The UK Has It ALL WRONG - Here’s Why

[@amandaclarke3116]

My local council were letting two large patches of land near to my house go wild. They had put up signs stating that this was their intention. The location was perfect, it was next to a large stream. Yesterday I took a walk down there only to find everything had been mowed to the ground and the signs taken down. Words cannot express how sad and angry I am right now.

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Oh boy, so sorry to hear this Amanda, but as you probably know this won't be an isolated incident - it's all about being seen to be doing the right thing, without any thought or understanding about WHY it's being done - just a box ticking exercise and now all those creatures that made that habitat home have probably been destroyed along with it, or left "homeless" now. Just awful to read and I absolutely empathise with how you feel. I really am sorry about this, genuinely. Time for a complaint letter I think, asking them to justify this - I would hazard a guess it's a "let it bloom in June" effort and now July is well underway they've "done their bit". Best wishes, Joel

[@dontalkt2meboutheros]

Some people don't understand and complain. Sometimes it can be the local councillors.

[@amandaclarke3116]

@@dontalkt2meboutheros I think you're right. A lot of people like to walk their dogs there, so I suspect it was the local residents that complained.

[@george-1961]

Heartbreaking when we know the consequences of their actions 😔

[@jolewis6913]

It is heartbreaking. You’d think they would know how to manage it by now. Around here, the odd neighbour or business will chop a tree down and that saddens me too.

[@Debbie-henri]

There was a beautiful little flood meadow within walking distance of my home. It had so many strange plants I'd never seen anywhere else in the UK (and I've been fascinated by wild flowers since I was given my first wildlife book at age 7). In the meadow, there was this tiny form of Harebell that's smaller than the forms described in UK books and websites. I used to like to visit this meadow through the seasons, seeing what new things would turn up. Then they planted trees all over it in a rewilding scheme. Common stuff like Sycamore, Rowan. I know we need trees, but to do this was absolutely unnecessary. The only work it 'really' needed was someone to cut back the bracken and stop it overtaking the area. To plant these trees all over it is sacrilege. I'm waiting on speaking to my neighbour as he has a friend who is a bit of a meadow expert. I want to see if there is any way we could legally transfer some turf to a protected area before it's too late. Once these trees are full grown, a lot of these flowers are just going to die out.

[@adrabruzzese7610]

Hi Joel, I'm so grateful to have found your channel! Thank you so much for all you do for the enviroment and by using your platform to spread the word. When I started gardening 13 years ago, I wanted to create a manicured garden, I refused to use any chemicals including fertilizer luckily but as I noticed more polinators, I decided to start planting what they like which attracted so many birds, who nest on my property. My garden is very wild but neat and what makes it so special is the wildlife. I've added so many trees too. It's a peice of heaven of sights and sounds. I wish more could realize the peace they would get watching all of the creatures that visit and live on their land if they just planted a few things. The less manicured my yard is the less work I have to do to.

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Your comment has made my weekend Adra, it really has. This is absolutely the way to be gardening, and as you say wild doesn't have to mean messy, a formal garden can be just as good for nature and more beautiful too. Your last sentence is so very important and I hope a lot of people get to read your wonderful comment. So pleased you're being rewarded for your thought, consideration and LESS effort. Thank you so much, I really appreciate it. Best wishes, Joel

[@adrabruzzese7610]

I'm glad my comment made your weekend. I forgot to mention I live in the Boston area on a tiny urban lot. Size absolutely does not matter. I have about 60% native perrenials and a good amount of host plants.

[@sunnylove1008]

In our area they are beginning to allow wild plants grow in roadside ditches now so they don't have to mow on the steep grade. So nice to see cattails and redwing blackbirds in town!

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Wow, so good to read this - this is exactly what is needed, are people REALLY going to have a breakdown if there's some longer grass or native flowers where they're NOT in the way? Saves money too and the rewards are many :) Best wishes, Joel

[@Patrianos]

Thank you for coming to our great and green country. We love having you here! Cheers!

[@heartofaqua1497]

Nice to see, that such places still exist - thank you so much for showing us and for your effort! ❤

[@mitjapodreka9250]

Thank you for your kind words about Slovenia. Watching your videos I was inspired and encouraged to start digging a pond this fall. First in the garden in the center of Slovenian capital, and later on a countryside plot. Wild meadow is already growing there.

