10 EASY Tips To HELP WILDLIFE In YOUR Garden This Autumn & Winter

[@maite_reche]

My neighbours think I'm lazy for not cutting the grass or hedges, they even say "if you need tools I can lend them to you"...they don't understand it's not laziness, I'm preserving wildlife in my garden. They complain about deer getting in their gardens and eating their roses, I plant vegetables for them to come to the backyard where they find food, water and shelter when there are hunters in the area and they never eat my roses in the frontyard 😉 I don't mind being the "black sheep" in the neighbourhood, seeing the garden full of birds, insects, squirrels...it's worth it! 😀

[@katrina9993]

The perfect start to the week end ... flowers' insects' birds... in France, it cannot get any better. Many thanks :)

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Thank you Katrina, I really appreciate that :) More France to upload, in fact I'm editing one now about the city/town that thinks of nature first and this includes every resident. Best wishes - Joel

[@kevinking7860]

Well said Joel my front lawn is the only one uncut on our road Ive only been here in Dorset for a year our neighbours are refusing to talk to us anymore but I am ok with that I did try and explain even put a sign up but i refuse to cut it

[@rickwalker5203]

You and Alexandra, Middle Sized Garden, have made my life so easy. My Midwestern Ohio home, US zone 6, is becoming a beautiful English country garden, the wildflower meadow preformed well for its first year. I have a grassy meadow area as well. The grass lawn in the backyard is now just big enough for a table and fire pit. Grass is used a a path way. The front garden (yard) is for the butterfly garden and hosta shade garden. Here to grass is just a path way , mowing is easy, once every few weeks. Mother Nature does most of the watering as well. Come Spring, I’ll focus on more “host” plants for the local butterfly population.

[@slashingbison2503]

I love the middle sized garden! check out Murphys Garden too.

[@CheshireCat6639]

My eldest lives in Glen Forrest Perth WA, so you have reached there ! she loves the wild Aussie garden which is very much welcomed in her area, well they are lucky to have a big area and a creek which fills up in their Winter, its a haven for the little "critters", ha...I was only chatting to her this morning about my ideas for my back garden, she is over at Xmas,she said shes looking forward to my best efforts for 🐞🦗🕷🐌🐛🦋🪲🐝🐜🪰🪱🦠👍

[@riccardom.2908]

Hi Joel, thanks for this important video. These days I am doing a wildgarden stall here in my hometown in Italy. I think I'm the only one in the entire state doing a Christmas stand on this theme. :D In Italy these topics are new and people look at me as if I'm crazy, but many other also look at me with a lot of curiosity. I hope to make a good contribution to this cause. Have a good time

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

What a wonderful thing to do. I really hope you can spread the important message of wildlife gardening and help conserve your local wildlife. Best of luck and keep in touch 😊👍

[@D-H-D]

Hey Joel, a great idea is to take any fallen branches from high winds and dot them around your beds and under bushes. They tend to be dead wood and so already covered in emerald green moss, and normally are gnarly charming pieces. The garden explodes with fungal activity when you do this. Great vid!

[@GardenDiaries1]

I'm so trying this!! Have some old oak trea here that fell

[@williammallender8391]

Compost your potato peel, brussel sprout trimmings and any other vegetable waste from the kitchen sink

[@lllowkee6533]

I do. And I just can’t trash anything something will eat.. Everything is hungry.

[@ZokomoTV]

Excellent list for how we can take care of our yards, thanks Joel!

[@brownfamily3218]

Hi Joel another fab video. Having such a big garden we do things a bit at a time. John has been cutting some of the hedge, without berries, by the pond. I've cut some of the meadow and cleared parts of the boarders. I'm still moving things around and now I've got the meadow area I'm hoping to be more productive in the other part of the garden. One section is currently covered in cardboard, newspaper and compost ready for next year. We were watching four foxes chasing each other in the road the other night and John thought he saw a small dear on our front lawn at about 3am one night. We have always had grasshoppers in our front garden I'm hoping they move to the back as well (if the cat doesn't eat them!) Keep up the good work. Karen

[@markhunter2244]

Great advise, I find the more you try to tidy up at this time of year the more mess you make anyway. Much better to leave cover for wildlife over the harsh winter months.

