Australia’s wild animals are far outnumbered by its diversity of plants. There are over 18,000 species of flowering plants alone in Australia. Including other types of plants such as conifers, ferns, mosses and plant algae, Australia is home to over 21,000 species – and these are only for species identified so far, there are still many to be described.

Local native species are easy to grow, are adapted to the extremes of our climate, and can offer a lot of colour and texture to make your garden wonderful for you and your Backyard Buddies. Most importantly, a native yard will help create connectivity between patches of habitat for the movement of native birds and animals.

Why do it?

By committing to help your local wildlife in your backyard, you can create a stepping stone habitat to help them travel around more easily, help them find food and mates.
The pressures facing native animals have increased dramatically since European settlement. They have lost more than 70% of their natural habitat.
Offering a safe habitat for native animals in your own garden can help them hang onto their remaining homelands and stay in our towns and cities.

Is it Hard?

Not at all. There are a plenty of tips you can try that are super easy. Even just doing a couple will be a big help to your local wildlife.
Backyard Buddies has plenty of resources to help you along the way. Whether it’s a factsheet, links to useful resources on the website or Facebook page, or monthly tips in your B-mail newsletter, join the Backyard Buddies community to receive ongoing help and advice along your journey to creating a habitat haven.

What do I need?

You don’t need a big backyard to make a big difference. Have a look at the list and see what is right for you.
Creating a habitat haven is a creative process and there’s often a number of different ways to make a wildlife friendly item for your garden.
You may already have a lot of items lying around that can help wildlife. Terracotta pipes are great places for lizards to rest, a plastic children’s paddling pool can make a perfect frog pond. Even old bricks can be homes for native bees.
Instead of binning those pesky gum leaves or jacaranda flowers that just keep falling, they can make great mulch.

Nest boxes

There is a huge variety of Australian animals that rely on tree hollows for safety and reproduction.
Nest boxes are the next best thing to a natural tree hollow. You can buy one online or build your own. Some of the nest boxes you can choose from include: possum, kookaburra, microbats, wood ducks, native bees and many more.

Plants

Choose plants that are indigenous to where you live. Most councils should have a list of these plants and they might even have a native nursery where you can buy them. The Atlas of Living Australia is another way to find out about local plants.
Plant shrubs and grasses in dense clumps. This provides protective habitat for more vulnerable species.
Choose plants that provide food and shelter for birds and other animals. Nectar giving shrubs are a favourite of honeyeaters and other small birds and many provide protection from predators.

Pond

Choose a spot in the garden that receives sun during the morning or afternoon but also has plenty of shade to build your pond.
Decide whether you want to use a pre-made plastic or fibreglass pond, convert a swimming pool into a natural pond, or create your own with plastic pond liner.
Reeds and sedges are ideal for the shallows of your pond. They look good, keep the water clean and provide shelter for native fish and frogs, and food for tadpoles. If locally native, try out nardoo, native water lily and water ribbon.
Place rocks, logs, and upturned flower pots around the pond. Frogs will use these to hide under, safe from predators and to keep cool during the day.
Install a solar powered light to attract insects for frogs to munch on.

Chemical Free

Many native plants and animals are susceptible to illness and death from pesticides, herbicides, and poisons—so keep them out of your garden.
Encourage natural pest controllers into your garden, like ladybirds to eat aphids and microbats to eat large quantities of flying insects including mosquitoes, or Blue-tongue Lizards to gobble up snails.

Maintenance

Remember that while this garden is low-maintenance compared to most gardens, there are some things that will require ongoing work.
Wait until outside of breeding season (autumn is usually a good time) and check your bird and possum boxes. Give them a clean with non-toxic cleaning products if dirt has built up and add new leaves/sawdust.

Pets

Keep your cats indoors or in a cat run, especially at night when they hunt the most.
Keep dogs in a secure yard, away from the base of trees if possible so they can’t attack possums, Koalas and snakes, etc

Don’t Feed the Animals

Feeding native animals mince meat, bread or sunflower seeds can make them very sick, artificially inflate their population, and make them more susceptible to disease.

By making your garden a friendly place for small birds, you will create a good habitat for them to live, feed and nest in.

Making your patch a thriving place also helps to reconnect habitats across the landscape. This means that when small birds fly from place to place in search of food, shelter and nesting trees, they have an easier task ahead of them.

Making your backyard into a safe and friendly place will help more small birds overall to survive.

With a few simple steps, you can transform your garden into a small bird paradise.