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Thank YOU Mitja and to every Slovene both past and present that clearly cares so much about the country they live in and the natural world around them. Since I left to come back to the UK I have spent every single day longing to return and I will do, it will be the second of many many trips I think. I stopped in Ljubljana for a few hours before the flight home and what a wonderful city it is, I will be sure to spend more time there when I return and hopefully we can meet up and I can see this pond in person and of course the one in the countryside. I confess that when in Ljubljana I think I spent around 10 minutes looking at the ice cream "menu" in Cacao... I have never seen so many flavours 🤣 I am so pleased that you were inspired to make not just one, but two ponds and I really hope I can see them in person one day. Very best wishes, Joel

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

@mitjapodreka9250 - PS! I forgot to say that if you need any help/advice when you are starting the pond then always feel free to send an email to me at [e-mail] - I am really trying to think how I can return to Slovenia before the end of the year anyway, I was considering visiting the coastal areas to see if I can see the butterfly migration that I witnessed in Croatia at the end of September, I believe they will have to go past Isola and Piran anyway! ☺

[@eywasdaughter]

People are absolutely the key 🙂 - willing hands and loving hearts for their local natural environment. This movement is coming back to the UK - I think we are seeing the signs despite the many challenges, we just have to keep building the momentum and getting the message out there 🤗. This channel is doing a tremendous job to help and inspire. This meadow is so lovely - a living tapestry of life. I love all of those plants featured! 😁👍🦋 Sadly I'm currently having to have my whole back garden ripped up and have lost the vast majority of my plants - the rats are back in number and we are having to clear everything. It's every time the nearby river floods. Absolutely devastated 😢, so I really need these beautiful videos and the wildflowers in them to keep going at the moment 🌿👍 Thank you as always.

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Agreed, so much. I wish our government would start to listen and to act, but it always seems that money talks louder than any declining species. It's one of the reasons I started doing what I do 20 years ago and of course the book and 4-5 years ago this channel, to help and encourage others to do what they can in their own space - after all, even our government can't dictate what we do in our own gardens! So sorry to hear about the back garden - hopefully it will allow you to concentrate more on the front. Very best wishes - Joel

[@Teresa-mu4kw]

Thankyou for sharing Joel, apart from the beautiful background, you know so much and have the expertise also. It is only 6.30 in the morning here in Aotearoa New Zealand, the sun is still asleep, it my cat is awake and so am I. I will have a look at your online shop too, let’s get wild gardening🎉

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Good morning to you Teresa! So glad you enjoyed this, I had a feeling you would. Slovenia can certainly teach the world a thing or two about how to really care for the environment and those creatures that inhabit it. Best wishes, Joel

[@AmirsAllotment]

This is truly inspirational, great to see how it’s being achieved so well and looks a picture within the landscape, such great example of working with nature and not against it.

[@Knit333]

The Netherlands have it even more wrong😔. However the counsel in my area have adjusted their mowing schedule. There are little strokes of wildflowers along water, in parks, walking- and bikepaths. Lots of yellow rattle. I am guessing that those seeds did not arrive by themselves.

[@kingfisher3011]

Hi Joel I have been where you are many years ago when it was called Yugoslavia lol It was a national park then Stayed at hotel kompas took a rowboat out on Lake Bohinj crystal clear water I will go back one day My own meadow has 40 odd species of wildflowers now !

[@Michael-Bennett]

I need to visit Slovenia. It looks beautiful. I always enjoy your videos and learn from them. Thanks.

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Thank you Michael, I absolutely recommend it - if you want to learn anymore or need help with an itinerary etc then I'm happy to recommend some places that aren't on the usual tourist lists - [e-mail] - feel free any time. But I am so glad you enjoyed this and I really appreciate the encouragement and support - best wishes, Joel

[@double531]

Incredible as always Joel. Unfortunately my local council is spraying constantly even though I have contacted my councillor. Breaks my heart.