[@Jacksonknox834]

Love this guy just full of knowledge Thank you Joel

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Thank you Jackson, I really appreciate your kind words and support - it keeps me going :) Best wishes to you and yours, Joel

[@slashingbison2503]

i leave as much grass long as I can and have tons of grasshoppers in the summer!

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Fantastic - and have I got the video for you coming tonight! Rather ad-hoc but felt compelled to film it yesterday ;) Best wishes, Joel

[@petervincent4461]

if you use pallet make sure they are marked "HT" which means they are heat treated and not treated with chemicals

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Absolutely this Peter, thank you :)

[@Tofog22000]

All good pointers. We've seen overwintering butterflies in a stacked woodpile. 🙂

[@juliacyrzan1751]

Yay, im almost 10/10, just need to get some carpeting for my compost heap, this sounds like a great tip! I used cardboard before. This year i’ve brought in leaves from the outside as my trees don’t produce enough. I took them from a schoolyard where they dont use any pesticides, now my whole allotment is under a linden and maple leaf douvet;)

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Well done you! Keep up the great work! 😊👍

[@arialblack87]

Joel's grasshopper sounds like my cat purring. Too cute! Fantastic video, as always.

[@deborahflello2316]

These are great tips to learn from you Joel thank you

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Glad you enjoyed this Deborah - hope you and yours are well and that you have a fantastic Christmas - best wishes, Joel

[@george-1961]

I need to get some Ivy in Joel. Got to be honest I used to pull it out about 4 years ago and was one of those gardeners that wanted everything tidy 😣. That’s why your good work shows us the way to protect our native species. Keep up the good work Joel 👌🏻

[@itsmewende]

Must say, your 10 tips are a lazy gardeners delight. And I've been doing all for yrs, yep I'm a lazy autumn gardener. Hope you guys have a wonderful weekend.

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Hi Wende - guess whether I'm trying to keep up with everyone again, and failing to do this in good time! We did have a good weekend, and I'm so glad these lazy-tips are perfect for your take on life, there are much more important things to be doing than inadvertently destroying homes for wildlife ;) Best wishes - Joel

[@UkAmphibians]

Great video joel our amphibians love our compost heaps this time of the year thanks for sharing 🐸💚🐸

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Thank you! Yes they really are a great resource for wildlife 😊

[@wildlifegardener-tracey6206]

Great advice again Joel, thank you.

[@joannecraft-lane8660]

Great video... Thank you for the tips. I've done what you said this past year, and found my first grasshopper and praying mantis in my garden this year. So, I'll continue following your tips!

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Thank you Joanne and thank you for doing your bit for wildlife. A praying mantis! Wow! I’m guessing you’re on the continent then? 😁

[@GardenDiaries1]

I see We have it good down here. Our garden is teaming with both! Mantis is my absolute favourite insect! I give them a drink of water from a drop on my finger. Even my four yr old does it. So cute

[@twotonenavy]

Another great video, my friend! I always learn something new and find great inspiration from you. My gardens thrive with invertebrate wildlife and birds thanks to your guidance. I'd like to apologize for the times I have mentioned invasives, I definitely never meant to offend and always try to be respectful. It never occurred to me how frustrating that can be, being inundated by people complaining (hopefully I'm not on the list of those people). I plant liatris spicata (blazing star) and speedwell in its place as an alternative to purple loosestrife, here in North America. Best wishes, as always! - John

