An has shared his advice on the two things you need to be wary of in your garden at this time of year. Ben Hamilton Anderson is a rose expert and plant reviewer who has amassed a huge following on social media for his advice. He told the mistakes are making all too often - and it's likely you too could be making a couple of these errors.

Ben has 30 years of experience as a He first started gardening at the age of 14 and has grown a huge online audience sharing his advice. He holds a diploma in horticulture and shares his gardening tips to an impressive combined following of 62,800 followers on Instagram and TikTok under the username of @the_gardenerben.

He said: "The use of pesticides and herbicides without any regard for the implication of the is what people should be wary of at this time of year.

"I understand that chemicals need to be used as a commercial , I do use chemicals myself, I'm quite open about that, but in a very controlled and responsible fashion under licence.

"People go out to their very quickly and they see a problem, for instance at the moment it's very much focused on aphids, green fly, black fly, they feel their garden is under attack.

"They feel that these things are going to detract from the beauty of their outdoor spaces and for me, I cast myself as a custodian of my outdoor space, we're lucky enough to have a third of an acre. It's not my , the garden is actually for the wildlife I share it with and I plant it as such."

He adds that being educated on this element of your is important. Ben told that if people plan to get rid of the aphids in their garden, this can actually then end up poisoning ladybirds, lacewings and hoverflies which eat the aphids.

It could also cause complications for birds, which people often spend the entire winter feeding.

Ben said: "I leave my as a natural larder for birds at all times, so they have access to whatever they want.

"I don't deadhead and I don't clean and tidy away the waste in the garden, I allow it to decompose where it falls. And that's really important to be aware of your entire ecosystem and not making rash judgments which could cause issues for ."

One other area Ben warns of is not to get sucked up into online trends for things.

He adds: "There's an awful lot of people on the internet who think they know what they're talking about and take a small piece of information and run with it very quickly and this sort of makes other people take notice and then they start doing this without again doing any research themselves.

"So for me another pitfall is falling into an online trend of doing something when you don't actually have to have done any research about it in the first place."

By following Ben's simple tips, you can ensure your will remain a healthy place for wildlife and that you won't waste any money on expensive trends that could soon become outdated.