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This video explains how to attract birds, bees and pollinators to the garden by providing food, shelter and water. Learn which plants support wildlife, how to create safe habitats and simple changes that encourage beneficial insects and visiting birds.
The guide covers pollinator-friendly flowers, nesting areas, feeders and natural garden practices that improve biodiversity. These methods help create a wildlife-friendly garden while also improving plant health and pollination.
If you want to support nature and increase wildlife activity in your outdoor space, this video provides practical steps that are suitable for gardens, allotments and small backyards.
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0:02
hello and welcome to gardening with Ben
0:05
your go-to podcast for all things green
0:07
and growing I'm Ben your alotment guide
0:10
and here to help you cultivate your
0:13
garden and your passion for plants
0:16
whether you're a seasoned Gardener or
0:17
just starting out this podcast is for
0:20
you each episode we'll dig into tips
0:23
tricks and techniques to make your
0:25
garden and alotment thve from planting
0:28
sewing and growing we will share all the
0:31
tips and AD advice we will also have
0:34
regular episodes talking about what we
0:36
have been up to on the alarm so sit back
0:40
grab a brute and enjoy today's
0:44
episode hey everyone and welcome back to
0:48
gardening with Ben for another brand new
0:51
episode today I hope you're all well I
0:54
hope that all your week's going well and
0:56
I hope you're managing to stay warm
0:58
while it is a bitterly cold old week it
1:00
certainly is here where I am thankfully
1:04
I'm working in the week so I don't have
1:05
to go down to the allotment in the week
1:07
I just go out the weekends now so roll
1:10
on Saturday for when I'm next at the
1:13
alotment so what are we talking about
1:17
today well today's episode is
1:20
encouraging the wildlife to your Gardens
1:22
and your allotments we're going to talk
1:25
about
1:25
today so the reason why I'm talking
1:28
about this is because I find find it
1:31
particularly beneficial for an allotment
1:33
holder to have as much Wildlife going
1:36
down as possible to your allotment now
1:39
I've been working on this over the last
1:41
few years to improve the wildlife onto
1:44
my allotment and as you know recently
1:47
obviously I've had a cat coming down on
1:49
my allotment even had some kittens in my
1:53
shed which have fledged off now and
1:54
moved on and obviously found new homes
1:58
but yeah it's good to see the cats down
2:00
there because obviously they'll catch
2:02
the mice and catch the rats and keep
2:04
them down which is a bonus one one at
2:07
times even left one in my shed a dead
2:10
one unfortunately as a present but I got
2:14
rid of that soon straight
2:16
away but yeah what else are we helping
2:20
to get down at the alotment and in the
2:22
garden well at the moment it's obviously
2:26
winter when we're recording this it's
2:29
well it's it's getting to Winter it's
2:31
currently in Autumn but it's feeling
2:33
like winter certainly is now and at this
2:35
time of year we like to concentrate on
2:37
feeding the birds I don't feed the birds
2:40
throughout the summer period I only feed
2:42
them through the autumn and winter
2:44
periods and Springtime as is's not much
2:47
around for them to eat down at the
2:49
alotment and I still want to help
2:51
encourage them to come to my allotment
2:53
plot because then they'll eat all the
2:55
bugs and stuff like that off of plants
2:57
so we're encouraging them by hanging up
3:00
bird feeders at the moment obviously the
3:02
only problem with hanging bird feeders
3:04
up is it attracts other Wildlife as well
3:07
some not beneficial which are obviously
3:10
the rats and the mice they come and eat
3:12
the seed but hopefully the cat catches
3:14
them so it all works around in one
3:17
favor and obviously it also attracts the
3:20
squirrels to the allotment and I have no
3:23
problems with having the squirrels
3:25
coming down at my allotment they can
3:27
come down all they want as long as they
3:28
don't make too much Dam damage to my
3:30
plot which is obviously my spring bulbs
3:33
which they like to attack or my broad
3:35
beans like they attract nibbled all the
3:38
tops off them in my shed but
3:41
yeah we do like to attract the birds and
3:44
at the moment we've got up some SE balls
3:47
we've got some SE uh pellets we've got
3:50
seed up we've got peanuts up we've got a
3:53
SE block up so yeah we're trying to
3:56
attract all different varieties of birds
3:58
to my plot obviously the not a lot of
4:00
birds around at the moment because some
4:01
obviously hibernate and fly off to
4:04
warmer
4:06
countries over the winter period but
4:09
there's still little birds around like
4:11
your robins and I still see a little
4:13
blue around and um which other ones col
4:18
tits I've seen some of those around but
4:21
yeah we see lots of little birds around
4:23
and I love to encourage them and
4:25
obviously while I'm encouraging them to
4:28
eat seed for my plot I've also got some
4:32
bird houses down at the alotment as well
4:35
where I encourage them to come and live
4:37
on my
4:38
alotment basically and to have babies so
4:41
I put up a couple of bird houses a
4:43
couple of years ago and within half an
4:46
hour blue tits were flying in and out of
4:47
them they must have been in the ideal
4:51
location for them and they were flying
4:53
in and out building the nest and then
4:55
they had some babies in there and they
4:57
fledged off and left so yeah having bird
5:01
houses down on your plot is brilliant to
5:04
watch the blue tis flying in and out so
5:06
I'm I've been encouraging them and
5:08
obviously once they've had the babies in
5:11
the fledged and there's no birds living
5:13
in there you need to take them down and
5:15
clear out any old nest or spiders and
5:18
webs hanging around in there just clean
5:20
them out we're disinfectant get rid of
5:23
the old nest because new Blu tis won't
5:26
move in if they know that there's
5:28
previous occupancy in
5:30
so we do this every year and we get blue
5:32
tis living in them every year which is
5:33
absolutely fantastic on my
5:36