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Hey John :) You *never* offend, in fact quite the opposite. Your support and consistent encouragement has really helped me to continue. I was looking at Liatris a few months ago after seeing footage of thousands of Monarch's in Minnesota enjoying it :) I am so glad that the channel is helpful, I never assumed it would get so many viewers and of course this does mean that I have to think twice about recommending some plants - I know that Loosestrife is a big "no-no" in US but such a vital plant here for example. I hope you and yours are well, best wishes to you all - Joel

[@Tuppyandizzy]

What a wonderful resource. Amazing work mate! Can you please add a few more clips from your own garden or other manageable spaces for people to connect to , as you know people here in kashmir don't know a lot about gardening for wildlife and it's still an emerging topic , if you add a few more clips it'll help everyone to visualise better.

[@GardenDiaries1]

Hi there. I'm new to your channel. You are absolutely amazing! Great content, delivered kindly and well. I have been binging your videos for the past two weeks or so. Soooo cool! And I'm so inspired. I'm from the western cape in South Africa by the way. And we have PLENTY of grasshoppers in the garden. But they're quite pesty? It's a struggle for me to really accept all kinds of wildlife, even though i want to, they eat holes in my precious ornamental leaves, and eat off the buds of dahlias we waited whole year for, other wilting bug lets shoots wilt and we loose entire flowers. We're getting better with the leaving "weeds" and not moving too often. Obviously now Getting bigger and bigger patches of white clover I can't remember ever seeing in the lawn. We also have huuuuge patches of dandelion! Soooo many. But i suspect it's my 4yr old who has been sowing them for past 2yrs. Anyways. Just wanted to say hi from down here and also.... I've been spotting new kinds of butterflies in the garden, actually a new one just yesterday, but i can't find it on Google. Was wondering if you don't perhaps know of a good guide for my local butterflies and daytime moths?

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Hi there Tania! I do hope you get this message, with my apologies for not being able to acknowledge everyone over the last 2 weeks, but it was so wonderful to read your comment. Would love to see your garden, so do send an email to [e-mail] if you can. Also some of the butterflies and I can help identify them - happy new year to you and yours - Joel

[@formicapple2]

Nice one Joe. Great advice as usual. Forgot about the log pile. Must build one before it gets too late, got a space behind the shed.

[@crazyjoep2344]

I had my first grasshopper (Chorthippus brunneus) in my garden this summer, I was amazed by it because we don't see em in the city as often. When I was little they were everywere but because grass is being cut here so often they kinda died off. Hope I will get them again next year! It was a hot, dry summer and they seem to love that. Leptophyes punctatissima has been VERY common in my garden - I have them for years and they do some minor damage to my plants but they always seem to recover. Always fun trying to look for them because they are so GREEN lol! Great vid again, started feeding the wild birds this week and I already have counted so many species - even a Wren, this little bird was lost to my garden for so many years and now it came back, even sat close to the window inside my Laurel bush! Amazing!

[@janiedunn637]

❤this. I’ve let my sunflowers 🌻 just wither away in their pots in my back garden 🪴 so hopefully seeds have been blowing away by the 💨. I’ve plans for my back garden. My 53rd birthday 🥳 🎂 today & enjoyed watching this. Have a nice week everyone. 👍🏻 watching this, ❤️ it

[@AdiHughesGuitar]

Excellent video. Makes me feel less guilty about not getting any gardening done recently! I'm still going to pull the docken out because it takes over a bit. I like the idea of covering the compost heap (mines open on top), would love to get slow worms or snakes in the garden. I do have grasshoppers, found one that laid her eggs on our hosepipe last year!

