Holly - A Great Tree for Wildlife . . .

[@CheshireCat6639]

No need to tell us who you are now Joel🎉 great army of wildlife lovers hang on to your every word, your knowledge is amazing,im still learning something new every week, im still on catch up, ty keep em coming🎉

[@camnature1147]

Wow, so so beautiful. I love this place already. 💕 it so much. Thanks fore sharing

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Thank you, so much! I have just subscribed to your channel, such wonderful footage of birds, I particularly liked the Barred Owlet, Shikra, Treepie & Blue Magpie bathing and drinking from the same pool. The Emerald Dove is a beauty too! Thank you for becoming part of our community, keep posting the videos :)

[@donnageorge-henderson5419]

Ahhh, quite an underrated tree... Very beneficial to a lot of pollinators. Must move mine into a better location 😎

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

They certainly are Donna. Well worth the wait for maturity 😊👍

[@223cw7]

Can you do updates on any of the ponds you’ve built? I would love to see how they look after a while when they’re matured.

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Of course. I have a wildlife pond montage that I will upload in the next few days. Thank you for the support and suggestion 😊👍

[@donnageorge-henderson5419]

There's a few videos on this channel already 😁

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Thanks Donna. Will upload a few montage clips soon 😊👍

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Hi again - not sure whether you'll see this update but I have recently uploaded a short video of a few of the other ponds designed and created, and of course more established - you can find it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oHiUqGqDis2bjtU Hope all is good where you are - stay safe, best wishes - Joel

[@223cw7]

Wild Your Garden with Joel Ashton Wow, thank you for remembering me and of course thank you for uploading the video. You’re the best

[@453421abcdefg12345]

We do not have Holly down here in the South of France, but the Holly Blue lays on Wayfaring trees, they do not seem to develop small imagoes like I have seen Holly Blue feeding on Wayfaring tree in UK, and for food for the birds we have Jobi berry trees, they are covered in Redstarts at this time of year, they just hover in front of the bunches of berries and feast on them, the Holly also gives a safe and sheltered roosting place during the cold winter months for many birds, as well as a nice green backdrop to the garden. Stay safe! Chris B.

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Interesting about the Wayfaring trees being used for Holly blue Chris. I’ve seen Black Redstarts in the north of France - usually on the top of a house singing!

[@SereneSoakingSounds]

I think I officially watched way too much KZbin in the past 24hours, just because of how much I enjoy this channel 🤣💚💖 God bless you all, and thank you again for all of these awesome videos!

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Haha! I am so glad you are enjoying it, I shall be uploading more videos regularly, thanks to the support from so many people, including you - it really does make a difference. Take good care, best wishes to you - Joel

[@Hayley-sl9lm]

Where I am in the USA, in my city these are on our "noxious" list, because they're non-native and supposedly invasive. I say "supposedly" because in 3 years I've only pulled up maybe one seedling, and removed 1 sucker from under the fence between my yard and my neighbor's (my neighbor has one right across the fence from us). I can vouch that even in this foreign land, birds appreciate the cover it provides. Like 100% of the time it has birds in it, and I can't see them but I can definitely hear them! And when it blooms, it definitely attracts a crazy amount of bees, even some of our native bumble bees like it. Weirdly I don't see a lot of birds eating it here, they must eat some of it but maybe it's just not their favorite. If I had this on my property, and didn't have/couldn't afford a native tree of an appreciable size to give berries/nesting/pollen resources, or if I was waiting for my native species to get mature enough, and I was in an urban area not nearby a natural area I would keep one of these probably 🤷. Just for the cover value alone.

[@amiladhananjaya766]

I watched your videos ,So there are very interesting.I love this concept.I like to make my wildlife garden. Thank you. I'm from Sri lanka

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Thank you Amila, I am so pleased they are helpful - we need as many places for nature to find refuge as possible, thank you for your input :)

[@val-janemorley2270]

Good day on Good Friday, Yes. As a retired garden designer, I’ve planned and made my garden here (North Somerset) a curvy, suburban design but with wildlife in mind at all times. Deep frog pond with grass and Ragged Robin plants surrounding it, Hollies, circular herb garden, Dwarf Lavender hedging, 2 Apple trees, evergreen shrubs etc. Oh. Something of interest for you maybe - when my White Currant bush is laden with berries, hedgehogs suddenly appear (usually a mature pair) and spend an hour or two eating up those fallen fruits - noisy, enjoying themselves.