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Councils, everywhere, are on my target list as soon as I get some spare time. I hear so much of this and quite heartbreaking information from people that are witnessing this unnecessary destruction on a daily basis. I still cannot fathom the economic benefit in all of this, I won't be the first or the last to say it but the money this costs could so easily be spent elsewhere making a positive difference to residents. Keep writing to them though, don't give up - best wishes, Joel

[@Solstice261]

It looks great but the problem in the UK is that when we see and area like that it's immediately turned to agriculture or pasture. And if we can't we just cut them indiscriminately because grass is just seen as the correct way to maintain a meadow and culturally for some reason it's seen as badly maintained if plants reach above your ankle, we can just look at the response several counties had when the council reduced or stop using pesticides, very good at first but as soon as the plants and weeds appear in verges and such people say it looks unmaintained, what the UK needs is a complete change in philosophy regarding natural and green spaces

[@Debbie-henri]

Ah, but if more and more of us have wild gardens including little bits of mini-meadow (doesn't matter how small), then they will start to link up and make an increasing difference. I haven't owned a television in decades, so I don't know what the British TV gardeners are doing these days. When I did own a TV, it was all Geoffrey Hamilton, and he liked meadows too, and it is very sad indeed that he didn't live a longer life to continue his gentle influence in that direction. But the last time I saw a Beeb gardening programme, they were pouring several tons of gravel all over a garden and another time they were hammering bits of rusty corrugated metal together to look like - a ghetto maybe? (Please don't tell me these so-called gardeners still have a job). So, a lot of influence will still come from garden fashions drawn from television. And with so many more channels available now through terrestrial and satellite, I expect the pressure is still on the side of neatness and colours you can't bear to even look at. When I was working for the DOE, I remember the furore when the Royal Parks made a wildlife garden for the Chelsea Flower Show (1980's), and put a pile of deer droppings in the display. Oh, we roared with laughter at the 'scandal' reported in the media. So, we are still under great pressure to produce attractive meadows bursting with fauna that also looks very pretty. I'm formidable enough to tell my neighbours where to stick it if they challenge me on the 'state' of my garden. No one would dare complain to the council, I'm basically a 5ft Jack Russell. But a lot of people will bow to that pressure from their neighbours, because they don't get the support of 'unification.' Same goes for councils and other authorities, whether they be college grounds, etc. In America, in one state mainly (I think, Pennsylvania ?) there is this movement called the Homegrown National Park. This is a registered collection of people, a quickly growing number of people, that are rewilding, creating meadows, planting native trees, linking together, and swapping information to better their techniques and even offer assistance. Nice to see Americans stepping out of the norm this way, and abandoning those awful, boring, flat slabs of HOA approved green we associate with their version of gardening. But it's exactly what we should be doing here in this country too. I'm no organiser, unfortunately, and nor do I have the least ability to set up a website - but surely someone could. I can provide plenty of ideas (too many probably), but coding is way, way beyond my abilities. One of the principles of this American Homegrown National Park is to add up the acreage of all those people who've registered garden space as 'wild.' Can't remember the exact figure, but it was impressive. Surely we could do that in Britain...France, Germany, the Nederland's, Slovenia, and beyond? Linking up with America too? The world's politicians are demonstrating that they're far from serious about the environment and climate change, maybe we should be showing them by strength of numbers through an association like the US's Homegrown National Park that we take these matters very seriously indeed. But at the moment, we're scattered, individual, showing no unity and strength, and that gives politicians the ability to ignore us. I thought joining the Scottish Green Party was the answer, but it turns out they're just an infiltrated faction of the SNP behind a green flag.

[@Solstice261]

@@Debbie-henri wow, that was a lot of info, i hope everything you said was right, except the whole Scottish greens thing but hey they seem to have broken with SNP because of environmental goals so maybe they are getting their stuff together

[@commentarytalk1446]

You forget development for housing also for the booming population from Migration Policy - and infrastructure development also. Then you need to be aware it's UK Gov Policy for Agriculture due to Market Economics (Global Supply distribution chains) and food pricing politics that drives industrial farming practices that lead to the "Green Deserts" you talk about. The Meadows originally were a by-product of the pace of small-scale mixed agriculture meaing the hay fields and water-meadows could not be cut or grazed all the time during Spring Summer but there was gradual process over these months creating the mosaic that supports so much Wildlife diversity. For councils, the verges should be wilded but the big picture is there should be so much less artificial human environments ie urban and infrastructure build in the first place leaving pockets of verges: The whole macro view point does not work is the problem there.