Eastern Spinebill

Eastern Yellow Robin

Superb Fairy Wrens

Be a backyard buddy

When you look out your windows, what do you see? Too often, the answer is Indian Mynas, Noisy Miners, or only a few types of birds.

This is because the manicured gardens we have in our suburbs encourage those birds. Mynas love areas with open spaces, like lawns or paved areas without many plants, or with only a few tall trees scattered around. Sound familiar?

These common, suburban gardens don’t provide the habitat that small birds need. They don’t have an understory or many plants of different heights and densities for smaller birds to hide in, and so they easily get chased out of the area by more aggressive birds like Mynas.

But you can help! Let’s get started.

You don’t need to dig up the whole garden and start again.

You can simply make a few additions to fill up your garden a bit more, and make it more suitable for small birds.

Click to watch a video about gardening for small birds from Birds in Backyards.

Small birds need:

Local native plants: You can ask which plants are native to your area at your local nursery, by ringing your council, or by getting in touch with the nearest Landcare or Bushcare group. Try to get a mix of plants that will flower in different seasons, and provide food year-round. Plant your local natives after the first good rains in autumn or winter. Then you won’t have to spend much time watering them next summer.
Diversity: A garden with plants of many different heights and densities, with upper, mid and lower layers.
Shelter: A dense, closely planted, central area of 1-2 metre tall shrubs in which to roost, possibly to nest in, and to shelter from weather and predators in.
Food: Within and outside of the central tall shrubs, small birds need a diverse mix of smaller shrubs, grasses and ground covers in which to forage for food. Plant these about 6 inches apart. Native plants can provide different kinds of food, such as nectar, fruits or berries, and seeds, so try to include species that will provide a range of foods. Grevilleas, Banksias, Hakeas, and Eucalyptuses will provide lots of nectar, as will Correas and Kangaroo Paws.
Protection: To keep small birds safe, you might like to encourage a vine to climb over some of your shrubs to provide extra cover from predators such as cats, and larger birds.
Water: in a cat-proof, elevated bird bath, that is placed next to a spiky, dense bush. This gives small birds somewhere close by to hide if a predator appears.
An understory: Made up of small shrubs, grasses, herbs, vines, fallen branches, hollow logs, and rocks.
Spiky plants: densely planted spiky natives that can act as a bit of a buffer to prevent bigger birds and predators from coming in easily. They will also provide food, shelter and nesting sites for small birds. Great species to use include Hakeas, Bursarias, Banksias, Lambertias, Woollsias, Styphelias, Epacrises, Daviesias, Dillwynias, and the Acacia ulicifolia.
Native grasses: allowed to grow tall, native grasses will provide lots of seed for small birds like finches to eat, and good places to hide. Native grasses include Kangaroo Grass, Walaby Grass and Poa Grass, among many others.
Nesting materials: Including leaf litter, sticks, bark and grasses. Nest material is often bound together with spider web, so leave any webs or spiders you find around the garden alone. Having leaf litter, mulch and bark around the garden will also encourage skinks and insects for small birds to eat. Nests are often lined with soft downy fibres from plants, or strips of moss or lichen, so if you can include these in your garden, all the better.

Try to:

Keep your cat indoors as much as possible, so that they don’t attack small birds.
Plant spiky shrubs between or near your existing plants to fill up the area, and make it more attractive to small birds.
Be patient as it may take time for your garden to develop, and for small birds and new visitors to discover that it is a reliable source of food, shelter and water.
Start slow – maybe pick one corner of your garden to build up first, and add to it over time.
Encourage the creation of more native gardens for small birds around your area. It could be a great project for the local primary or high school, or even for a local group who would like to improve the verges in your area. Before planting a verge or other public area, gain permission from the local council or appropriate authority. The more good habitat there is around, the more small birds you will all see.
Take a walk around your nearest natural area with high quality bushland. Observe what kinds of small birds are around, and what kinds of plants they are using. Observe how the plants small birds are feeding from and sheltering in are distributed – for example, in a large group of the same plant, or scattered amongst many different plants, or both. What you want to do in your own garden to encourage small birds, is copy as closely as possible what you see out in the natural bushland.

