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Welcome to Gardening with Ben, the
podcast where we dig into the soil of

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our gardens and the depths of our
green funds. I'm your host, Ben,

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here to guide you through the joints
of gardening, from sowing seeds to

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reaping bountiful harvests. Each episode will
explore tips, tricks and tails from the

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garden and allotment, sharing insights from
ourself and stories from our own back garden

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adventures. Whether you're a seasoned gardener
or just getting your hands dirty for the

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first time, there's something here for
everyone, So grab your brew and gardening

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gloves and let's get growing. With
Gardening with Ben. Hello, and welcome

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to this episode for today talking about
Nature's Neighbors, the podcast that we're delivering

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and fostering a thriving haven for the
birds and wildlife in your garden and an

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allotment. In each episode, we're
going to delve into the world of birds,

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wildlife, plants, tips, advice, and creating a sand trait that

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welcomes our feathered friends and creatures into
our garden and our allotment, and creating

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cozy habitat where we'll guide you through
the joys of adding the nature into your

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backyard and the benefits behind it.
So grab your binoculars and your gardening gloves.

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It's time to the nurture the wild
side of your green space in your

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garden and an allotment. So in
this episode, we're going to talk about

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why it's so important to get the
wildlife and the birds into your garden.

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And to be honest, when I
first come a plot, for the first

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few years, I weren't bothered whatsoever
about looking after the birds or the wildlife,

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and I just thought, I'll just
grow my fruit of my vegetables and

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there we'll have it. Will be
looking after what I need to do in

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my allotment. We're growing up fruit
and veg and that's all I'm bothered about.

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We don't need to bother about anything
else. And yeah, I had

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some successful crops and stuff like that. But also you get a lot of

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pests and stuff down at your plot. So what I started looking into is

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natural ways of getting rid of pests. And the general answer to a lot

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of that was birds and wildlife,
because birds and wildlife will obviously help get

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rid of pests. And the reason
why birds will get rid of pests is

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that they'll come down they'll eat the
slugs, they'll eat the snails, and

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they'll get rid of them from out
of your allotment and garden, so you

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won't have as many slugs and cells. You'll still get plenty of trust me,

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they won't eat them all unfortunately,
but it will help reduce the numbers

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down on your plot. And obviously
the same goes for wildlife. If you

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attract hedgehogs so frogs to the plot, they will also eat the slugs and

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snales. So encouraging wildlife to your
plot is very important. And over the

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last couple of years I've put more
and more effort into looking after the wildlife

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on the plot. I've got two
bird houses up. And when I first

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put on my bird houses up literally
and this is the genuine trove. Within

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about thirty minutes of putting it up, I had blueteds coming to inspect them

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and look around to see if they
were habitable for them to move into.

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And within a day they started building
the nests in the bird boxes and I

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was so amazed, and they laid
some bluted eggs and I got some baby

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bluet It's on my allotments and all
the time you could see the blue it's

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flying in and out, in and
out with all the grubs and the worms

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and the slugs to feed the youngsters, and that obviously helps keep the slugs

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and snails down in the bugs.
So attracting the blue tits and the birds

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to the plot is very important.
And also obviously as it's winter time at

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the moment, it's good to feed
the birds because it's not much food around

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for the birds at the moment.
Obviously they can be snow on the ground

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or the ground can be frosted over
and rock hard, so then they won't

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be able to dig the worms out
and stuff like that. So you need

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to encourage the birds to your garden
by feeding them. And yeah, it

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can be expensive, but it is
nice to see different writers of birds down

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at my alotment. I do love
seeing them flying in and out. And

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yet they can attract rats and squirrels
to the plot tweet the seeds. But

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it's swings a roundabouts with anything.
You just have to bite the bullets sometimes

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and just go with what you think
is best. So I do love to

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attract the birds down to my plot. We're talking about the feathered once here,

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but yeah, we try and get
as many different varieties of bird feed,

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because different varieties of bird feed will
attract different birds down to the allotment.

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And I've had like blue teds,
have had finchers, have had sparrows.