[@wemuk5170]

@@Solstice261Green politicians are hypocrites. You could visit these Green politicians and see how their gardens are, how they live and travel and no, we cannot trust politicians to start the ball rolling. Look at the mess Germany made, exporting their pollution by buying most of their energy from those countries who care not a hoot about the environment. I well recall when they had demonstrations in London, one particularly loud activist was reported in the Guardian as having flown in from wherever she was touring by plane just for the Extinction Rebellion protest and made no apology for that. Instead she had the audacity to justify herself. That’s how you can see why in the States the food forest grassroots movements into ‘everything or nearly everything perennial’ matter. And is spreading. I have a perennial wild meadow and we also have edible weeds like wild garlic, hairy bittercress, dandelions, clovers, chickweed, cleavers, ribwort plantains (birds love these!) and lambs quarters, perennial kales, etc. Anyone can do it: have a lovely, wild and weedy perennial garden. It just takes time to watch, wait and curate a bit for a perennial meadow. I love the fact that wild plants also attract plenty of predatory wildlife. Nice balance. We are not idiots; we don’t need the politicians (Green, SNP, Tories, Labour) to tell us what to do. Such a joy to watch the birds, bees and ladybugs every morning! Let’s do more!

[@yellard6785]

In towns, wildflower meadows can be mowed around into neat geometrical shapes.. This reduces the "untidy" look.

[@ChopsyMiche]

This is absolutely perfect on every level. I said to Nikki it feels like a huge secret garden kinda place. Its so beautiful, it looks like an absolute dream. The most perfect fairy tale you could ever wish to be a part of. And so much wildlife, each a divine gift from nature. This is pure beauty, the kind that fills your soul with nectar, and changes you on an incredibly deep level. Its wonderful to be part of this incredible journey. Oh my, how I wish the UK were just like this... Thank you 🌻

[@Country_Gent]

Great eposode Joel. I had the chance to visit the ancient meadow at Haugh Woods in Herefordshire today - absolutely sublime!

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Fantastic, thanks so much for this. Yes, it's a beautiful place and we need so much more of it, if they can do it at Haugh Woods there's no excuse for other places - so much less effort and money to maintain places like this than to continually mow, flail, weed-kill etc. Best wishes, Joel

[@spencerf1446]

What a beautiful place and a wonderful philosophy. I work for a local authority that has had to drastically reduce mowing to save money and wildflowers have greatly benefited. They still insist on doing stupid things like spraying the base of hedges and around grave stones and I find it so frustrating. There’s a worrying lack of bees even though there’s so much in flower at the moment.

[@JohnM-du8nv]

Very beautiful. Good to know the butterflies and small critters are still having a good year somewhere!

[@sonjatomazin7516]

Thank you Joel and greetings from Slovenia, my beatiful country.

[@fletchsrv]

Love you channel, a newbie but you're so inspiring. Had a wonderful holiday in Slovenia many years ago, based in Kranska Gora (please excuse my spelling!), visited Bled, Lake Bohinj and had some great cycle rides in the hilly areas. Great video, brings back many happy memories.

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

So glad that you found me and even more glad that you got to experience this fantastic country first hand - I went past Kranjska Gora and the mountain back drop was just breathtaking, stopped at lake Jasna though on the way back to Bohinj after a day out. It will always stay with me and I'm already planning to return - more videos to come on this beautiful place and I hope they bring back many great memories. Thanks ever so much for the encouragement and support, it does make a difference - best wishes, Joel

[@fletchsrv]

@@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton Cheers Joel. Love your channel. Work at a large garden centre and actively promote plants for wildlife and a more naturalistic approach to gardening (I never show customers the pesticides!) Vowed back then to return to Slovenia, not got round to it yet but hopefully one day soon. Many thanks

[@elliotlane3225]