Avoid:

Feeding small birds with bread or seed. Small birds can find their own food, and get much more benefit out of food that comes from native plants, as this is what they are used to. Small birds can get sick or die if they eat the wrong foods, or food that has gone bad.
Using chemicals and pesticides in your garden to control bugs. This removes a food source for small birds, and can make small birds sick or cause them to die if they eat a poisoned insect.
Clearing bushy areas of the garden because they appear messy or overgrown. This is just what small birds love best!
Using plants that are known weeds to your area. Check with your council or nursery for more information.
Using hybrid plants such as hybrid Grevilleas with large flowers, as these will attract Noisy Miners. Go for local native plants with smaller flowers, that smaller honeyeaters will be able to feed from, but which Miners and Red Wattlebirds will not be able to.

Some common small birds include:

Grey Fantails
Superb Fairy-wrens
Red-browed Finches
Silvereyes
Spotted Pardalotes
Eastern Spinebills
Eastern Yellow Robins
Welcome Swallows
Brown Gerygones
Jacky Winters
Robins
Finches
Scrubwrens

Be a backyard buddy

It’s easy. All you have to do is care… and take a few simple steps. Backyard Buddies are the native plants and animals that share our urban areas, waterways, backyards and parks. Backyard Buddies are also the people who value native wildlife and want to protect it.

Find out more about your buddies

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Making your garden a friendly place for big birds will turn it into a fantastic, enjoyable, thriving place.

Large birds such as parrots, cockatoos, kookaburras, honeyeaters, birds of prey and others will add colour and excitement to your backyard.

These bigger birds are also great to have around as they will eat up snakes, skinks, lizards, insects, and rodents. Nectar-eating big birds will help to pollinate some of your plants.

With a few simple steps, you can transform your garden into a haven for big birds.

Create a nestbox. Photo: OEH

Be a Backyard Buddy

Many large birds can get muscled out of your garden by territorial and aggressive Magpies, Apostlebirds, and other common birds.

But there’s a lot you can do to encourage a greater range of bird visitors to your backyard, and provide somewhere great for them all to enjoy.

Big birds need:

Hollows: Leave larger trees, especially old eucalyptus trees with hollows. It takes 75 to 100 years for trees to develop hollows, which make excellent nesting and shelter sites for many native species. As more large trees get removed, competition gets fiercer between all types of birds and animals that need them. Buddies that use hollows include kookaburras, owls, parrots, pardalotes, possums, gliders, phascogales, microbats and many others.
Fallen branches, rotting logs, and old stumps: On the ground, as they can contain hollows which birds such as parrots, owls, Kestrels and other birds can nest in. Hollow logs will also attract lizards, insects, and other animals which will be a food source for larger birds.
Leaf litter, fallen bark, sticks and mulch: Throughout your garden, as this will encourage lizards and insects, which birds love to eat. It will also provide some good material that big birds can use to build their nests.
Local native plants: You can ask which plants are native to your area at your local nursery, by ringing your council, or by getting in touch with the nearest Landcare or Bushcare group. Plant your local natives in patches, rather than individually in isolated spots.
A range of native plants: as the greater the plant diversity is in your garden, the greater variety of birds you’re likely to see.
The right kind of food: different big birds eat different things.
Nectar: Honeyeaters and some Parrots, such as Red and Little Wattlebirds, Rainbow Lorikeets and so on, eat nectar from flowers. Plants such as Banksia, Callistemon (Bottlebrush), Eucalpytus, Grevillea, Hakea, and Melaleuca (Paperbark) are great for them.
Fruits and berries: Fruit eaters such as Satin Bowerbirds, Common Koels and Wonga Pigeons love Lillipillies, Quandong and Figs. Many bigger birds will eat from native as well as introduced fruit trees.
Prey: Big birds such as currawongs, Laughing Kookaburras, butcherbirds, owls, and other birds of prey eat meat. Any reptiles, frogs, small mammals or other birds you encourage to your garden could become a meal for these carnivorous birds.
Water: Provide a water source such as a bird bath for birds to drink from and bathe in. Freshen the water regularly, and refill when empty, and you will have many a happy visitor to your backyard.
Water: in a cat-proof, elevated bird bath, that is placed next to a spiky, dense bush.
Nesting materials: Including leaf litter, sticks, bark and grasses.

Try to:

Put up a nest box. Different birds have different requirements about what size and shape box they will nest in, so do your research before buying or building a nest box, if you want to attract or help a specific species that you’ve seen around your area.
Keep your cat indoors: as they are natural hunters and will go after birds.