[@stevef1264]

Hi Joel, great vid as always. I live in rented accommodation & trying to explain to my landlady I'm not lazy it's a wildlife garden is difficult! It's just common sense that we have destroyed our wildlife by the way we live. My landlady's garden is all petunias, busy lizzie s & other pretty flowers. Useless to wildlife. She doesn't get it mate. I bought Wild valerian off your website. It's not just a beautiful flower loved by bees, it smells gorgeous too. My pyracantha is already stripped of its berries by birds. I had the same problem as you in early summer, Robins nested in my nest box, raided by the dreaded introduced squirrels..pain in the butt. I could go on all day mate..keep up the great work we must help our wildlife

[@titiaswildlifecottagegarden]

Good top 10 video, Joel. In the first year of my back border, I left the weeds and grasses do it's thing in the later half over the year. I think a grasshopper or cricket (I'm not sure) moved in that year. I think it made a cocoon on the wall to over winter. And this year I had a cricket in that border, I loved hearing the sound. I piled up my cuttings on the spot where my bobo hydrangea was and added a nice layer of leaves on both my gardens. This month I plan to hang bird food, on a spare hanging basket bracket and spare tall fence post. I regurly see the black birds and red Robin looking for food, so I want to help them out. Lately I had the thought/desire to increase my future pond size a bit and on my 1/20 scale drawing, I can get away with a 2,5 metre by 1,50 metre pond. Much bigger isn't an option I'm afraid, because we need a pathway wide enough for our bikes to reach the garden entrance door. And have enough planting space left for my buddlejas and cottage flowers of course. At the moment I don't have ivy yet, but I will plant it next spring on the back wall and rose arch👍🏻🌿🌹🌸🐦🦋🦗🐞🐝🪲🐛

[@SisterDogmata]

Hey Joel! Words of wisdom as usual! Great advice. I've not touched the garden since October and it's been a real joy just to let it do it's own thing. There'll be a fair amount of weeding come spring and a bit of tidying no doubt but I'm looking forward to the feathery visitors over the winter and those frosty cobwebs that will soon appear. Hope you and your gang are doing ok. Best wishes.

[@filmakercrossley]

I've done several things that you've advised on tonight's video but not all, anyway we'll see you on Thursday for a bit more advice.

[@erichneal3062]

Joel, in an earlier video you spoke about putting a 'skirt' around a newly planted tree, that it resulted in double the growth rate on a study done in .....Nottinghamshire? I plan to put in some small tree saplings this winter, just as you recommend here. Did you mean that we should put some layers around the base of the tree in the ground? Or laying on top of the earth around the sapling? I wanted to put down finely cut leaf clippings for this, keeping a distance between the trunk and the mulch.

[@davidcobb8422]

Another great video Joel 👍

[@Crystalspets]

These are great tips watching from America ☺️☺️

[@craigfarleymusician8481]

Great video mate. Wish I’d known you were down near me in Southampton , I could have said hello 😊

[@erint5373]

If only humans were smart enough to organise their life cycles so we could sustain ourselves and benefit the environment around us, as trees do. 🎄

[@pauldurkee4764]

I have tried the methods you advise, over a number of years with the small front lawn. I leave a small area about 5ft wide by about 15inches deep planted with grape hyacinth, with thicker and longer grass along the boundary. I have noticed grasshoppers have appeared the last 2 years, we have Meadow ants in the lawn as well. In the cold weather of 2018, I got some lovely shots of a green woodpecker looking for food on a neighbours lawn.

[@ruthnewby6863]

I do wish I could get my neighbours to be less tidy, it’s pretty much an obsession round here.

[@williammallender8391]

A great video - such valuable suggestions

[@gillhermes9726]

Great advice, as always. Thank you

[@suebelcher6560]

I’m pleased I already do most of these 🤗Happy to leave fallen leaves in the borders. Can I scrape off leaves from the lawn and put them in my borders too or will that be too much leaf in one place?

[@brownfamily3218]

Hi Sue I tend to remove the leaves from the lawns and paths where people walk so they don't become slippery and put the leaves in a leaf mould bin. If you have space four posts with some chicken wire round is ideal. After 12 months it's ready to use and can be added to potting compost or used as a top dressing on the boarders. Adding the leaves to the boarders now is ok too. Try to keep the crowns on perennials clear as a thick layer could rot them. Karen

[@sallydavies2563]

9 out of 10 for me. How do you avoid rats in compost heaps?