Good points, especially poorly managed spaces. Sadly councils use 'rewilding'and 'no mow' as a means to save money by not cutting verges etc but theres no management or thought put into it and it probably has very little wildlife value. If anything it damages the hard work and messaging on rewilding from yourself and others

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Thanks Elliot, appreciated. Yep, this "no mow" for a month really is more detrimental than keeping it short - so many creatures are invited into this temporary habitat, and then mown down four weeks later along with the grasses! What irks is when this is done along areas that are not detrimental to car users/sight-lines etc and rolling out the "we get complaints if it's left long" response - surely liaising with/explaining to residents the reasons why it needs to be done would be better, and I haven't come across evidence yet that there's any effort in trying to relay this message to people - just a quick "we have to do it otherwise there's complaints" - I do wonder what percentage are complaining though.... Thanks ever so much for your support and encouragement on this, it does make a difference - best wishes, Joel

[@SisterDogmata]

Hey Joel! What a beautiful country to visit, absolutely breath taking! Uk councils could learn a lot from this. They spend a fortune on bedding plants for our local parks which they replant every year when they could sow wildflowers as they only need minimum management once a year. I'm sure it's more beneficial to peoples mental health to see and hear the insects that visit them. I hope you had a fantastic time there, it's been so nice to visit vicariously! Best wishes.

[@NaturePondAdventure]

Looks so amazing, my meadow is so tall and full of grass seed heads now. We had a mother duck and her 11 babies nesting there for sometime. The cover has blown a bit now as the rain has made the grass collapse. It does look really nice even if this is just mainly long grass but there were 4 orchids amongst the grass that we have found. Debating whether it is cut at the end of September or in early Spring 2025

[@Spacey7]

I was up a local hill yesterday with my dogs & took some photos & videos as it was just like that up there. I posted some of the videos & tagged you in one Joel, so you could see it. I'm having real trouble getting things to grow in my big back garden. Most of it's just bare & I've spread a lot of wild flowers & wild grasses in it. I have stinging nettles & blackberry bushes around the outside {mainly to keep the neighbours out} I'm going to trim back the blackberry bushes once they've given their fruits. I'd love some advice from someone with your experience.

[@evalindell2757]

Looks brilliant! I hope my meadow will look that good one day 😉

[@CheshireCat6639]

Absolutely ❤ stunning Joel , im going to share this one with my local council 🎉

[@malcolmbell5266]

Another great video Joel

[@Jimmyandtony]

I have frogbit in my pond. The leaves die in the winter, right? If so, do you recommend trimming off the dying leaves to reduce nutrients in the water? Great video Best, Jimmy and Tony

[@thaojuli]

Slovenia is so great! Thanks for bringing it to all of us here 😊 💚🌏

[@dmnos6824]

When mowing in September how much should you leave uncut? When should you cut this uncut section, April?

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Hi there, it does depend on the size of area you are speaking about of course, but I would always try to leave a reasonable margin around any wildflower meadow which can potentially be left indefinitely. I would also recommend mowing some areas once every two years and some areas on a regular basis, starting in March time it is good to stick to "paths" to be mown throughout the year if that's possible - it's about not creating false habitat for a few weeks for it to be mown down later, when creatures have made it their home. There's a video explaining this in detail on the channel, called "Are You Doing This in Your Garden" and of course if you haven't seen already "No Mow May - The Truth". I hope this helps - best wishes, Joel

[@dmnos6824]

@@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton Size is approx. 190 metres sqaured. I have watched many of your videos, I won't be cutting until September. The uncut bit is to leave habitat for things like butterflys to overwinter in. I have ready your reply and the answer is to leave a bit uncut forever. I remember watching "No Mow May - The Truth" and it made a lot of sense. Many thanks for your reply and keep up the good work.

[@REWILDLIFEVLOG]

Same in Ireland. For the most part the gov is all talk

[@andnowi]

Thr green in front of our house is supposed to be cut twice a year. It was done in, I think, March, and now it's been done again just this week. Is there better advice I can give the council?

[@patriciawight779]

Makes me want to visit Slovenia!