plot so after that we also for my
5:40
birthday I had a ren bird house uh from
5:44
my sister so we're putting that up this
5:47
year as well so you never know we might
5:48
get some baby V next year on myot so I'm
5:51
looking forward to seeing that and
5:54
obviously there's other types of bird
5:55
houses out there so I might look at
5:57
different ones to try and attract some
5:59
other birds living on my alotment so if
6:02
anybody's got any suggestions of any
6:03
other bird houses what they've got let
6:05
me know as I know there's Robin ones out
6:08
there so I might look at Robbins as well
6:11
because obviously we do get a lot of
6:12
Robbins living on our alotment site
6:15
which is always fantastic to see when
6:16
you're digging up the soil and they just
6:18
sat there waiting for the worms and they
6:20
scoop in get the worm and then fly off
6:23
they s t as well they come right close
6:26
to
6:27
you and yeah what other Wildlife are we
6:30
looking after on the alotment well we
6:33
have got a pond down on the plot because
6:36
I want to encourage the frogs to my
6:38
allotment and NES
6:40
and all the pond life creatures as well
6:44
because obviously if you've got frogs
6:46
living on your plot they'll go around
6:47
eating all the Slugs at night which is
6:50
another bonus because obviously the more
6:52
frogs you have the less slugs you'll
6:53
have which is what you want when you've
6:56
got an alotment site you don't want
6:57
everything getting eaten down there
7:00
so we'll be cleaning that out over the
7:02
winter period and uh freshening it up
7:04
ready for next year ready for when it's
7:07
time for frogs born season and hopefully
7:10
get some frogs born in there and
7:12
hopefully get some Froggies again next
7:14
year on my allotment and encourage the
7:16
folks to live down
7:19
there what other oh we look after the
7:23
ladyb birds as well you might think how
7:25
do you look after the ladybirds well you
7:27
can actually buy ladybird houses what I
7:30
like tubes with little holes in for the
7:32
ladyb birds to nest in over the wi
7:34
periods and hiet and encourage the ladyb
7:37
birds to come down so yeah we're
7:39
encouraging the ladyb birds as well down
7:41
at the plot we have also got a hedgehog
7:44
house what I need to put out I've had
7:47
that um about a year now and I've still
7:49
not put it out it yet um but you need to
7:52
find somewhere obviously quiet and
7:55
around where there's some leaves and
7:57
shade and stuff like that for just to in
8:00
I've also seen that you can actually get
8:02
a hedgehog food but I don't know if I
8:04
should put that down or not because it
8:06
might obviously encourage squirrels to
8:08
eat it and uh the Rats of mice but if
8:11
anybody else feeds the Hedgehogs let me
8:13
know because I would like to know about
8:16
them I obviously look after the bees as
8:20
well the bees are the main big thing on
8:22
my plot what I look after as obviously
8:25
like I always say I plant the spring
8:26
bulbs to attract the bees down in
8:29
springtime when they wake up from
8:31
hibernation to give them the energy for
8:33
the year ahead I also plant a lot of
8:37
fragrant flowers and flowers that they
8:39
can land land on to collect the pollen
8:42
and obviously the more bees that you get
8:45
down to the plot The More Produce you'll
8:47
get from your fruit because if the bees
8:50
are around on your plot they'll
8:51
pollinate all your fruit trees or your
8:53
fruit bushes Etc and she strawberries
8:57
and that'll give you more fruit produ so
8:59
without the
9:00
bees we wouldn't get no fruit so the
9:03
more bees that you can get down on the
9:04
plot the
9:06
better we're also going to start looking
9:09
into how to look after the butterflies
9:11
as well we need to attract the
9:12
butterflies to our Gardens and
9:14
allotments more as
9:17
obviously there's not much beneficial in
9:19
them obviously the pollinator but um and
9:23
you don't want caterpillars eating all
9:24
your stuff up but I do love to see the
9:27
butterflies so I'm going to look at how
9:29
to attract the butterflies to my
9:30
allotment and what flowers I should be
9:33
planting to attract them because they're
9:35
absolutely gorgeous when you see them
9:36
flying around I know obviously you can
9:38
plant bulia budle is a good one for
9:42
butterflies but there must be other
9:44
different flowers out there to help look
9:46
after them so yeah I do my little bit
9:49
down on my alment to help the wildlife
9:52
and I've also got a wildlife camera up
9:54
now which I purchased uh previously so
9:56
we've put that outside so hopefully we
9:59
catch some Wildlife activity on my plot
10:02
hopefully I don't catch no burglers down
10:04
there but yeah I'd love to see like
10:07
Badges and foxes down there that would
10:09
be brilliant see obviously it's not good
10:11
for my crops but I would love to see
10:13
some Wildlife down there like Badges and
10:16
foxes around at night because it's an
10:18
infrared camera as well so it picks it
10:20
all up so hopefully we might be able to
10:22
pick something up down there so stay
10:25
tuned and hopefully we'll get some
10:27
footage for you to show you so yeah let
10:30
me know if you are doing your little bit
10:32
for helping the wildlife on your
10:33
alotment or in the garden it's always
10:36
brilliant to hear from you make sure you
10:39
do like the podcast give it a comment
10:41
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10:44
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Bell as well and you'll get notified
10:48
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10:50
are around 7:00 in the morning for you
10:52
to listen to for the day so I hope that
10:55
you all have a great day everyone and
10:57
remember keep smiling keep shining and
10:59
keep gardening with bed
11:04
everyone thank you for joining me on
11:06
this episode of gardening with Ben I
11:09
hope you have found some useful tips and
11:12
inspiration for your own gardening and
11:14
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11:16
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11:19
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11:47
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11:50
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