Wild About Your Garden is introduced by Nick Knowles and he tells us that in Great Britain, people's gardens covers more area than all the nature reserves.
Every garden could be made into a wildlife haven, have a look at your own garden is it welcoming for wildlife?
This programme is to transform peoples gardens to make them welcoming for our natural wildlife.
The Wild About your Garden Team includes Award Winning Garden Designer Chris Beardshaw, Wildlife expert Ellie Harrison and Presenter Nick Knowles.
This episode they are in Muirhead just outside Dundee in Scotland to help the McLoughin family with their garden.
The garden currently is just used by the children Jake and Mililani as a playground and not much by the parents Donna and Kerry.
Donna used to live in Glen Nevis and she really misses the countryside and the wildlife.
Mililani would like ladybirds and red squirrels in the garden.
The Garden
Currently the garden is more of a football pitch and also has the usual trampoline!
Chris and Ellie look around and find a huge mound in the garden possibly an old compost heap or dumping ground and it is very overgrown.
Chris is not impressed from a design point of view.
Ellie like the mature tall trees and the surrounding dry stone wall which already has its own ecosystem.
Nick joins them and tells them there are red squirrels in the local park.
Ellie was very pleased to a hear that and Chris said if the neighbours planted some trees it would form a corridor to their garden.
The trees in the garden are perfect for squirrels to build their dreys meaning nests.
Gardening Team
Nick chats to Mike and Gavin who are brothers in the gardening team and have a tie to Dundee as their Grandparents grew up there although they are from South Africa.
They then spoil it by calling it a hole and then say they belong to the Menzies Clan, Nick then makes a joke I will not repeat but it put them in their place.
Garden Plan
The neighbours have not seen a red squirrel in the gardens for 10 years so Chris's plan better be good!
Chris plans to use the mound of earth to create an Earth Work which will be an enclosing mound structure with a pool in it.
Even Chris is not sure whether it will work as it is to have a floating deck on the pond and then the whole thing will have loads of trees and shrubs around it.
The trees will be the ones the Red squirrels like, to attract them to the garden and there will be 24 of them.
Chris is off to Japan to do a garden for someone this means getting as much done before he goes and this then leaves Nick as his trusty side kick to sort this all out.
Nick is a bit dubious as so far Chris has not even trusted him to plant anything!
Work commences
They start the garden clearance and it is goodbye to the football goals.
The digger move in for the huge job of shifting the mound and shaping the new mounds and pool.
The couple run their own massage business from home and the noise outside is not adding to a relaxing experience!
Oh dear, the digger has cut through a power cable that is currently running through where the middle of the pond is, not good!
It was only a foot under the surface so it was already dangerous and even a garden spade could have caused this damage.
The cable carries 1,000 volts so it is extremely dangerous to have under the surface in the garden and it also means the family have lost all power in the house!
The digger has also decided to stop working after cutting through the cable, can things get any worse on Day 1!
That brings work to an end for the day.
The Electricity company worked through the night and rerouted the dangerous cable in the garden.
Day 2 and 2 new diggers have arrived to help make up time and the S shaped new mound and pond is taking shape.
Work has also started on the wooden raft the couple can use for meditation and they have made the frame and are adding the boards.
They then cut round to form a circle raft and Nick comments on the workman headgear, his T shirt on this hot day in Scotland!
In the garden the mound is enormous, so is the pond and raft but arriving outside is an equally enormous amount of plants and trees.
This is just the first lorry load another one is also due later and Nick is worried as he is taking over in a couple of days when Chris goes to Japan.
Chris is teaching Nick the name of the plants as well as information about them, it is bad enough just remembering the names Maples, Birch, Magnolia and Japanese mountain ash that could bring him good or bad luck!
Chris is busy placing the plants, the crew are having a Barbeque!
Nick takes Mike and Gavin who have Dundee Grandparents but live in South Africa to visit Castle Menzies and they are even wearing the Clans tartan.
The brothers are 26 and 24 and would be warriors at the time of the castle being in use and Nick takes them on a tour.
Back in the garden the pool is being filled after the liner has been added and Chris is worried they are so far behind where he wanted them to be and they not even laid out the trees or floated the pontoon/ raft.
Day 3 and it is Chris last day before his trip and the whole team are working extra hard to catch up.
But there are more problems the meadow turf has turned up 2 days late which means its been stuck in the van, will it be ok to use?
Some of it is yellowing already but Chris lays out each turf on the path to inspect to see if it is still usable, it is and they have sent a pallet less than the order!
Ellie also wants to attract birds to the garden and she has some dead tree trunks to collect from the forestry commission in the wood next door so she has taken Chris to help.
