Wild Your Garden with Joel Ashton

“Look at the lengths I literally go to for you lot…” 😄🖤

After the pheasant livestream unexpectedly captured so many hearts over the last couple of days, we thought we should also share this Jackdaw family nesting in the tawny owl box near our bedroom window - and with people asking if we could somehow show them too. So… several bits of timber, a ladder, a camera, a hastily improvised plywood rain hood and what Nikki described as “questionable engineering” later… we now have a *LIVE* Jackdaw camera setup 😄

The chicks have already hatched and we can hear them squabbling away inside the box whenever the parents leave briefly. Although the camera can’t see directly inside the nest itself, it’s positioned to capture the entrance to the box and hopefully the feeding visits, chick activity and eventually the fledging process too. Jackdaws are extraordinary birds - highly intelligent, incredibly social and often misunderstood. They form long-term pair bonds, recognise faces and communicate constantly with one another. Once people begin watching them properly, they quickly realise there’s a huge amount of personality and family behaviour going on.

If all goes well, we may eventually witness the young birds peering out from the entrance for the first time before making those first slightly chaotic flights into the surrounding spruce branches. There were 5 eggs in the box - but not sure how many chicks!

Hopefully the ladder stays upright long enough for that to happen… 😄

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2 weeks ago | [YT] | 152

Wild Your Garden with Joel Ashton

They're HATCHING! Hey everyone, I've just enabled a 24hr live feed to the channel as I know so many of you were asking about this pheasant and her *16* eggs - it's all happening now - please let me know how many chicks you see at once! One out already but they should all start to hatch now - nerve-wracking! Best wishes, and thank you! - Joel

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 347

Wild Your Garden with Joel Ashton

🌿 Quick note on today’s video…

If you’ve just tried to watch the new video on planting a shady border and found it suddenly going quiet (or disappearing altogether)… you’re not imagining it.

Somehow between editing and uploading, part of the video has lost its sound, so I’m re-uploading a corrected version now.

It’ll be back up later this evening - fully intact this time!

Thanks for your patience - I’d much rather get it right than leave you with half a video and no explanation.

Back shortly

Thank you all

Joel🌿

1 month ago | [YT] | 182

Wild Your Garden with Joel Ashton

Had a notification this morning from YouTube….

6 years ago today, I started my YouTube journey. I’ve met some of you wonderful people in real life and now have friends in many countries around the world, thanks to this brilliant platform. 🎥

It’s also where I’ve tried to inspire as much habitat creation around the world as possible, and I can’t tell you the joy I get from seeing emails from people who get in touch and send me pictures of what they’ve created in their own garden / green space and the wildlife that’s turned up, because of this channel. 💚

I hope to spend many more years growing the channel and hopefully inspiring many people to create a sanctuary for nature, wherever they are.

A huge thank you to all of you that have supported me over the last 6 years. It’s been hard at times to keep up with content creation, as well as running the online shop and also creating habitats all around the UK, but your encouragement and appetite for seeing what I do and spurring me on has really kept me going. So this post is for each and every one of you 126,281 (at the time of writing this) subscribers and followers who like, share, comment and generally support my work. I can’t thank you enough.

Here’s to many more videos, many more friends and most importantly, many more habitats created for nature - you’re all amazing.

Huge love and respect to you all ❤️

Stay Wild.

Joel 💚

1 month ago | [YT] | 277

Wild Your Garden with Joel Ashton

Evening, pond people! Hope you’re all well.

Tonight’s video is going to be a little later than our usual 7pm upload and will be uploaded tomorrow at 7pm (Monday) - this one has taken a bit more wrangling, because I’ve been trying to pack in a whole year’s worth of wildlife work into one short montage.

Expect ponds being built, meadows taking shape, planting, restoration, a bit of timelapse magic, and of course the unexpected moments you only get when you’re working outdoors, including a few little wild visitors along the way!

