Gardens For Nature
Home gardens provide a fantastic opportunity to recreate habitats for our local wildlife. Have a go at creating your own nature-inspired garden and enjoy seeing the locals drop in for regular visits! Follow some or all of these top 8 tips to make your garden attractive to local birds and other fauna.
⇒ Local native plants are the crucial building block. They provide food and shelter, plus they also attract insects – a food source for many animals.
⇒ Create sunny and shady patches in your garden. Many birds and reptiles love to ‘sun themselves’ from time to time.
⇒ A garden can be a work in progress. Like in nature, it can evolve through stages. Even a patch of weeds can attract and help support insect populations.
⇒ The more variety in a garden, the greater the diversity of wildlife it will attract and support. Add logs, rocks, slopes, flat areas, water sources, bare ground, leaf litter, a variety of trees, shrubs, ground covers and herbs.
⇒ Provide a source of water that birds can drink from and bathe in.
⇒ Allow areas where leaf litter can collect for reptiles and creatures that live in the soil, especially frogs and earthworms.
⇒ Watch and learn what comes and goes in your garden. This can be very rewarding, especially if you have places to watch birds and other animals without disturbing them.
⇒ For the ecology of your garden to be healthy avoid the use of chemicals where feasible, including detergents, snail bait, insecticides, artificial fertilisers and herbicides.