Avoid:

Feeding birds. Throwing some bread, scraps or seeds to the cockies may seem like harmless fun at first, but when a bird discovers a good food source, it often returns with its friends. What started as one visitor can soon turn into a whole flock. Sulphur-crested Cockatoos who have been fed can return and cause problems by stripping wood from decks, window frames, and trees as they wait for someone to come and feed them. It is best to avoid creating this problem by letting birds find their own food, and planting local natives that will provide food for them. Birds will be much healthier, and less dependent, this way.
Letting unwanted species use your nest boxes! While you may put up a nest box suited to a Kookaburra or Parrot, competition for hollows is so fierce that you may find another creature using the box. Inspect the nest box regularly, and if introduced mynas or other unwanted predators take up residence in it, humanely evict them so that native birds get a chance. Be careful though as you never know what could be found in a nest box, and it may not want to leave.

Some common big birds include:

Sulphur-crested Cockatoos
Little Corellas
Long-billed Corellas
Crimson Rosellas
Rainbow Lorikeets
Eastern Rosellas
Masked Lapwings
Australian Magpies
Pied Currawongs
Red Wattlebirds
Little Wattlebirds
Galahs
Laughing Kookaburras
Australian King-Parrots
Ravens
Satin Bowerbirds

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Blue tongues, skinks, water dragons, and other lizards are fantastic buddies to encourage in your backyard.

Skinks will eat up insects and their larvae, and larger skinks will take care of slugs and snails for you.

To encourage lizards in your garden:

Try to:

Plant local native grasses and ground covers. A thick ground cover gives lizards plenty of good places to hide.
Plant berry or nectar producing local natives as these will attract insects for lizards to eat.
Leave leaf litter around your garden for small insects and their eggs.
Mulch your plants – not only will this conserve moisture in your soil, but it will provide lots of good hiding places for lizards and their prey.
Include some vines or creepers to cover your fences or walls. This will allow lizards to move up and down easily.
Include areas of shade and heavy vegetation, as well as areas with lots of sunlight and sparse plantings, as lizards love the variety.
Keep your cat indoors as much as possible, as they are natural hunters and will eat lizards and skinks if they can catch them. Install a cat run so that your cat can safely go outside without harming any lizard or other buddies.
Check for blue tongues before mowing the lawn or reversing out of the driveway.
Include rocks, big bits of bark, and logs in your garden for lizards to sun themselves on, and hide in and under. Place your rocks and logs near some dense bushes or shelter so the lizard can quickly hide if a predator comes along.
Provide a shallow bowl of water in a protected spot, and keep the water supply regular and fresh, and keep the bowl clean.
Plant a strawberry plant as a special treat for a lizard such as a Bobtail.
Include PVC pipes or stacks of bricks as sheltering spots for lizards if you can’t get fallen branches, logs or rocks. Old tin or roofing is also great in the garden as somewhere for lizards to sun themselves or hide under.
Include a pond in your garden as somewhere to drink from, which will also encourage insects and frogs. Use some sticks or rocks to as a ramp to make it easy for any lizard that falls in to get out again.
Compost your veggie scraps. Not only will this save waste from going into landfill, it will be great for your plants, and it will also attract insects and snails for lizards to eat.

Avoid:

Using chemicals, pesticides, non-organic fertilisers, or snail pellets in your garden. If a lizard eats a poisoned bug or snail, it can become sick and die. Lizards also won’t hang around if there aren’t any bugs or snails to eat in your garden.
Feeding your pets outdoors, as blue tongues may be attracted to food from the bowl. While they are eating they are vulnerable to attack from domestic pets or birds.
Taking rocks or logs from the bush to place in your garden. They are already someone’s home where they are!
Collecting lizards from the park or bush for your garden. Simply provide the habitat for them, and lizards will find it – build it and they will come.
Raking up. Let your piles of leaf litter, mulch and twigs accumulate and the lizards will love you for it.
Feeding lizards in your backyard, as they are great at finding their own food, and can become dependent on you for a feed. This can quickly turn against the lizard if you go on a long holiday or move house.

Some good plants for lizards include:

Bottlebrush, Callistemon species
Grevilleas
Grasses such as Wallaby Grass, Kangaroo Grass, Weeping Grass
Native Violet
Mat Rush
Purple Coral Pea
Dianella species
Dwarf Baeckea

A chemical free garden is a healthy garden for you, your family and the animals that visit. But you also want it to be free of garden pests and weeds.

Chemical fertilisers and pesticides are designed to provide a quick solution for common gardening problems, but they can harm visiting animals, and there are often very simple, much cheaper chemical-free solutions at hand.

