In this video we look at a very important and relevant topic in today’s world.
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#Dandelions #Weed #Wildflowers #RHS #Weeding #Gardening #Garden #GardeningTips #GardenIdeas #Meadow #NoMowSummer #WildlifeGarden #WildlifeGardening #GardeningForWildlife #JoelAshton #WildYourGarden #Nature #Wild
35 Comments
I constantly see on my school bus council's mowing verges just as all the wildflowers are coming up normally on one there are red clover napweed and a family of voles lived there last year but sadly this year it has already been mown
That field is a thing of beauty. Their shaggy little heads and shade of yellow just makes me happy. 😊
I'm not sure about the rest of the country but in the South West I'm noticing more Brimstones than in previous years.
We have several 'bumblebee runways' in Spring and Summer because I noticed while doing flower counts that different species grow in different parts of the garden. 😊
Bees need these plants as well as other so called weeds. As each new housing development appears more and more wildlife disappears. Gardens are no longer thought a part of these developments even the so called trees that are planted are dead within a year. Hate to think that in 20 years children will not know what wildlife is.
I remember the old saying about the dandelion if you pick them you will wet the bed😂😂😂😂
Good luck with your RHS endeavor!! Totally agree & support the fact we need to change the prevailling langauge & mindset we have regarding our native plants!! I was literally walking in Wales today and had to take a moment to capture the Dandelions along the roadside all in their peak display 💛
When I was at horticultural college, our teachers said that weeds were flowers that were simply in the wrong place, that there was nothing 'bad' about any of our native plant species. It was just a matter of attitude.
I'm glad to say that in 'most' of the horticultural establishments where I worked (starting from nearly 40 years ago), there were wild areas included in the grounds. Some were really quite extensive too. One of the best was in a park in the middle of a built-up Essex town – where we were privileged to have Kingfishers.
So it's definitely the public that needs to be convinced that they don't have to be so regimented and obsessively clean and tidy about their gardens.
The RHS, unfortunately, does need to include themselves in this re-education. They probably give space to chemical products because the likes of Monsanto 'pay' them very good money to keep advertising them.
But also, garden centres and supermarkets should be doing more to promote wild flowers on their shelves. Precious few do more than offer boxes of wild flower seed… I'm actually trying to remember when I last saw wild flowers for sale and all I can think of is pots of Snowdrops (likely hybrids anyway) and packets of dried up Lily of the Valley roots.
The dandelions and nettles are so important for the bees and insects this time of year. I leave them around my plot for this reason as I want to attract more wildlife.
Really looking forward to the RHS video, that would be amazing if you could change their thinking towards weed killer and insecticides 🐝
What a beautiful field 🥰 I have to say that round my way, things are slowly getting better. The council seem to have stopped spraying the grass verges and aren’t mowing as often as they used to. At the moment the verges are looking glorious, full of dandelions, daisies and celandines.
We need to get away from these old wives tales that calls them wet the beds as when I was a kid many years ago it puts them in a bad light
I now look forward to seeing them everywhere
Not cutting mine period my neighbours have stopped talking to us but hey that’s their loss
My Dandelions are staying.
A weed is a plant growing where you don’t want it to grow. However, even if you think it’s worthy of the position, in its way, it will be useful to others especially pollinators. All year round plants prepare, bud, flower, seed/spore and again prepare for the following year. Plants are not just of the fleeting moment of colour, set to for the human eye. Flowers, fungi, trees, mosses and lichen, are all parts of a much great whole. The eradication of any part, (other than of invasive species) is a detriment to that greater whole.
In the case of the burst of colour, which is the dandelion. They are an important early forage for many, including pollinators, (the Early Bumblebee among them). If you want later flowers and many later veg throughout the year. You have to nurture pollinators, through the entirety of the year.
My yard almost looked like that, make a wish seed heads now. They've all been replaced with buttercups 😊
Actually, "woke" would fit much better those people who comment and act on the fact that insects deserve our full protection in stead of many other so called "woke" topics in my view. You are very woke Joel !
absolutely agree with you! dandelions are always welcome in my urban multi-species lawn, but when they get in the flowerbeds, my god they’re beasts 😂 i once dug up a 4 foot long single dandelion root when i was planting up an herb bed!! i always wonder how we can best help to change people’s minds about “weeds” and lawns. people say they like to see wild nature down in the country, but most seem to believe that in residential areas the natural world must be heavily controlled and subdued, and any plant or animal that disobeys should be eradicated. i really don’t know how to approach a neighbour of mine who sprays systemic herbicide all along the public path right outside of our row of houses; I saw him do it once and was so speechless i couldn’t tell him to stop. the spray even killed some of my plants growing along my fence. I really wish shops wouldn’t sell weedkiller AT ALL, to be honest.
Driving around where I live there absolutely loads of dandelions everywhere, although I did see council mowers going around cutting sadly but still lots of uncut areas with lots of these wildflowers, our back gsrden has lots of these as well.
Is it just me but I don't remember the last time I saw a buttercup?
Dandelions are not weeds.
My desert turtles thrive on a diet of them and Hibiscus blossoms.
Hi 👋 Nebraska USA here 😀 fun story, last weekend my 7 year old granddaughter and I took a walk. She picked a dandelion. I told her that was ok but don’t pick them all. She said… well it’s just a weed 😊 We talked about the importance of the dandelion and how they are the 1st food for the bees and butterflies. We talked about them not really being a weed because they are food for the tiny things that live in our world.