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

You must Patricia, you really must! I can say with 100% confidence that it won't disappoint in any way - the people, the scenery, the food, the roads, the hospitality, the environment... just everything. Best wishes, Joel

[@OzodbekYoldashev-jz9ib]

Ассалому алайкум сиз дунёда жудда хам бахтлий инсон экансиз чунки гўзал табиат қўйнида яшаб шундай гўзал кўрганда кўнгиллар яшнайдигон чиройли манзаралий жойларни кўриб юрасиз

[@kingfisher3011]

Thanks

[@mkats5102]

Beautiful!

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

It really is, there's no denying it :) Best wishes, Joel

[@Hayley-sl9lm]

Do you think that montane sort of soil has an advantage due to it being sort of thinner and less fertile? Makes the flowering species esp. the legumes more competitive w/ grass?

[@kathycat12]

Yes, you must be very careful with fertilizers otherwise it changes the species. Just natural ripe manuer.

[@briannelson3830]

I appreciate your work

[@TheseAreMyHooves]

How is it "managed"? :)

[@alanbrooke144]

By definition if a habitat is managed by people, it isn’t wild.

[@ljslo....]

😊✌️🇸🇮

[@roxammon5858]

How good is their English out there?

[@Vesny86]

Everyone knows at least some English, a lot of us are fluent except older generations.

[@commentarytalk1446]

If you go to South Wales (South of Brecon Beacons) you can see another massive Motorway development. Why is that? It's EU Funding (signs are up) and it's EU/UK Migration Policy: All those Toy Town Houses going up instead of making Wildflower meadows around current towns and villages is the demand for housing for the population boom of millions of new immigrants over past 30 years to keep the economy ticking in effect and the last year target 350,000 new homes was only matched at about 150,000. "Only" does not do it justice, you go up and down the countryside and you see Toy Towns going up everywhere where there were meadows... That's the big Problem the UK has that means it's unlikely to see WIld Flower Meadows. The second problem is: The original Wildflower meadows were everywhere in the UK in Farming areas which were small scale and mixed back around the last War ie still like this in 1940s-50s UK/England. Mechanization came along and sped up the cutting of the Hay Fields and all the wildflowers that were able to live mixing in the long grass: The diversity was because of the SLOW SPEED of human labour using hand-tools to cut the Meadows starting in May and progressing gradually through to September thus you'd have variety of Wild Flower Meadows at all times of the Spring-Summer seasons allowing full life-cycles. Well guess what? Farming has become industrialized in the UK (like many places) there's no room for small scale mixed farms thanks to the UK Gov. Which also due to POLICY ripped out the hedges and now kills off small farms as inviable in the market places of today eg Global Distribution vs Localism and Regulations increasing overhead costs - again the EU shut down all the local abattoirs which caused the mixed small farm to not be viable for another POLICY area. In effect the verges and council stuff around towns and villages is "good" because it tells people that Nature is important but it's inadequate for 2 reasons: 1. The Concrete Island Effect is MASSIVE thanks to all the urban areas and infrastructure which is one of the major causes of heating (aside from Deforestation) 2. The verges are generally token areas compared to the mosaic of habitat of rural meadows as they traditionally were eg Slovenia where you are looks a lot like how it was back in the day. In conclusion you can blame UK POLICY for the problems that are above described making The WildFlower Meadow a challenge to return to.

[@JohnM-du8nv]

I share your despair at times. The problem is that farming can’t go backwards - silage is multiple times more productive than hay. But things like the Knepp estate and all the smaller but numerous projects such as this channel promotes give me hope, plus the various nature reserves and farming schemes. These are all fairly recent occurrences so we are starting to move in the right direction.

[@commentarytalk1446]

@@JohnM-du8nv Yes Silage cuts as you with Rye grass multiple times - one can walk through a lot of that on public footpaths and modern life. You're right, the national parks are good areas to begin focusing more on nature and including farms out there (low on productivity in the hills). But you look at the crazy economic policy that depends on growth and mass migration and the meadows is a tiny token effort on all fronts in the UK. All that artificial material infrastructure = 1. More Consumption (taking more land and resources) 2. More Waste (pollution and toxic infiltration in everything) Anyway it was an uplifting video and solid info so I don't mean to take away from that at all.

