Welcome to Gardening with Ben, the podcast where we dig into the soil of
our gardens and the depths of our green funds. I'm your host, Ben,
here to guide you through the joints of gardening, from sowing seeds to
reaping bountiful harvests. Each episode will explore tips, tricks and tails from the
garden and allotment, sharing insights from ourself and stories from our own back garden
adventures. Whether you're a seasoned gardener or just getting your hands dirty for the
first time, there's something here for everyone, So grab your brew and gardening
gloves and let's get growing. With Gardening with Ben. Hello, and welcome
to this episode for today talking about Nature's Neighbors, the podcast that we're delivering
and fostering a thriving haven for the birds and wildlife in your garden and an
allotment. In each episode, we're going to delve into the world of birds,
wildlife, plants, tips, advice, and creating a sand trait that
welcomes our feathered friends and creatures into our garden and our allotment, and creating
cozy habitat where we'll guide you through the joys of adding the nature into your
backyard and the benefits behind it. So grab your binoculars and your gardening gloves.
It's time to the nurture the wild side of your green space in your
garden and an allotment. So in this episode, we're going to talk about
why it's so important to get the wildlife and the birds into your garden.
And to be honest, when I first come a plot, for the first
few years, I weren't bothered whatsoever about looking after the birds or the wildlife,
and I just thought, I'll just grow my fruit of my vegetables and
there we'll have it. Will be looking after what I need to do in
my allotment. We're growing up fruit and veg and that's all I'm bothered about.
We don't need to bother about anything else. And yeah, I had
some successful crops and stuff like that. But also you get a lot of
pests and stuff down at your plot. So what I started looking into is
natural ways of getting rid of pests. And the general answer to a lot
of that was birds and wildlife, because birds and wildlife will obviously help get
rid of pests. And the reason why birds will get rid of pests is
that they'll come down they'll eat the slugs, they'll eat the snails, and
they'll get rid of them from out of your allotment and garden, so you
won't have as many slugs and cells. You'll still get plenty of trust me,
they won't eat them all unfortunately, but it will help reduce the numbers
down on your plot. And obviously the same goes for wildlife. If you
attract hedgehogs so frogs to the plot, they will also eat the slugs and
snales. So encouraging wildlife to your plot is very important. And over the
last couple of years I've put more and more effort into looking after the wildlife
on the plot. I've got two bird houses up. And when I first
put on my bird houses up literally and this is the genuine trove. Within
about thirty minutes of putting it up, I had blueteds coming to inspect them
and look around to see if they were habitable for them to move into.
And within a day they started building the nests in the bird boxes and I
was so amazed, and they laid some bluted eggs and I got some baby
bluet It's on my allotments and all the time you could see the blue it's
flying in and out, in and out with all the grubs and the worms
and the slugs to feed the youngsters, and that obviously helps keep the slugs
and snails down in the bugs. So attracting the blue tits and the birds
to the plot is very important. And also obviously as it's winter time at
the moment, it's good to feed the birds because it's not much food around
for the birds at the moment. Obviously they can be snow on the ground
or the ground can be frosted over and rock hard, so then they won't
be able to dig the worms out and stuff like that. So you need
to encourage the birds to your garden by feeding them. And yeah, it
can be expensive, but it is nice to see different writers of birds down
at my alotment. I do love seeing them flying in and out. And
yet they can attract rats and squirrels to the plot tweet the seeds. But
it's swings a roundabouts with anything. You just have to bite the bullets sometimes
and just go with what you think is best. So I do love to
attract the birds down to my plot. We're talking about the feathered once here,
but yeah, we try and get as many different varieties of bird feed,
because different varieties of bird feed will attract different birds down to the allotment.
And I've had like blue teds, have had finchers, have had sparrows.