She totally grasped that idea because later I heard her telling her big brother the very same thing 😁💖
Thank you for your videos. I very much I joy them ❤😊
I live in the Pacific Northwest we have lots of hawks and eagles I love seeing these beautiful open fields they are so needed. thanks for this video!🦅🌲🌲
I’ve always loved dandelions ❤ my tiny garden is bright yellow at the moment. But I always deadheaded them to cut down the spread to neighbours until 2 years ago when I witnessed the beautiful sight of a pair of birds (think they were finches) holding down a seed head and plucking the seeds out. Now I leave them ❤ but I must confess I do pull them from my teeny tiny veg patch 😉
Love your videos. 👍
What perplexes me, is several videos recently from people promoting wildflower planting etc, but telling their followers to make sure they pull out dandelions. 🤦🏻♀️
Thank you so much for the videos and letting us understand lots of wonderful things that we can do to help our beautiful Planet God Bless you 🐶🐱🐭🐰🦊🐔🐧🐦⬛🦆🪿🐥🐣🦉🦇🪱🐝🦋🐞🐜🦗🦟🪳🪲🪰🕷️🕸️🦂🐢🐙🦎🐬🐟🐳🐋🦧🦍🦣🐘🦏🐄🐑🐏🐖🫏🦮🐈🦌🪽🐓🦃🦤🦚🐇🦜🦢🦨🦡🦫🦦🦔🐁🦥🦡🐾🌲🪵🌳🍃☘️🎍🐚🍄💐🌹🌼🪻🌼🌞🌕🌍❤️🙏
I am lucky to live SW of France, lots of many bees, butterflies, insects including reptiles such as green and brown lizards in the garden because there are wild flowers nearby and also in my garden.
I blew the seeds all around my yard garden last year. It’s a very cheery place now. To me rhododendrons are weeds. I really don’t like them. As for the RHS I joined a few years ago and then cancelled after seeing their despicable ads for poisons for gardens. I have many slugs, snails, wood bugs, centipedes and beautiful green flies (blow flies)? They queue up to get in the food waste bin. Doing their magnificent job.
Dandelions are the most popular flower in our wildlife lawn & mini-meadow right now, along with the cowslips. (I carried out a highly scientific(!) survey of the visiting insects by the 'watch them while having a mug of tea and a biscuit' method.) I had to carefully grow those cowslips from seed and the dandelions did it all by themselves – great flowers and soon the Goldfinches will find them and eat most of the seedheads. But I do dig dandelions out from the borders to keep the space for all those lovely long-season nectar & pollen-rich non-native flowers that make the summer & autumn wildlife banquet. Saw the first Red Mason Bee of the season emerge from one of our bee boxes on Sunday and guess where it went – to a dandelion, of course!
Of course, there is no money in not selling glyphosate, hence RHS will be reluctant to send out the message that will save our health and eco system. My problem is with local council spraying along our fence line on the front, side and back garden, doing so regardless of the wind and killing my plants and health of soil. I try to get one step ahead by "weeding" and hoeing their assigned borders, but they still insist on spraying. And I have spoken to the workers, but the argue their case – which is stupidity.
We all debate the plight of bees, but we are killing them with glyphosate and taking away a source of food. I used a selective weed killer for grass weeds, in particular clover, for a golfing putting green. The bees love clover. The next day showed a massacre of bees on the lawn. Its dangerous for our health and lethal to insects.
Dandelions are magnificent aren't they Joel. Useful and beautiful. 👍😊. In these here parts the mowing regimes have eased off thankfully and the Dandelions are flourishing and plentiful for any pollinators out braving the rain and seed eaters. A sight to behold. I agree, no such thing as a "weed". All have a part to play in the grand scheme of things. All hail the Dandelion 🙏. Sadly Joel the manufacturers of the poisons hold too much sway and influence as in most areas of life. Nature is under attack sadly. Keep up the great work. Paul 😊
Only this morning, I watched a pair of greenfinch and a small charm of goldfinch, really enjoying a feast of dandelion seeds in my garden. Joy!
Yes! Let's support native wildflowers. In Minnesota, dandelions (and creeping charlie) are invasive, so I'm okay with people removing them, but only if they replace those flowers with native wildflowers from our region. I can't believe it when people want to get rid of the native violets (Viola sororia and Viola canadensis). Similar to dandelions, they are early bloomers, super easy to grow, and great food for insects. Aside from that, they are absolutely adorable!
I have come to an agreement with the dandelion. I allow it free reign in my front garden and the bumblebees and other insects are attracted to this early spring flower. The back garden is a dandelion free zone to allow for other smaller wild flowers a space in the lawn. Actually, buttercups get free reign in the back garden.
Hi Joel fab vlog. I stopped mowing my lawn last year and am very happy to see this year I have wild flowers in it. Particularly Celandine, which I love and have now covered a large section of my lawn. I have a larger section of rough garden that is covered with Dandelion and I am letting them grow for a few reasons. Firstly because they are food for Bees and butterfly's. Secondly because they are a very beneficial food for me, flowers, leaves & roots are packed with goodness. And thirdly they are doing the work of breaking up the hard compacted clay soil on the slope, which means less work for me!! It truly is a win win situation to have plenty of Dandelions in a garden.
Hello… I'm from India. Number of HOUSE SPARROWS are declining… Give us some solutions to bring them back
Nice one Joel, I'd say one of your most important videos yet 👍