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Creating a wildlife friendly garden

Add life, literally, to your garden by making it a haven for some of Australia’s colourful birds and animals. Rosellas, lorikeets, honeyeaters, galahs, cockatoos, kookaburras, skinks, blue-tongue lizards, butterflies and bees are all common backyard visitors. And given the right conditions, you may also see possums, sugar-gliders, frogs and bats.

But a trim lawn, bordered by exotic non-Australian plants and patrolled by a pet cat or dog, won’t attract much wildlife. Instead create your own little patch of Australian bushland by planting native trees and bushes, groundcover plants and grasses in some areas of your garden. Allow a ground cover of fallen leaves and branches to build up and introduce some rocks and prickly shrubs.

The nectar and seeds of the plants and trees will attract birds, butterflies, moths and possums. The ground cover and rocks will provide habitat for the insects and bugs that lizards and birds eat, as well as hiding places for lizards.

General tips

• If you have pets, fence off your “wildlife” areas so your dog can’t get into them, and keep your cat indoors. Don’t leave uneaten pet food in the garden as it attracts Indian mynas, feral cats and foxes.

• Don’t use chemical pesticide in your garden; it can poison wildlife.

• Plant thickets of prickly shrubs to provide birds and lizards with places to escape from cats and foxes.

• Birds such as lorikeets, rosellas, kookaburras and galahs, and mammals such as possums and sugar gliders, nest in hollows of mature trees. If your neighbourhood doesn’t have many old native trees, create an alternative home with a nesting box.

• Contact your local bushcare group or native plant nursery and ask them what plants they recommend for attracting wildlife to your garden.

• Walk around a local nature reserve and observe the mix of plants in natural bushland in your area.

• If you find a snake in your garden, leave it alone. Snakes will only attack if threatened. If you want it removed, call your local national parks office for advice.

Lizards

Encourage lizards such as blue-tongues and skinks by creating areas of the garden with rocks, ground cover native plants, mulch and leaf litter. This gives them places to hide from predators and provides habitat for the insects, bugs and spiders they eat. They can also sun themselves on the rocks to warm up. Blue-tongues are good for the garden because they feed on pests such as snails, crickets and cockroaches.

Birds

Australia has some of the most colourful birdlife in the world, and birds such as rosellas, lorikeets, cockatoos, kookaburras and honeyeaters will happily come into your garden to feed.
Most native birds eat a combination of nectar, insects and seeds. Plant flowering native trees such as acacias and eucalypts, flowering native shrubs such as grevilleas, bottlebrushes and banksias, small plants such as kangaroos paws and correas, and native flowers and native grasses such as poa grass and kangaroo grass. Again, leaves and twigs to mulch where they fall to provide habitat for worms, insects and lizards, which will also attract predator birds such as kookaburras and butcherbirds.
If you don’t have room to plant native trees and bushes in your garden then you can build or buy a nesting box, a bird feeder and a bird bath. These should be raised on a pedestal, as birds feel vulnerable on the ground. Never use sweetened water, and change the water regularly to prevent mosquitoes breeding. Hang the bird feeder from a tree branch and fill it with seeds and fruit, and clean it regularly.

Possums

A wooden nesting box attached to a tree can also attract possums or, if possums have settled in your roof, it can encourage them to move out (coupled with blocking up the roof cavity entrances).

Nesting boxes should be high enough to be safe from dogs and people, with a waterproof top and an entrance hole in the front. Drill a few small holes on the bottom of the box to allow any water to drain out and put in a few dead leaves to make a comfortable floor.

Frogs

Adult frogs don’t live in water, but they do need damp conditions and access to water to lay their eggs. Build a small frog pond by digging out some earth and lining the hole with plastic sheeting. To avoid stagnant water, either get a small pump to circulate the water or regularly change some of the pond water with a bucket.

Surround the pond with rocks to hold down the plastic sheet and give frogs a place to hide from predators. Leave gaps between and beneath the rocks and plant some native tussock grasses, ferns, ground cover plants such as native violets, and clumping plants such as flax lillies, and allow a dense cover of leaf and bark litter to develop as hiding places. Add a few floating plants to the pond for the frogs to lay their eggs. Don’t put fish in the pond as they will eat frog eggs.

To prevent the spread of disease, never release unwanted pet frogs into the wild, and note you’re not allowed to put frogs you buy from a pet store into an outdoor pond. Just wait for frogs to find their way to your pond.

Native Bees

There are over 1,500 species of Australian native bees, from the 24mm carpenter bee to the tiny 2mm hairless bee. They help pollinate native plants and your vegetable garden too. A good variety of flowering native plants, bushes and trees should attract them.

Two useful websites
Flora for Fauna - http://www.floraforfauna.com
Backyard Buddies - http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/buddies/BackyardBuddies.htm

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