Full videos on many of these builds are still to come, but I wanted to share this little window into the year.

Thank you so much for your patience (and for always being such a brilliant community).


Stay Wild

Joel 💚

3 months ago | [YT] | 242

Wild Your Garden with Joel Ashton

URGENT - Angel update ❤️

First - thank you. So many of you have asked after Angel under totally unrelated videos, and you collectively raised £4,000 to bring her to safety. We feel that care every day.

Angel has been found and is safe, but she’s not with us and we’ve not been given details about where she is. We only received an email in mid-late January saying she had been retrieved but “severely traumatised.” Separately, we have reliable confirmation she was actually recovered on 5 December 2025. During 60 days we were kept in the dark - we kept searching, postering and checking cameras because we hadn’t been told.

I'm now preparing a calm, evidence-led video that walks through the timeline with time-stamped clips (including Angel relaxed at our door), maps, and what we can responsibly share. Please be kind in the comments - we’ll keep this factual and measured.

It's been a very trying time, as I’m sure you can imagine, but we're not giving up on her.

Thank you again for caring about Angel. 🙏

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3 months ago | [YT] | 196

Wild Your Garden with Joel Ashton

A lot of people have been asking recently whether we should stop feeding our garden birds.

There’s been a surge of information online suggesting that feeding them causes harm, spreads disease and favours certain species. Understandably it’s left some people feeling worried or unsure about what to do.

I’ve just finished a video which looks at this properly and addresses all of the above mentioned concerns.

The video goes live tonight at 7pm UK time and talks about feeding, disease, competition, habitat and what actually helps birds in real gardens.

If you’ve been feeling conflicted or guilty, this one’s for you.

Stay Wild and see you soon!

Joel 💚

4 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 222

Wild Your Garden with Joel Ashton

Hi everyone. Just to let you know that tonight’s video will be released tomorrow evening at 7pm UK time. It’s been a bit of an epic edit as it’s a video all about my first year living with the Georgian Wildlife Garden, what I’ve seen, what’s turned up in terms of wildlife and flora and what I’ve been up to since moving in at the end of March 2025. I also talk about the next steps for the garden and what’s to come in 2026.

I hope you will all love it.

Happy New Year to you all and Stay Wild!

Joel 💚

4 months ago | [YT] | 262

Wild Your Garden with Joel Ashton

As another year passes, and my 6th on this wonderful platform that is YouTube, I want to wish every single one of you a VERY Happy New Year.
I hope that 2026 is one filled with wildlife.

I created many new habitats for wildlife in 2025, including many wildlife ponds, 2 new wetlands, wildflower meadows, installed bird boxes of all sorts and made many other habitats and gardens in between. 2026 will be no different, with many projects already lined up for the year ahead.

I’ll also be continuing to document the changes I’ll be making to the Georgian Wildlife Garden, including a new wildlife pond, wildflower meadows, dry stone walls, a new pergola and deck, along with many more features.

As with the previous 5 years on this channel, I intend to continue to encourage and inspire more people to garden for wildlife and grow the wonderful community that we have created here, together, with each and everyone one of you wonderful people. Thank you so much for the support you’ve all shown through what has been a challenging year at times - it’s your support and encouragement that keeps me focused on creating more content for you to all enjoy and share.

I wish you all the very best for 2026 and will be sharing a video shortly of my journey so far with The Georgian Wildlife Garden, looking back at the changes I’ve made and the wildlife that’s already turned up throughout this first year of living here.

All the best and Stay Wild,

Joel 💚

4 months ago | [YT] | 411

Wild Your Garden with Joel Ashton

Join me LIVE TONIGHT!

Hey everyone. Join me this evening at 18:00pm GMT for my last LIVE of 2025.

An hour’s chat of everything wildlife & wildlife gardening. Come along and ask me your burning questions about gardening for wildlife.

Hope to see you all there.

Stay Wild!

Joel 💚

5 months ago | [YT] | 73