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Hey Sally, not sure on that one... rats won't really stay put in a garden or area that doesn't have a food source, they may well nest in a compost heap though - I'd suggest a cat... but cats aren't good for any wildlife! That's a great score you have there though, absolutely brilliant :) Best wishes, Joel

[@sallydavies2563]

@@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton Hi Joel, we’ve had rats in compost heaps twice so I’m reluctant to start another heap. If I had more time, maybe the answer would be to turn the heap more often so they don’t get chance to settle and nest, but life’s too short - I’d rather be watching the wildlife 😉

[@SnugglesPlays]

What about weeds? Like dandelions? Should we leave those as well? My mum always cuts the heads off and last year, I caught her spraying them with a weed killer, so I had a massive go at her and then a while later promptly rounded up ALL herbicides, pesticides, ant killer that I could find and took them to the tip to be got rid of safely (hopefully). I just hope this year, she doesn't go and buy more! I've tried to explain the benefits of leaving things alone in the garden, but she just won't listen.

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Hi there :) I'd definitely say leave dandelions - there's a video on the channel about them. I need to do another video on them and go in to detail about WHY they are hated so much. Briefly, many many years ago it was only the rich that could afford "gardeners" and having no dandelions in a "perfect" lawn meant status - this seems to have stayed with us for some reason, that dandelions mean a lack of care or lack of affordability to get rid of them! So that's something that has been ingrained in a way and definitely with the older generation. You've also given me an idea about another video now, about how planting with nature in mind encourages birds, amphibians and larger insects that all consume the smaller "pest" insects - thereby needing no pesticides if you allow nature to do what she does best :) Here's a link to the dandelion video to show your mum: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bKq4q2Wqq8mng7M Hope this helps! Best wishes, and thank you - Joel

[@melissamybubbles6139]

In Colorado, I'm worried about the fire danger involved in having dry wood sitting around. Otherwise, I've let the garden alone for the winter.

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

A very valid point, Melissa. I’m guessing your winters aren’t as dank as ours. Good for you for not being too tidy 😊👍

[@melissamybubbles6139]

@@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton Right now we're covered in snow, but we had a thousand homes lost to fire on new year's a few years ago because we're such an arid climate.

[@charlotteseden9303]

I'm a little confused. I have wet areas in my yard that has a lot of cat tails and here and there some Loose strife. I was always told that loosestrife is really a bad plant and you say that you are planting it. Are there different kinds maybe? Google says the following "Purple loosestrife negatively affects both wildlife and agriculture. It displaces and replaces native fauna and flora, eliminating food, nesting and shelter for wildlife. " I would like to get your input on this. Thanks

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Hi there Charlotte, I have had this question a few times, so no worries :) Here in the UK Purple Loosestrife is not considered invasive but I know that in USA it definitely is and I often have US viewers explaining this. Here though it is a vital plant for the Brimstone butterfly, Emperor moths, Elephant Hawkmoth etc. The problem with any non-native or invasive plant of course is that it becomes successful and displaces other native plants, meaning creatures that rely on those plants are denied a food source or habitat. I hope this helps explain a little - it's a difficult one as we have rhododendron species here that are causing problems as they are not native, yet at the same time they are visited by many grateful bees... Best wishes, Joel

[@liamparker3749]

Yep, doing all this. Planted a rowan and elder tree, created another bug hotel/log pile. The english are obsessed with tidy gardens, very destructive for nature.

[@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton]

Good for you, Liam. Thank you for doing your bit and yes, the English have an unhealthy obsession with tidiness! Take care 👍

[@elizabethwoodhouse9461]

Less is more. Less tidying, more wildlife.

[@liannesim9558]

it is becoming almost impossible to look at videos on KZbin. There is an add every 2 minutes...