Creating a Wildlife Friendly Garden

There are several things we can do, to make our gardens more wildlife friendly…

 

Birds

• Plant flowering trees that are native to the area, or at least plant natives that will attract birds.
• Plant dense and prickly shrubs for birds to nest in.
• Include water features and bird baths, keeping in mind that small birds don’t like the water to be too deep.
• If you do include bird feeders, make sure there is never any wet seed left out, as mouldy grain will quickly kill birds.

 

Butterflies

• Plant butterfly attracting shrubs.
• Nectar producing plants provide food for adult butterflies.
• Food plants provide a place where female butterflies can lay eggs, and then provide a food source for newly hatched larvae (caterpillars) to feed on.

 

Possums

• Install some possum boxes in your trees if you don’t already have trees with hollows in your garden. 
• Remember, possums will be attracted to fruit trees and fallen fruit.

 

Bats

• Install some bat boxes in your trees for microbats.
• The micro bats are wonderful insect catchers, but remember not to handle them unless you’ve been vaccinated against the bat Lyssavirus.

 

Reptiles

• Include some flat rocks in your planting scheme so that lizards can hide under them or sun themselves on.
• Remember, one of the favourite foods of the blue tongue lizard is snails.  Red belly black snakes are also quite partial to them!

 

Other tips

• Include well mulched areas encourage worms which, in turn, will encourage birds, lizards and antechinus. 
• The antechinus and bandicoot both love to dig for grubs, and a nicely mulched area is very appealing. 
• Deter wallabies, kangaroos and possums from your prize roses, with a good strong spray of Charlie Carp.

 

Threats

• Minimise your use of insecticides as they pose a problem for all our wildlife.  The less you use, the more you will find natural predators doing the work for you.
• Both insecticides and fungicides are best used later in the evening, or very early in the morning.  Once the bees are out and about, it is too late!!
• Exclude cats and dogs from the garden at night by securing them, especially cats as they love to catch gliders and antechinus. 
• Dogs are a problem if they chase native wildlife, as they often won’t let anything strange into their territory.

 

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