Here are some tips on how to create an environmentally friendly backyard and a haven for native wildlife. You can also become more sustainable by growing fruit and veggies, having fresh eggs and reducing your waste.
Attracting birds to your backyard is easy by creating a garden that will provide food, shelter and nesting materials and nesting sites. Local flowering plants and fruit trees provide birds with nectar and seeds. You can provide birds with protein rich food, by using mulch to encourage worms, insects and grubs. You can provide shelter by planting dense prickly native shrubs, hang up nesting boxes and installing a bird bath.
Encourage frogs to come to live and breed in your backyard. Create a small shallow pond in an area that is partly shaded or install Frog Tubes. Include thick ground hugging plants around part of the pond to provide areas of warmer and cooler water. Your pond will need some sunlight to encourage algae and other plants that provide food for tadpoles. Make sure the banks slope gently so that the frogs can get out. Add some rocks and logs to provide shelter for adult frogs.
Not all minibeasts are pests. Good bugs pollinate plants, break down dead flora and fauna, aerate the soil and are food for other wildlife. They can even help keep harmful pests away. Create an inviting environment for good minibeasts by planting plenty of native plants, wildflowers and herbs and use chemical-free pest control when the pests do creep in.
Find out what else you can do to create a wildlife friendly backyard.