You don't see many blackbirds throw down at my plot. That is one
thing I don't say. I don't see many blackbirds. So if anyone's got
any tips on attracting blackbirds down to my plot, please do let me know,
because I do like to see blackbirds as they're lovely. You just don't
see many of them these days down on the plot. I don't know why,
whether they're more shy, But when I used to live at my parents'
house, it used to be a blackbird in the garden what lived there all
the time? You used to attack you because they've got birds nesting in the
hedges and stuff like that. But I do want to get some blackbirds down
at my plot, So please do let me know in passing the me message
how I can attract blackbirds to my allotment, as I would like to know.
And also I've got a pond down at my plot which I've had in
for a couple of years, and every year I make sure that I've got
some fogs born in it to get the frogs hatching, well, the tadpoles
hatching into frogs. Because the more folks that you have down at your plot,
obviously they'll go around eating all the fox but eating all the sugs and
snales up and out of everything, from the birds to the fogs. I'd
say the frogs are the main thing that I want to concentrate on getting on
the plot because frogs do a fantastic amount of work. And obviously fogs you'll
see around the garden more when it's wet and when it's stormy and horrible,
because fogs like to be out of the rain, and obviously when it's raining
that's when the slugs come out as well. So frogs are a vital thing
to your allotment. If you can get fogs on your allotment, you're laughing
because they will help you so much. They'll save so much pain and misery
from everything getting eaten. They're literally going around scooping them up for you at
night time and in the rainy weather. So it's good to look after your
allotment. The next thing is what I want to start looking out for on
the plot is I want to start looking after the creepy crawlies and stuff like
that. I need to get some bug houses. That's one thing I do
want to get down on the plot. So that's going to be his next
thing, to get some bug houses. We've sorted out the birds, we've
sorted out the frogs. Now we're going to be getting some bug huts.
You can actually make your own if you're looking around on lying how to make
them, or you can purchase them like you'll get your lady birds you earwigs
and stuff like that hiding in them. Butterflies you can get a butterfly house
as well. I might get one of the buttders this year a butterfly house.
So I've got on my list that I want a butterfly house, a
bug hut, and I would love a couple of hedgehog houses down at my
plot, but they are quite expensive. So we might get a couple of
hedgehog homes this year. So stay tuned. If we do get some hedgehog
homes, we'll keep you updated and we'll post some pictures of them, or
if anyone wants to send me some, feel free. But yeah, keep
listening to these podcasts that we'll be able to get one. They are quite
expensive, but yeah, I'd love some hedgehog homes down on my plot as
obviously, Again hedgehogs are fantastic for down at the allotment, so we might
look into that. And I do know that I've got I've once seen a
hedgehog down at my plot. You were hibernating in my polytunnel, so we
have had traces of hedgehogs down on my plot. So yeah, possibly we
may looking to getting that soon. If you know when the best time is
to put a hedgehog house out. Obviously the hibernating at this time a year,
aren't they do? Let me know when I need to put one out
if anybody's got any experience with hedgehogs. So hopefully we can get stuff sorted
this year. My plot is going to look absolutely fantastic this year. Trust
me. We are going to have the best looking allotment around in Sheffield and
in the UK. You can all miss that that. If it's lucky rubbish
people, let me know, please do. But yeah, I am certainly
in a good mood for my allotment this year and the amount of working time
and effort and putting in is unbelievable. And as I've recorded this episode,
we have already recorded Saturdays and Sunday's episode, so make sure you click that
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Saturday and Sunday. This has come out late on Friday night, so you
may even be listening to this on Saturday morning as well. So I hope
you've enjoyed it. Please do leave some feedback, Please do hit the rating
button as well, as it all helps towards pushing my podcast out. I
hope you've enjoyed today's episode. Until next time, remember keep smiling, keep
shining, and keep gardening with Bed everyone, And that wraps up another episode
of Gardening with Ben. Thank you for joining me in this journey. Remember
every seed planted is a step towards a greener world, and every day is
a chance to grow something beautiful. Keep nurturing your gardens and your souls.
Until next time, I'm Gardening with Ben, reminding you to let your garden
be your sanctuary. Happy gardening, and see you in the next episode.
Remember, keep smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening with Ben.