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why should we attract wildlife to our a
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lotments welcome to Gardening with Ben
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and in today's video we're going to talk
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about the importance of attracting
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wildlife to your gardens and a lotments
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now I try my best to attract as much
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wildlife down here to my a lotment some
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good some bad but we can't help the bad
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wildlife sometimes and sometimes we just
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have to work into it ways of stopping
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the bad wildlife so the good wildlife
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that you can attract down to your a
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be birds birds are fantastic because
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attracting the birds will help them eat
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the slugs down at your plot so if you're
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getting certain birds down to your plot
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whenever they coming down for the bird
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seed and stuff like that if they spot a
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slug they'll come and eat it and take it
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away same goes for snails as well and
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slugs and snails are one of the worst
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things that you can have at your a
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lotment as you probably know from them
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eating most of the produce but touchwood
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we've not had much rain this year so
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we've not got many slugs around this
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aotment obviously the next big thing
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that you want to get down at your a
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lotment are froggies froggies are
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amazing and they do such a fantastic job
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down at your garden and a lotment they
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will go around and they will eat all the
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slugs for you and get rid of them all
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and obviously not them all but the more
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frogs you have the more slugs that they
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will eat down at your plot now obviously
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certain a lotments you can't have ponds
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down but some you can and sometimes you
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can have just a box with some water in
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and some frogs spawn and maybe attract
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some frogs that way but yeah there's
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ways and means of having a pond and
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getting them froggies down to your plot
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and eating up all the slugs down at your
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a lotment the next up is obviously
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hedgehogs as well hedgehogs are great
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for eating the slugs and snails they'll
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go around at nighttime when the slugs
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and snails are out and go and eat them
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all and devour them all so obviously
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attracting hedgehogs can be harder
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because you'll have to have a hedgehog
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house or make a shelter for them to go
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into there's plenty of guides online on
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how to attract hedgehogs to your a
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lotment and a hedgehog is a gardener's
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best friend it certainly is and just be
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careful with obviously what you feed
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them as well because there's certain
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things that they don't like so make sure
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you check up on all that first the next
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thing is bees obviously attracting the
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bees to your a lotment which I talk
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about in many of my videos is a amazing
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job for the a lotment i've got bees
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buzzing around me now just watching
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where the ones buzzing around me on an
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aliium in front of me but yeah I
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absolutely love the bees and attracting
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the bees to the plot will help with
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pollination and getting more fruit made
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and more vegetables and obviously the
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more bees the more fruit you will have
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down here i'm just booming out of my
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head but yeah the more bees that you've
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got down here it's absolutely fantastic
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because you'll get lots more
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strawberries lot more
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apples blueberries they all help with
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pollination so you need as many bees
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down at your a lotment as possible some
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beehives situated on your a lotment and
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somebody will come and look after them
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and you just store them on your a
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lotment for the bees so that's a good
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idea as well if you're thinking about
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doing that and sometimes you get honey
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off them as well so even a bonus for
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aotment next up is obviously ladybirds
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ladybirds will eat the aphids which can
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attack certain things as well so
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attracting the ladybirds you can even
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buy ladybird houses now to help get
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ladybirds on your plot but there's
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obviously certain things that you can
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plant to get the ladybirds down there
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the same goes for butterflies you can
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get butterfly houses and obviously
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there's certain flowers that you can
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grow to attract the butterflies to your
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a lotment and they're becoming more and
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more non-existent now so looking after
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those butterflies is a big must down at
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your a lotment obviously butterflies can
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be bad because they'll have caterpillars
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and caterpillars will eat your brassacas
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so you need to be careful with netting
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things over as well so just have certain
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areas for the butterflies to attract
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them to and obviously net over your
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brassacas so that the uh caterpillars
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don't devour them and eat them all to
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shreds so like I said certain things are
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good certain things are
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bad obviously squirrels are bad as well
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because they'll dig everything up and
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they eat my sweet corn so I just have to
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work ways around them to protect certain
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things from them getting eaten but I do
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love to see the squirrels down here down
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on the plot i'm against them but I love
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them as well so I don't mind seeing the
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squirrels down on my a lotment as long
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as I protect everything from them and
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hopefully look after them but yeah
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that's how you attract the wildlife to
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your a lotment let me know in the
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comments what wildlife you get down to
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your a lotment or garden and if you've
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got any pictures feel free to tag me in
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them as well so until next time everyone
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remember keep smiling keep shining and
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keep gardening with Ben everyone
