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Speaker 1: Welcome to Gardening with Ben. You'll go to podcast for

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all things green and growing in twenty twenty five. Whether

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you're a seasoned gardener, a budding enthusiast, or just curious

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about cultivating your own slice of nature, you're in the

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right place. Join me Ben as we explore practical tips,

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inspiring stories, and the latest trends in gardening to make

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your outdoor space bloom with life, from allotment adventures to

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wildlife friendly gardening. I'm here to help you grow your

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passion and read the rewards. So grab your gloves, roll

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up your sleeves, and let's get started on this year's

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gardening journey. Hey everyone, and welcome back to Gardening with

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Ben for another brand new podcast. It's Friday Fridays here.

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The weekend is finally upon us pretty soon. So what

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is happening this weekend? It is the Big Bird Watch. Yes,

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we will be watching the birds, the feathered variety of birds,

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and we will be counting them to see how many

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different varieties see or how many birds come down at once.

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And it's quite hard, obviously, you will say that it's

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best to capture within an hour how many birds you

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see at one time. And because obviously you'll see a

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blueted come have some seed and then it'll fly off again.

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But it's how many birds you see in one go

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is how it counts. I believe I need to read

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up on that. But what can we do for the

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birds in our garden? How can we encourage the birds

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to come down? And what is the purpose of bothering

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to feed the birds in our garden? Obviously I love

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seeing the birds at my atment. I was down at

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the allotment the last weekend and all I could hear

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was the birds singing. It was absolutely beautiful. And obviously

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there's not many birds around at the moment because some

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are migrated, etc. Some are hibernated, and yeah, you don't

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see as many birds around at this time of year,

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but the birds that you do see are absolutely gorgeous.

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And we had the robin come down in my shed

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at the weekend and it just sat there and I

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managed to get a fantastic photo. If you've not seen

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that photo, check it out. It's on my Instagram and

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on my Facebook. And my goal this weekend is going

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to be to try and get a robin to come

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and land in my hand and take a photo of it.

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That is what I want to try and do. That

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would make an absolutely fantastic photo. But robbins are really

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really tame, So hopefully we will get that robin to

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land in this hand and get that photo. And obviously

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different birds like different seed or varieties out there. Obviously

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you've got your fat balls, which robin's like your blut.

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It's like you've got your meal worms, which robins again,

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like you've got your sunflower seeds, and you've got your

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peanuts as well. There's many different varieties out there. You

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can also help the birds, the blackbirds that are and

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get some Sultan amazons. They absolutely love them. So I

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purchased some Sultan amazons this weekend to put out for

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them because I love seeing the blackbirds as well. The

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blackbirds make up lovely singing sound while you're down there.

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We used to have some blackbirds in our old house

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garden and you used to walk down garden and they

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used to like fly at you because they've got some

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babies in a nest nearby. They're really really protective of

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the babies, the black But why should we encourage birds

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to our garden? Well, the reason why we need to

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encourage the births of the garden is because they are

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natural predators. They will come and they will eat the

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slugs in your garden. So if you've got lots of

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birds coming down in your garden, the chances are they'll

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fly into one of your vegetables and get the slugs

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the insects out of your vegetables and out of your flowers.

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So obviously attracting the birds to your garden is another thing,

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but there is downsides. Obviously, they can attract rats, they

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can attract mice, they can attract squirrels to your garden.

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I don't mind squirrels in my garden. I absolutely love

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seeing the squirrels. Yes, they can be a pain, they

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can pull stuff up, they can eat some stuff, and

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they can eat all your seed in your seed feeders

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and all the peanuts. But I don't mind seeing the

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squirrels down in my garden. And obviously we've got a

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cat on our allotment site, so if there's rats and

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mice around, the cat will catch them. So everything works

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in its own way. Obviously, if you've got it in

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your garden, you're not You don't necessarily want that some

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mice in your garden. Do you. But I don't mind

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on my allotment as long as nothing's harming me. I'm

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all for the wildlife in the garden and I'm going

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to try and do more to encourage the wildlife in

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our garden. And one of the things what I did

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last weekend is I must have spent about thirty pounds

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on bird stuff. This is my hobby. At the end

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of the day, I'd rather spend money on my allotment

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than waste it away on rubbish. So we've been obviously

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getting with purchased some peanuts, We purchased some bird seed,

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with purchased some sunflower seed. With purchased five new bird feeders,

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yes five, so I've got I'll have about nine up

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in total, so hopefully we'll be getting the birds flocking

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to our allotment and enjoying them. We've bought some sewet balls.

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We've bought some sewet blocks to put in our set

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block holders, because we've got some new ones of those

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this year, so we need to fill them up. We've

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also got some raisins and sultanas because we want to

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feed the blackbirds down at the allotment. I want to

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see more blackbirds down at my a lotment, and obviously

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the different types of birds se can attract different birds,

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so I'm hoping to start attracting the green finchers and

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chaffinches as obviously I always see the bluet's and the

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robbins down there, but I don't often see them chaffinches

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or green finchers down there. So hopefully we'll get lots

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more varieties of birds coming and hopefully helping them and

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looking after them, because that's what we want to do.

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We want to attract the birds down to our allotment.

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I absolutely love it. We've got up three bird houses now,

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We've got two up for bluets, we've got one up

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for sparrows as well, and I'm looking at investing in

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getting some robbing houses as well. So obviously they're nesting

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nearby because we've got lots of robbins down on our plot,

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so they're obviously nesting somewhere. But what I want to

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do is try and attract more, more and more birds

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to my garden. And I'm even looking at getting an

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owl house because my allotment is like not too far

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away from like woods and stuff, and it's pretty an

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open site. So if I could attract an owl to

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our site, that would be absolutely fantastic. So if anybody's

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got any owl houses, let me know. I've heard a

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look online. I've researched them, and I just fancy having

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an owl on my plot because I've got my wildlife

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cameras up and everything now, so to see an owl

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on one of my wildlife cameras here be phenomenal. But

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we can we can try different things. There's plenty of

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different houses out there for different birds to come and

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visit the plot. I just want to do my little

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bit and encourage the wildlife. And like I said, I've

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not got a garden. My allotment is my garden, so

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I don't mind investing in putting money into my plot

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and enjoying the rewards as it is the thing that

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helps me with my mental health. So I hope that

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you're all going to get involved in the Big bird

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watch this weekend, even if it's just buying one bird feeder,

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as if you're wanting to get involved, like I went

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to Morrison's and their bird feeder were five pound and

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it comes filled with seed, So you can just go

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out and get one of those and stick it up

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and if you're wanting to get involved with on Saturday

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and Sunday, put it out on Friday and a few

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days before the Big Bird Watch, and then the birds

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will be able to find it and see it, and

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then you'll be able to get involved in the Big

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Bird Watch at the weekend. And let me know how

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you get on. Let me know what birds you see

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in your garden. I'd love to hear what you get.

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And hopefully we get some good footage down at the

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allotment tomorrow because that's what we want, some decent footage

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and some great photos. So until next time, everyone, remember,

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keep smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening with everyone. Thanks

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for tuning in to today's episode of Gardening with Ben.

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I hope you've enjoyed our chat and picked up some

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tips to help your garden and allotment pride. Don't forget

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to stay connected with me on all social media for

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even more gardening inspiration, updates and behind the scenes content.

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You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Just

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button and join our growing community of garden lovers. Until

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next time, everyone, remember, keep smiling, keep shining, and keep

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gardening with Ben