[@stephenkeen1384]

It seems that in most places a meadow is a transitory habitat and woody plants will invade and then eventually trees and woodlands will be the vegetation climax - so to preserve them it requires man’s intervention and management. England and its countryside is some of the most beautiful in the world and remarkable for a small island with such a high population, so comparing it with Slovenia seems an unrealistic comparison. I found this video to be unnecessarily pessimistic and comparing two entirely different countries. I commend what you do, but can’t agree with your sentiment here - maybe you could move to Slovenia and find personal happiness.

[@mkats5102]

England is of course a beautiful country with lots of countryside. I think what he means is that he would like England to have even more “wilder” areas, for example, areas that can’t be used for anything else like beside roads, carparks or just even in the countryside. I understand from Joel that a lot of these grassy spaces in England are mowed regularly. It would be wonderful if they were left for nature.

[@nickharvey7233]

We spent 3 weeks in Slovenia last summer. It is indeed stunning. I agree the comparison with the UK is tenuous - these meadows are the result of low-intensity Alpine transhumance (or similar) style grazing. Moreover, the population density of rural Slovenia is comparable to some of the most isolated areas of the Scottish Highlands. I'm afraid that form of agriculture is not tenable in the UK unless you are talking billions upon billions of subsidies, a forced complete restructuring of the UK agriculture sector and billions more set aside to cover increased food imports (as herding a few goats and sheep won't cut the mustard unfortunately). Sorry if this sounds negative - I'm a great supporter of wildflower meadows (having created a vibrant mini-meadow in our own London garden).

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

@stephenkeen1384 - thank you for this, in other videos I do explain that some management is needed to maintain a meadow, they're man-made of course over many hundreds if not thousands of years. But I have to absolutely disagree though that England is home to some of the most beautiful places in the world. There's several bucolic villages dotted about, there's some great scenery etc but when you get right down to it there's no escaping the fact that over time we've lost 97% of wildflower meadows, 250k miles of native hedgerow, over 500k ponds have been lost over the last 100 years and of those remaining 1 in 5 are in a really bad state. Our motorways are littered continually, there is rubbish mile after mile after mile. Here in the UK we've had to create charities to try to combat any damage/help restore places, whether that's the Wildlife Trusts, RSPB, Natural England etc and of course Plantlife who have encouraged creating habitats by not mowing for 4 weeks of the year - after pressure they're now encouraging this through June etc but the message is still clear that it's "No Mow May". There are so many charities that are battling our government, past and present to consider nature and the environment and that's a good indicator that this country is in a deplorable condition when it comes to wildlife. Our own government published a report 2 years ago stating that we are the WORST for polluted rivers in Europe. That's certainly not because we have more people per square metre, but because we generally don't care and after privatisation it's profit over nature every single time. I'll stop there, but there's way more. Believe me, and I am being sincere, if it wasn't for the lies and rigmarole around Brexit I'd pack up everything and move to Slovenia tomorrow - but they don't need my services like the UK does and to be honest, if I was being pessimistic, then I certainly wouldn't have been creating vital habitat for the last 20 years and explaining and showing others how to do it for the last 4 to 5 years, via my book and this YT channel. The UK needs me more than Slovenia does, that's for sure - but it won't stop me thinking of ways to spend more time there and hopefully eventually retire there :) If you ever get a chance to visit Slovenia I recommend it, you'll certainly notice the blindingly obvious difference between the two countries as soon as you return to the UK. Best wishes, Joel

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

@mkats5102 - thank you for this, absolutely this. Best wishes, Joel

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

@@nickharvey7233 Hi Nick, glad you got to experience this beautiful country. I agree re subsidies but I am not saying that farming has to take the "brunt" of this, it's all the other places we could be doing (or not doing!) things that could help in a big way - my response to Steven Keen applies. I agree with the population issue but I address this in my response to Stephen, Slovenia is about the size of the midlands and there's 10 million people there so it is relevant of course, but it's our attitude, it's our government.... here's part of the Consitution of Slovenia: "The Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia adopted on 23 December 1991 contains a number of provisions concerning the protection of the environment: the State is responsible for protecting nature and maintaining a healthy environment; every citizen is obliged to protect nature..." - we really need this in the UK but I doubt I'll see it in my life time :(