Hello, Alexandra! Thank you for another informative and entertaining video. I have watched every one - today's is number 209! - sometimes twice. As winter approaches, I hope you will persevere with a very early morning to photograph frost covered gardens. The ones you did 2 years ago are among my favorites. I also want to thank you for reviewing gardening books. I bought 'The Living Jigsaw' by Val Bourne and began reading it yesterday so today's video is an excellent companion to the book. I have a favor to ask. Could you please consider scent in the garden for a video. The other year, I began buying roses based on scent; what a pleasure to have a bouquet on my bedside table. This fall, I am planting scented daffodils, so I'm really looking forward to spring. 'Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities' by Kim Smith (an amazing woman!) details the development of her garden based on scent. Either book would make a wonderful gift for a gardener.
Thank you, and scented gardens is an excellent idea. Funnily enough, I was just thinking about how to do a frosty garden this winter - always assuming we get a frost. It's so mild so far.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden, after viewing this video I went out and purchased some water balls that hang from trees that are in my garden to provide water for the wild birds. I appreciate your channel!
I have over 55 water bodies in my 29' x 29' back yard. I use no chemicals, not even chemical fertilisers. I have frogs, tadpoles, I've seen four different types of lizards. Slugs and snails and a myriad of spiders, insects, ladybirds, birds etc., and I love it. My garden is less than four years old and completely full with several hundred pot plants of all sizes. I really am extremely grateful to God for His provision. When I'm not moving things around in my garden I am either watering it or sitting here looking out at all the gorgeousness from twilight to dark. I am so blessed... Praise God and Jesus my Savior x
What does your water bodies consist of? Just wondering how I can bring more water both to my little balcony garden and at a cottage plot with no soil to dig ponds.
@@blue2mato312 mostly clay pots without drain holes. Flat saucers and some quite large above ground ponds. I grow a lot of a type of Elephant Ears, water Talo which is an awesome plant grown in water pots. The growth size depends upon the size of the container from very tiny to very large.
@@kerryjean2223 Thank you very much! I will definitely try to have water in different pots and saucers in spring. I already have bought a large plastic pot (thick builders container) to make an above ground pond. Everything is deeply frozen now in my part of the world ❄️
Thanks for the wild garden video. I feel that the wildlife in my garden is at least 50% of what brings me joy from my garden. The other half would be the plants.😁
Thank You Thank You Thank you for this video~ I would add one more thing... native plants and trees are very important to diversify insects and wildlife creatures even in a small garden. Love your channel
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden Brilliant video. Just to add one other thing. It's much better to grow plants for the garden from seed, cuttings or organic nurseries due to the heavy pesticide use on garden centre plants including those labelled pollinators friendly. Levels harmful to pollinator life cycle present on virtually all garden centre plants.
Great video and like the tips on developing and encouraging wildlife in the garden. And thank you for the important reminder to have different levels in ones pond for access and a safe retreat for the creatures using it.
I have been wildlife gardening for years. I can't stand formal gardens. I loved watching Mary Reynolds come to understand this. I'm in zone 3a sadly, but I carry on. I love your channel. Keep going.
Only just found your channel Alexandra and I love it! Your message is so important. I'm English by birth and moved to South Australia when I was twenty nine. Our winters are more like the English summers I remember in the 60's and 70's (well it does get bit colder as winter progresses and yes, I feel cold!) but summers are brutal - yesterday was 38 C !!! and we don't get much rain so that can be a great challenge. I try to leave straw and other mulches around but I'm also very aware that South Australia has some pretty deadly snakes - haven't seen one yet TG (and I hope that I don't meet one!)
Thank you. 38C is really hot for us English, although my Australian sister-in-law says it's just a nice temperature. Hope the snakes stay away, I don't see them when I go to Australia either but always dreading the time I do.
Thank you, Alexandra, for another great video. I love this topic and would be happy to see more videos on native gardening, especially on care. I have no idea if native plants should be left to fend for themselves totally or should be tended in some ways. For instance, l wonder should some plants be pruned, thinned periodically, or cut back at certain times? I would also enjoy more on wildlife garden design. I know you have shown some gardens with a mix of native and cultivated plants. The dos and don'ts of mixing would also be welcome. Actually, I welcome all your videos, whatever the topics.
Thank you, and I'll bear all that in mind. In terms of native plants and their care - treat them as you would any other plant in your garden. If they seem to be getting too big cut them back, thin them or prune them (you can usually find instructions for each different type of plant on the internet). There is quite a lot of debate on what 'native' and 'non-native' means, and people have different definitions, so you need not worry too much about mixing them. If you're interested in supporting wildlife then avoid double-flowered plants because bees can't access the pollen, but otherwise studies show that both native and non-native plants and flowers benefit the environment. I hope that helps.
