them in potatoes cuz it's
meant to feed them and help make them
root but I don't know how true that is
whether it's true or not let me know if
you've tried it I always like to hear
back from people listening to the
podcast and I also want to give a shout
out to one of my listeners that they've
recently found my podcasts and this put
a nice comment on my Instagram saying
like how they're enjoying it and how
many tips they've learned from the
podcast and a lot of the time I'm just
waffling on I don't have a set podcast
recording I don't type it all up
beforehand I just like to talk about a
little topic maybe what I've been up to
on the allotment or what you need to do
here and there and at this time here so
I do just love to chat about what I've
been up to I think a lot of people seem
to enjoy that like obviously I could
spend hours writing a podcast episode
also getting people on to do a podcast
with which is time and effort and then
editing it all and sorting it all out
but this is just a raw podcast I don't
do no editing it's straight from it I
don't cut out all the years from my
podcast I just like to talk and get it
out there for you to listen to and I
think a lot of people enjoy that how
it's just straight to the point and from
the heart and whether I do things right
whether I do things wrong it's just good
fun and that's what I enjoy in the
gardening world
is if it fails I don't give them monkeys
I'm just happy that I've been out in my
garden that I've been enjoying it and
that is good for the mental
health and everything seems to be coming
together well at the moment I'm really
pushing out the content to you all um
sharing the daily tips on Instagram and
Facebook and a lot of people seem to be
liking them they seem to be picking up
on a daily basis more and more people
people are seeing them and liking them
if you ever do see a post of mine on
Instagram please just give it a like and
feel free to leave a comment as I do
love to see how people react to my posts
and obviously the more people that like
it the more they get pushed out as well
the same goes for this podcast feel free
to just leave a comment if you can and
give it a like wherever you see any of
my content as it really does help me and
it doesn't cost you anything and that
can push it out to thousands of people
just giving it a like and a comment and
yeah I don't always reply to them which
I should do uh but if I replied to
everybody's comment it probably take me
all
day but yeah and hopefully I'm going to
be back down at the allotment tomorrow
hopefully it doesn't rain tomorrow
because I want to spend some time
outside I might even get them lavender
cuttings tomorrow so we'll have to stay
tuned for that and see how well we get
on and and what else are we planning to
do tomorrow I might go out and get some
more seeds and start some seeds off for
July so make sure you stay tuned for
that if you've not listened to my
podcast talking about what to plant in
July go go back and have a look and
listen to that episode you can still
plant plenty of stuff at this time of
year you can plant your spring onions
you can plant Autumn carrots you can
plant beetroot you can plant some peas
you can even plant runner beans this
there's still plenty of stuff out there
that you can plant at this time of year
so make sure you go and listen to that
and let me know what everybody's
planting I do love to hear back from
everybody that's listening so if you
have enjoyed this podcast please do give
it a like feel free to share it onto
your Instagram stories if you've got
Instagram and the more people that do
listen to it the more people it'll get
pushed out too so thanks for listening
as always remember keep smiling keep
shining and keep gardening with B
everyone thank you for joining me on
this episode of gardening with Ben I
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happy gardening and until next time
remember keep smiling keep shining and
keep gardening with B