If you spray chemicals or pesticides in the garden, you might kill a bug today. But you may also be affecting other animals that you didn’t even think about. A bird might eat that poisoned insect. The bird may not be visibly affected straight away, but what happens over time is called ‘bioaccumulation’. This means that as the bird eats more poisoned bugs over time, the poison builds up in its body. This may later cause it to become sick or die. Or another predator may eat that poisoned bird, and the poison will build up in its system – perpetuating the cycle.

It’s best to avoid using chemicals and pesticides in your garden. There are many ways in which you can encourage natural predators to help out your garden instead.

Start with the right plants

Some plants are hardier than others. A disease-resistant plant is less attractive to pests and is a good starting point for your low-maintenance garden. Your local council can provide you with a list of local native plants that are ideal for your backyard. Water, nurture and mulch them well, and your plants will be more resilient for it.

Plant some native plants to provide food and shelter for your backyard buddies, such as:

native grasses to provide seed for the birds
Grevilleas which are great for nectar-feeding birds, like honeyeaters, lorikeets and other parrots
Spiky-leaf plants which are great for small birds like finches and wrens
Acacias and Hakeas which provide protection from predators
Grevillea Formosa – the flowers of which attract Eastern Spinebills
A cluster of Lilly Pilly pruned to size which is a great habitat that even a small urban backyard can support

Remember, informal and dense planting leaves no room for weeds to grow. Grouping plants by their water needs will make it easier for you to get the water supply right which makes your plants even more resilient.

Have a think about your exotics. While some are attractive ornamental focal points in your garden, others can be a real problem. Asparagus Fern, a noxious weed still kept as a pot plant in many backyards, flowers and produces red berries in summer. These berries get eaten by birds which disperse the seeds to other areas. To prevent this weed from spreading into bushland where it smothers native shrubs and trees consider replacing any of these plants with equally attractive native ferns, such as the Maidenhair Fern.

Bad Bugs

As far as gardeners are concerned there are good bugs and there are bad bugs. Aphids are definitely the latter, but they won’t be a problem if you look after their natural predators. Ladybirds and their larvae gorge themselves on aphids, as do lace wings, hoverflies and their larvae.

As long as you don’t use chemical sprays, these predators will be there when you need them. In the worst cases you can also buy the eggs of good bugs and place them directly on your plants – for a list of suppliers and a who is who of the bug world visit Eco Organic Garden or Bugs for Bugs.

Even relatively low toxic ‘environmentally friendly’ insecticide, such as pyrethrum or garlic spray, while killing the aphids, will also kill natural predators.

A bird bath in a sheltered position in your garden will attract the small, insect eating birds that also do a great job cleaning up scale and aphids. Just make sure that the bath is out of reach of cats.

To control snails in your backyard you can use snail bait or a Blue-tongue Lizard, but not both. A Blue-tongue will eat your snails, caterpillars and other pests, but poisoned snails will also kill the Blue-tongue. To protect visiting lizards in spring and for a chance to see the baby Blue-tongues in summer, try a simple, poison free snail trap. Fill an empty can or other container with beer, wine or any yeast product mixed with water and bury it near your veggie patch with the rim 1 or 2 cm above the ground. It will attract the snails and drown them. A 5% sugar-water solution also works well for slugs. Empty the traps every day.

Better Soils & Gardens

Divide your veggie patch into 4 or more small, separate beds. Throughout the season rotate the crops as an effective means of disease and pest control while increasing soil fertility. Always use string-lines so rows of vegetables are straight for economic use of small areas. Rows also make weeding and watering easier.

The best mulch for a backyard buddy garden would be native leaf litter, which comes from native tree pruning and is available from your own trees or your council depot.

Compost reduces your garden and kitchen waste and is the best organic fertiliser you can get, and best of all, it’s free. Even the smallest balcony can house a worm farm – talk to your gardening centre staff for the right product for your garden.

Nest boxes replicate natural shelters such as tree hollows. They are fun, easy and cheap to make, and will provide a secure home for many years to come.

Brushtail Possums, Sugar Gliders and many bird species such as Kookaburras and Cockatoos will use a nest box as they sleep in tree hollows if they can find them. Ringtail Possums build a nest of sticks called a “drey”, but will occasionally use a nest box, too.

The Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife funded the installation of nest boxes in Plenty Gorge Park, Victoria for animals such as Feathertail Gliders, Sugar Gliders, and vulnerable Brush-tailed Phascogales.

