11:39
I'm Leo, I'm Simon's daughter. Dan and I are down at 20 acres today, which is WWT's other site. We've been working really hard on numerous projects here over the last few years. The latest of which is a wildlife garden. We understand that not everybody has 20 acres. So, whether you have a big garden or medium garden or even a little balcony, there is so much you can do. All of which we're going to demonstrate over here. This is our garden. This is going to be our garden. And you might think at this point that we're going to cut to some glorious garden.
We're not. Because we want you to come with us as we do all the planting and putting all the features, all of which are going to be helpful for wildlife. These are dead hedges. Clues in the name. They provide an incredible habitat for so many creatures. These are whips. We've been so lucky. We've had so many volunteer groups come down and help us do all this. It's going to be the edible hedge. It is, as the name suggests, edible for wildlife, edible for humans. There are many different kinds of hedgerow, and as we start planting ours, we'll bring you with us so you can see all the different variations. Now, a little bit of imagination required here.
A pond, amphibians, veg patch, edible hedges, dead hedges, log piles. The lovely thing is about making a garden wildlife friendly is that there can be some areas that are sort of to all intents and purposes manicured. They look beautiful, they're fragrant, they're colorful. Also, you can have a patch of wildflowers, which looks beautiful and wildlife haven. So, at the far end of our 20 acre site, we've also been working on ways that we can improve the biodiversity and nesting habitats for different bird species. Um one way that we've been doing this is we've installed a swan platform on our last lake and with the hopes that we can have nesting waterfowl using this platform during the breeding season. 20
acres is an incredibly rich habitat for different wetland bird species. This winter we've seen some incredible wildlife. Water rail are found along our site, which is remarkable considering the UK population is less than 4,000 breeding pairs. We have little egrets breeding on our ponds. And cormorants perch in the trees above the lakes. And if you walk along the River Mole, you might even catch a flash of blue. On land we have grass snakes, voles, and even a few elusive otters.
One of Dad's greatest passions was inspiring young people to help preserve and create space for and just be with wildlife because we take up so much space, but that's not to say it has to be exclusively ours cuz it's nice to share, right? And it's it's entirely possible. With our garden, our whole aim is to make something that is beautiful, is functional for humans and wildlife. There is so much you can do with a little bit of creativity way beyond bird feeders and bird baths and the things that you buy in the shops. There is so much you can do and I hope over time we'll be able to show you some of it.