Great video - I'm doing a native garden in Trentham especially to try and encourage native bees - i hope it works and it's not too cold for the little guys! I think this is a big part of the future for gardens, especially one aspect you mentioned and that was about paving everything. I'm still working on your other idea of a dead hedge made of branches. 👍
Great video Alexandra! And great tips as always. I have 3 of the prickly Mahonias in my garden but I would really love to incorporate one of the soft caress ones also. They look beautiful, almost tropical.
Hello Alexandra! I discovered your channel this summer and I am thoroughly enjoying making my way through your videos. I'm in the process of establishing a meadow simply by observing which "weeds/wildflowers" show up on their own, and augmenting that with my own plantings. But as we all know, "weeds" are incredibly "enthusiastic." I in zone 4. I live on the border of a national park and nature is rampant, especially I think because the growing season is so short - it's so pushy(!), so I try to control the "weeds" by uprooting the more mature ones before they go to seed. I'm thinking of removing 50% each season. I don't like to remove the seeds because they do feed the birds.... and I don't like disturbing the soil by uprooting. Have you looked into this type of "controlling" at all? Have you done a video on this? If so, let me know and I'll go find it. If not, I will just keep experimenting and trying things out. Blessings. Just another addition.... I just rationalized that pulling out one plant is not causing as much damage as tilling a huge swath of land. In fact, doing so can mimic a digging groundhog which I think nature can handle and must be helpful to some degree.
I think that's a great approach. The nearest I've got to a video covering that topic is ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tS64V7ysodA.html on a 'rewilded' garden and also this with advice from Joel Ashton of the Wild Your Garden video channel: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-akVORa8BPG0.html There's also quite a structured 'wild' town garden here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CaK2unUklNg.html
Thank you, love your videos. The coming spring will be the third at my new house. I have a lovely entry garden that I keep very manicured. The rest of it- anything goes! We have large old trees for shade, a thick vinca foundation planting that praying mantis love, a small pond safe for small animals, a long old lilac hedge that I blow the fall leaves into, and compost piles. Today I trimmed back sunflowers and echinacea (we've had a hard frost) and wove the stems into our back fencing for the birds. Gardening is such a joy and so rewarding. I've been gardening for 50 years now and I'm 53! I'll never give up!
💕💕💕💕 thanks for the bit on winter flowers. This is my first season gardening outside of what my landscapers do and needed to understand what was proper to plant for winter zone 7-8 USA. Thank you!!
Thank you Alexandra! It's so important to understand how bad pesticides are. I have never used any and I do not have pests. Maybe a few nibbles on my hostas here and there.
We really try to do our part in the yard& gardens for all wildlife i donot.use chemicals & i.do a think.call Chop and Drop it feeds the plants & helps the soil .iam glad others are thinking.diffrent . I.love theses wonderful VIDEOs.
Keep trying Rachel, these lovely creatures need all the help we can give them. Have you tried looking on Hedgehog street website for some good information?
Thank you. Hedgehogs need at least an acre to roam in, which doesn't mean you need an acre, but that they need to be able to escape into neighbouring gardens or open space, usually through little low gaps in the fences at ground level. We have a walled garden and it's not big enough for hedgehogs to roam in, although our predecessors tried to introduce them several times.
Good video and good info on "pests"! I collect the snails and slugs for "my" hedgehog. Allways put out water for them, and higher up for birds/bats, but do clean those out every day. In this aspect: stop buying grit for cattoilets; whole regions in Eastern-Europe are destroyed for that. Better to buy recycled woodpallets. I do not agree at all on on the advice on bird/batboxes. Our new houses are build in such a way that swallows, a lot of other birds, and bats can not find shelter.
What about slugs and snails ? Snails I pick up in an open tub and relocate to my local park. Slugs I scoop and tip over the back of my fence. Caterpillars I let be , I enjoy seeing them wiggle around haha .
That's not in fact correct according to research by the RHS and others. Here is a round up from the RHS based on several pieces of research they and others undertook, where non-native plants and flowers performed as well as native in terms of supporting wildlife in various areas. There are also issues with the differing definitions of native - how long they have grown in the area (10k years/before the last ice age etc) and whether plants native to northern europe can be considered native to Britain as it's so easy for birds and insects to cross over. The RHS recommends that you plant as wide a range of plants and flowers as possible, including non-natives: www.rhs.org.uk/wildlife/native-and-non-native-plants-for-pollinators
I really like encouraging birds into the garden but unfortunately the cats distract them . We also suffer with 3 foxes digging and at least 4 grey squirrels . People encourage them with tit bits
Gardeners minimising use of chemicals? Using fewer chemicals? How about the most sane approach -- namely none at all? Give exception to household vinegar and salt, and a drop of gentle washing-up liquid in water as a spray.