She is hoping to attract Woodpeckers and she not bothered if the trunks are placed upright or not both ways are beneficial for birds.
Chris points out that the trees have died because of Boot Lace fungus and if she brings an infected tree into the garden all the healthy trees will get it and die!
They pick some unaffected by the fungus and the wood is transported to the garden to be placed.
Holes are dug and the logs are placed upright for the woodpeckers and others left to rot on the ground to encourage insects for food.
Ellie smears lard and peanut butter on the logs to encourage the woodpeckers.
Next Ellie adds some logs she has bought that will grow Mushrooms on them as they are impregnated with the spores.
To start them growing by dropping them on concrete or keeping them in ice cold water for 24 hours.
Day 4 and Chris says his goodbyes and nervously leaves Nick in charge of the finishing touches.
Today job is to lay the meadow turf and finish the planting and Nick takes great pleasure in planting his first plant, until Ellie pops up and tries to put him off.
Without the labels Nick has no idea what he planting but he finding it very easy.
Mick the head of the team says there not much else left to do a bit of turfing and the garden is done.
Wildlife Visit
Ellie is going to look for Red Squirrels in the woods at the end of their garden with Donna, Jake and Mililani.
They meet Ken Neil who is a Red Squirrel expert from Scottish Wildlife Trust who teaches them how to spot them in the trees.
He points out some Dreys where they sleep at night and then Jake spots one in the trees.
Ellie says about the grey squirrels and how people think they are actually killing red squirrels but its actually a disease called Squirrel Pox that the greys carry but do not catch.
At time of recording there was a huge number of grey squirrels against not many red squirrels so this was a big problem.
The grey squirrels have only lived in the UK for 150 years after being brought here and Neil thinks this is a problem that we need to sort out for the native red squirrels to survive.
Wildlife Photography visit
Ellie has taken Donna and Mililani on a photography trip to the Cairngorms to meet Award Winning Wildlife Photographer Neil McIntyre.
They have chosen a feeding station as its more likely they will get some red squirrels in front of them to photograph, it just takes patience.
Early morning and late in the evening are the best times and you need the feeding station to attract them.
Mililani has a basic digital camera and he says they are capable of getting good quality photos these days.
The reds appear and they all start snapping away with Mililani getting as close as she can as she does not have a huge lens like Neil or her mum.
With Neil advice she gets some lovely photos even though she does not have an amazing camera and lens like Neil professional camera.
They really enjoyed it and was surprised how close they got to the squirrels and hopefully they will be pleased with their photos.
Neighbours get a visit
Nick sets off with a wheelbarrow full of trees to visit the neighbours to persuade them to plant a tree to make a corridor of trees to the garden for the red squirrels to use.
At the first house he shows them the Pine tree he wants them to plant and they agree to help, so Nick off to the next one.
They all agreed and the Pine trees were all given out from his very squeaky barrow!
Dry Stone wall
Chris takes Nick to looks at some local walls.
The garden already has this traditional style of wall and Chris says always use natural stone from your local area as this looks the best
Insects love to live in the crevices you do not need to be a professional to have a go yourself but contact the Dry Stone Walling association for advice first.
Pontoon sink or swim
Chris is off to Japan tomorrow and there one more thing for him to do, which is test the pontoon / raft!
To make it float they are adding polystyrene the underneath but there is now doubts about the pontoons stability.
They lift the pontoon onto its side ready to move into place, everyone except nick is helping. Nick is having a a massage instead.
Nick continues to tell the Donna the Masseur just how hard working he is and that he deserves some relaxation.
Meanwhile they float the pontoon and it works so Chris can leave for Japan happy that one small thing has been completed!
Lost Knife
Disaster struck Mick the head of project has dropped a knife in the pond and it needs to be found before it rips the pond liner.
Mick strips to his boxers and gets in the pond and it is freezing.
Luckily he fishes it out with the pond undamaged.
Final touches and the garden is complete
Grand Reveal Donna, Kerry, Jake and Mililani open your Eyes
'Oh my god' 'Wow' 'It's fantastic' 'cool' 'oh no you're gonna cry' 'she always like this' 'tears of joy'
The family finally get to look round their finished garden.
A woodland wonderland
curved mounds
pond with pontoon
Red Squirrel haven
Squirrel feeder
The final thing is to install the wildlife cameras
3 Months Later....
The team return and the garden has grown and is full of colour and life, it is also the first time Chris has seen the finished garden, that Nick smugly takes credit for.
The family love the garden and they love the pontoon to relax on.
Wildlife Camera Reveal
They check the footage Jake has been monitoring and there plenty of bird activity from the Gold Finches.
Then they see footage of the Red Squirrels on the feeder and they are stunned.
The family now all have a new hobby of wildlife watching they are all interested in.
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