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Good day to you too Val-Jane :) Welcome to the channel, and thanks for letting me know about the White Currant, I know they will eat some fallen fruits but hadn't heard about that :) Your garden sounds wonderful and you're clearly doing it the right way, with many rewards - I hope you have a great weekend, best wishes - Joel

[@capicuaaa]

I have a holly in the garden but I don't know if it's a native... The one in the video is stunning!

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Ooooh - you are lucky, either way :) I bet it will bring in the birds in winter and it's a favourite of the Holly Blue butterfly and probably others in Portugal - let me know what you see using it :) Take good care Daniela - best wishes, Joel

[@dogwhistel127]

i have so far too 4 or5 foot no berries yet i bought 3 last year and this year i got 3 more all around 3 foot i have a verry small garden, i have 11 sea buckthorn for the birds and around 20 rowan i must get around to count those.

[@SandyKH]

Thanks for all your posts. I'm thinking about planting native holly as foundation plants in my garden. Can you tell me how to get berries on my holly. Tell me about the male and female varieties.

[@dbatesdob]

Is there a particular " type " of holly you would especially recommend.

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

I use the native Ilex Aquifolium 😊👍

[@MrC-ov1ht]

Hiya Joel would you have any recommendations for any online nurseries selling trees?

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Hi - just leaving for work - could you send an email to [e-mail] and I'll give you some reliable contacts - many thanks Mr C, best wishes - Joel

[@MrC-ov1ht]

Hi Joel I’m going to get a Holly next month but could you just clarify; I understand you need male and female to produce berries so if I plant a Aquifolium then do I need to plant another variety?

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Hi there - I've just sent you an email on this, it's rather complicated and a pretty lengthy answer! Hope it helps :) Thanks again - Joel

[@ev1677]

Really want want for wildlife but only have space for one so wont get berries 😔

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

I understand, it really is difficult - I think some places sell them according to whether male or female, it's only the females that have berries, both the hollies in my garden got there of their own accord, my old neighbour who unfortunately had to move to sheltered accommodation had several mature holly trees and I'm convinced this is where my two came from - however it was pretty devastating to see that these hollies were felled by the new owners within weeks of them moving in - plus the female on the right hand side gets regularly chopped if it dares to go over the fence by a centimetre! However, quite pleasingly it doesn't stop it growing new branches and of course higher and higher each year ;) Best wishes, Joel

[@ev1677]

@Wild Your Garden with Joel Ashton yeah most places don't seem to specify whether male or female so I am now looking up by type, I've found a blue prince so now just need a female and I'll plant quite close together, not ideal but better than nothing and I can just manage the width so they don't grow into my flowers I suppose. They will be squished in the small space I have beside the Japanese cheese wood that is an evergreen and is on the back of my garden and forms a wall between my garden and the apartment block communial garden. I've ordered a honeysuckle to climb over the west fence and am lucky that I have no garden neighbours, my garden is the only private one in the block and west fence is next to a train yard so no fear of things getting chopped. People really are strange, I get wanting to have colour and your garden to look nice but having everything so neat amd perfect as if it's a living room will always be strange to me, I enjoy a garden because it's outside and want to feel like I'm outside like when we used to play in the woods as kids. I'm no fan of cutting down trees but when we moved in our entire garden was bordered by trees and very little soil, with artifical grass. It's a north garden so gets limited sun as it is and the trees would block all our Eastern and western sun as the apartment block is too high and we get no sun from the south at all and so u made the decision to cut down a couple trees to allow light in so I can plant wildflowers and pollinator loved plants for wildlife whilst keeping the precious hawthorn, i will make up for it by covering vertical spaces with my honeysuckle and Holly which are more beneficial than the non natives that were there. They weren't mature trees so I wasn't destroying any bird habitat and the birds I get use the large cheeswoods which have formed a dense cover like a bush for them and also is in flower now for the bees. I left trees around either side of the cheese wood for structure and landing pads for our regular visiting Robins, Great tits and dunnocks also. Luckily I rent from family so have permission to do absolutely anything I want with the garden and would like to get rid of the artifical grass but alas it isn't cheap and I'm not particularly handy so my small borders and pots will have to do!

[@raphlvlogs271]

they are both tolerant to dry shade and poor soils.

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Great advice, thank you :) Best wishes, Joel

[@feargach2107]

Holly trees are either male or female and, needless to say, only the females bear fruit. So be sure to order both genders and plant some of each. Alternatively take cuttings from female and male trees to be sure you have both in your garden.

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Well said 😊👍

[@CalisthenicTraining]

Does there need to be certain distance for it to bear fruit? I don't have the space for 2 but I still want one

[@emtronea1]

Pitty there so expensive and you need 2 😵‍💫