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welcome to gardening with Ben your go-to
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podcast for all things green and growing
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2025 whether you are a seasoned Gardener
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a budding Enthusiast or just curious
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about cultivating your own slice of
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nature you're in the right place join me
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Ben as we explore practical tips
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inspiring stories and the latest trends
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in gardening to make your outdoor space
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Bloom with life from allotment
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Adventures to Wild life friendly
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gardening I'm here to help you grow your
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passion and reap the rewards so grab
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your gloves roll up your sleeves and
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let's get started on this year's
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Journey hey everybody and welcome back
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to gardening with Ben sorry about the
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two-day absence in the podcast but we
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are here with a brand new podcast we
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have been so busy this weekend getting
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bits done down at the allotment and
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recording you content and also I'm
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sorting out all my content for February
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so yeah it has been a busy weekend so
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hence the reason why we've not had any
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podcasts over the weekend but yes it was
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the big bird weekend the weekend that I
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had been waiting for all week I've never
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shut up about it bet thinking on the
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podcast will he please shut up about the
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Big Bird Watch well unfortunately this
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that but yes we had the Big Bird Watch
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I'd bought lots of seed I'd bought
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peanuts I'd bought sultanas I'd bought
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fat balls I'd bought SE blocks yes I
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spent a load on bird seed and did it
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pull off well possibly as obviously
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we're feeding the birds it's good to put
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it out every day and obviously the my my
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bird feeders hadn't been filled up for
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quite a few days since the last time I'd
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been there so the birds didn't know to
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automatically come down to the bird feed
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us straight away but we managed to get
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some birds down there after a while and
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what birds did we see you will be
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wondering well we saw absolutely loads
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of robins yes they were all different
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robins it weren't the same one that just
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kept coming back because they're all
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different shapes and sizes but it I
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absolutely love seeing the Robbins down
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there they absolutely loved it we saw a
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few blue tits not many though not many
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saw the black bird black bird came down
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quite a bit because had put sultanas out
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and black birds obviously love the fruit
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so we saw a few black birds we also saw
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a few pigeons obviously wood pigeons
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they're always around the wood pigeons
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are greedy little Beggars but we're
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feeding them that's the main thing and
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what else did we see that was all the
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birds that we actually saw obviously you
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don't get as many varieties at this time
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of year because a lot of either
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hibernating or uh they hiding away
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keeping warm and it has been bad weather
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this weekend obviously we had the storm
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on Friday and then we had a lot of rain
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on Sunday so yeah it hasn't been the
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best of weekends for recording it but
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I'm happy I did it and happy that I've
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invested in some new bird feeders and
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lots more bird feed so that will keep us
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going for a few more months and at this
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time of year when you we need to be
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feeding the birds because soon they'll
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be getting ready for the mating season
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and it helps fatten the males up and
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gets the energy up ready for laying eggs
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uh well obviously mating and the females
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laying the eggs in the bird hous in
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around March April time
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possibly so that is why we need to keep
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feeding them so hopefully keep my be
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bird feeders filled up ready for around
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so what else did we get up to down at
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the allotment at the weekend well we
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didn't get up to too much to be
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honest as it was absolutely bitterly
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cold so cold um and it was so icy when I
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went down on Sunday so icy my car
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skitted everywhere going on to the
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allotment site but we went down for a
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few hours I didn't necessarily do any
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work down there but I just enjoy being
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out of the flat and in the fresh air for
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a bit and just being with nature
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and we are hopefully going to be putting
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out a few videos this week I've recorded
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a few YouTube videos so make sure you
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stay tuned for them on YouTube if you
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don't follow me on YouTube go ahead
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across and listen find me gardening with
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Ben and you'll be able to see all my
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videos on there we filmed about four
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videos for this week so I'm looking
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them we've also started putting out new
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content on Facebook uh if you don't
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follow me on Facebook head over to my
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Facebook page I'm starting to share more
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informational posts obviously it's nice
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to keep seeing photos of
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me and all my produce and my vegetables
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and what I've been getting up to but
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I've started sharing more informational