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You don't see many blackbirds throw down
at my plot. That is one

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thing I don't say. I don't
see many blackbirds. So if anyone's got

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any tips on attracting blackbirds down to
my plot, please do let me know,

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because I do like to see blackbirds
as they're lovely. You just don't

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see many of them these days down
on the plot. I don't know why,

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whether they're more shy, But when
I used to live at my parents'

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house, it used to be a
blackbird in the garden what lived there all

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the time? You used to attack
you because they've got birds nesting in the

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hedges and stuff like that. But
I do want to get some blackbirds down

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at my plot, So please do
let me know in passing the me message

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how I can attract blackbirds to my
allotment, as I would like to know.

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And also I've got a pond down
at my plot which I've had in

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for a couple of years, and
every year I make sure that I've got

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some fogs born in it to get
the frogs hatching, well, the tadpoles

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hatching into frogs. Because the more
folks that you have down at your plot,

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obviously they'll go around eating all the
fox but eating all the sugs and

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snales up and out of everything,
from the birds to the fogs. I'd

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say the frogs are the main thing
that I want to concentrate on getting on

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the plot because frogs do a fantastic
amount of work. And obviously fogs you'll

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see around the garden more when it's
wet and when it's stormy and horrible,

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because fogs like to be out of
the rain, and obviously when it's raining

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that's when the slugs come out as
well. So frogs are a vital thing

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to your allotment. If you can
get fogs on your allotment, you're laughing

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because they will help you so much. They'll save so much pain and misery

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from everything getting eaten. They're literally
going around scooping them up for you at

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night time and in the rainy weather. So it's good to look after your

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allotment. The next thing is what
I want to start looking out for on

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the plot is I want to start
looking after the creepy crawlies and stuff like

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that. I need to get some
bug houses. That's one thing I do

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want to get down on the plot. So that's going to be his next

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thing, to get some bug houses. We've sorted out the birds, we've

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sorted out the frogs. Now we're
going to be getting some bug huts.

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You can actually make your own if
you're looking around on lying how to make

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them, or you can purchase them
like you'll get your lady birds you earwigs

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and stuff like that hiding in them. Butterflies you can get a butterfly house

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as well. I might get one
of the buttders this year a butterfly house.

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So I've got on my list that
I want a butterfly house, a

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bug hut, and I would love
a couple of hedgehog houses down at my

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plot, but they are quite expensive. So we might get a couple of

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hedgehog homes this year. So stay
tuned. If we do get some hedgehog

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homes, we'll keep you updated and
we'll post some pictures of them, or

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if anyone wants to send me some, feel free. But yeah, keep

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listening to these podcasts that we'll be
able to get one. They are quite

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expensive, but yeah, I'd love
some hedgehog homes down on my plot as

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obviously, Again hedgehogs are fantastic for
down at the allotment, so we might

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look into that. And I do
know that I've got I've once seen a

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hedgehog down at my plot. You
were hibernating in my polytunnel, so we

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have had traces of hedgehogs down on
my plot. So yeah, possibly we

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may looking to getting that soon.
If you know when the best time is

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to put a hedgehog house out.
Obviously the hibernating at this time a year,

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aren't they do? Let me know
when I need to put one out

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if anybody's got any experience with hedgehogs. So hopefully we can get stuff sorted

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this year. My plot is going
to look absolutely fantastic this year. Trust

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me. We are going to have
the best looking allotment around in Sheffield and

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in the UK. You can all
miss that that. If it's lucky rubbish

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people, let me know, please
do. But yeah, I am certainly

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in a good mood for my allotment
this year and the amount of working time

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and effort and putting in is unbelievable. And as I've recorded this episode,

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we have already recorded Saturdays and Sunday's
episode, so make sure you click that

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follow button, that notified button,
and there will be new podcasts out on

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Saturday and Sunday. This has come
out late on Friday night, so you

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may even be listening to this on
Saturday morning as well. So I hope

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you've enjoyed it. Please do leave
some feedback, Please do hit the rating

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button as well, as it all
helps towards pushing my podcast out. I

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hope you've enjoyed today's episode. Until
next time, remember keep smiling, keep

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shining, and keep gardening with Bed
everyone, And that wraps up another episode

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of Gardening with Ben. Thank you
for joining me in this journey. Remember

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every seed planted is a step towards
a greener world, and every day is

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a chance to grow something beautiful.
Keep nurturing your gardens and your souls.

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Until next time, I'm Gardening with
Ben, reminding you to let your garden

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be your sanctuary. Happy gardening,
and see you in the next episode.

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Remember, keep smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening with Ben.