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posts because I've got a lot of newb on
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my allotment and I want to start sharing
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tips and advice and why gardening is
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good and encourage more people to get
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into gardening and that's what I'm
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planning on doing over the next year is
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trying to be more in in
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informative that's if I can get it out
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with everybody obviously we've got this
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podcast where I talk about everything
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and what I'm getting up to but I've
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started putting more posts on Facebook
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so if you see one of my posts feel free
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to like it and leave a comment comments
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do push my posts out so please do just
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comment on it even if it's just a few
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words as it helps push it out and and
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obviously I've started replying now to
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all comments uh that's my nightly job
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what I do I go through all my comments
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them but it's good to keep up to date
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with them obviously I used to read them
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all before but I am now replying to them
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as that obviously helps push it out as
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well and I just want people to see that
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I'm actually active and reading them and
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keeping up to date with
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everybody so we're doing that and I've
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also filmed a video on my melon seeds
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what I'm going to be growing this year
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as I ordered absolutely loads of
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varieties of melons off Amazon and
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they've all come now and so I filmed a
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little video for that so make sure you
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stay tuned for this week that'll be drop
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on YouTube this week all the varieties
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that I'm going to be growing and also
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I've put up a tour video of my allotment
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so you can see how well things are
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growing at the moment and how things
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aren't growing what's failing there is
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something failing if you watch the video
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you'll see what's not doing very well
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but yeah we do have a ups and downs and
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like I always say I'm an honest Gardener
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I share with you what's working and
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what's not working I've also been out
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and bought the gro magazine and the
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kitchen Garden Magazine this week which
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is the February Edition I should have
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probably bought it a bit early CU in
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March Edition might be out soon but when
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I were doing my weekly shop I noticed
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that both magazines are now putting 10
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seed packets in a magazine and yes I
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often just buy for the
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seats but I will share with you in an
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episode what seeds we have got in the
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magazines so make sure you stay tuned
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for that because they don't show you
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what's in the uh seed packets until you
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obviously open the bazine up so I'll be
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sharing with you what seeds we're
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getting in with them and the reason why
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I do like to get the magazines is
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because they have seeds in them what you
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probably wouldn't Buy in the garden
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center or from the shops and sometimes
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you think oh I'll just give them a try I
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might as well I'm not going to uh waste
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them so you end up sewing them and there
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could be a different variety of a seed
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that you've never tried before and
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sometimes they crop better than the ones
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that you often see regularly and that is
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how I came to try purple cauliflower
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because I got a free packet of seeds and
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the purple cauliflower did better than
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the white cauliflower so hence why I've
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continued to grow the purple cauliflower
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every single year now so yeah I'll be
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sharing them with you and what else have
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we been up to that's it really what
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we've been up to so yeah I'm just
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getting into creating lots lots more
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content for everybody because we're
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growing every single day we're getting
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new followers and I do appreciate it so
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if you are new to this podcast do give
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us a follow and stay up to date towards
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the end of the week we're going to be
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doing our February podcasts where we
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talk about what seats we can s in
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February and what job jobs need doing in
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the garden and alotment in February so
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that is a vital podcast which I know
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everybody loves to listen to so make
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sure you stay tuned for that so happy
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Monday everybody I hope you all have a
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fantastic week hopefully lots more
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podcasts to come this week so until next
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time everyone remember keep smiling keep
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shining and keep gardening with Ben
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everyone Thanks for tuning in to today's
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episode of gardening with Ben I hope you
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enjoyed our chat and picked up some tips
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to help your garden and allotment Thrive
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don't forget to stay connected with me
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on all social media for even more
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gardening inspiration updates and behind
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the scenes content you can find me on
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Facebook Instagram and YouTube just
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search gardening with Ben hit that
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follow button or subscribe button and
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join our growing community of guardien
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lovers until next time everyone remember
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keep smiling keep shining and keep
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guarding him with Ben