Nest Box Tips

Use untreated wood. Animals may chew it and chemicals can harm them
Arrange timber so that growth rings radiate away from the centre of the box. Subsequent “warping” will force the box together rather than apart
The box should have drainage holes in the bottom and ventilation holes toward the top but not in the roof, or water will leak in
Place the entrance hole near the top so that the bottom remains dark
Add “toe holds” inside the box so young can climb out
The lid of your box must slope from the back of the box to the entrance with an overhang of at least 25 mm. Use hinges so you can clean it out after breeding season
Choose your position carefully. The best place for your box is in a sheltered location, so think about which side of your house takes the brunt of cold wind and driving rain. Position your box at least 3 m above the ground
If you attach your nest box to a tree, use wire that is covered with a piece of garden hose to protect the tree from damage
Choose a spot with a branch on the opposite side of the tree to rest the wire on
Cover the bottom of the box with wood shavings or shredded bark
Keep an eye on your nest box and make sure that pest species such as Common Mynas haven’t moved in. If you find that is the case, empty the box and close the entrance hole for a while
Put your new nest box up in late winter or early spring. This is the time that early breeders like rosellas are looking for a place to raise their young

Different Buddies like Different Nest Boxes

The size of the animal matters when it comes to finding the right real estate. The entrance hole should be just big enough for the residents to get in. You can also add a stick under the entrance hole to help buddies on their way in and out of the box, if you like.

Give Possums a New Home – Out of your Roof!

A nest box may be part of the solution if you have a resident Brushtail Possum in your roof. At night, when your possum is out, place a bright light in the roof to discourage it from coming back and seal all access holes to your roof. Place the new nest box nearby so your possum can find shelter when it finds your roof locked up.

The measurements below are in millimeters and are the minimum guidelines for the dimensions of the boxes.

Ringtail Possum Nest Box: A 400, B 240, C 200, D 70
Brushtail Possum Nest Box: A 500, B 250, C 290, D 100-120
Rosella Nest Box: A 400, B 240, C 200, D 70
Treecreeper Nest Box: A 400, B 190, C 170, D 45-50
Sugar Glider Nest Box: A 400, B 240, C 200, D 32-35

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Have you watched bats swooping insects? If you visit a park with streetlights at night and watch – you may be lucky! Insect eating microbats are alive and well in your area.

Construct your own roosting box to help out tiny bats. This design is suitable for most kinds of Australian microbats.

Adult help is required to make this project.

You will need

3 cm thick plantation pine or structural or external pine plywood. Rough-sawn or even secondhand timber is ideal, although you must make sure it is free of nails and paint.
Screws
1 or 2 hinges
A piece of old rubber tyre
Shade cloth, mesh or bark
Staple gun and staples
Wire
Old piece of garden hose or a nail and hammer

Instructions

Cut your pieces as the per sizes on the diagram below.
Screw your pieces together except for the top/roof.
Attach the top/roof piece to the box with a hinge so you can open and close it.
Attach the piece of rubber so that it’s covering the hinged bits of wood – this will help waterproof it.
Screw a couple of off-cuts on the inside of the roof so that it sits snugly.
Staple shadecloth, mesh or bark to all inner surfaces, and your backboard.
Choose your location – you want somewhere shaded during the hottest part of the day, but not in full shade all day. Trim a few branches in front of the box to allow an uninterrupted flight path.
Thread wire through the garden hose and attach to back of box to hang from a tree, or nail your box to a tree about 3-5 m high.
Better still, make 3 boxes and hang at the same height on 3 different sides of the tree. The bats will move between them to find the right temperature at different times of day and during different seasons.

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Ladybirds are a welcome sight in any backyard. Not only are they colourful and lovely to watch, but they also eat up aphids from your plants and help keep your garden healthy.

This Ladybird House makes a creative addition to any garden. It will be used by ladybirds and other insects in winter. Adult help is required to make this project.

Your ladybird house can help attract ladybirds to your garden or encourage those you release to stick around.

You will need

A piece of plywood
Logs (at least 10 cm wide)
Bamboo canes
Twigs
Screws
Nails
Wire
Power drill
Hand saw

Instructions

Screw and wire together the logs to make a frame.
Cut the plywood to the shape of the frame and nail it to the back.
Cut the bamboo canes into pieces the same depth as the frame.
Cut pieces of log the same depth as the frame.
Use a drill to make holes around 5 mm in diameter in the log pieces.
Stack the bamboo and log pieces into the frame. Push them in as tightly as possible so they don’t fall out.
Fill any gaps with twigs.
Make a loop from wire to hang it from.
Hang on a wall, ideally facing into the morning sun. Position it near plants because ladybirds like to eat aphids. If it is low down and near a pond it may be used by dragonflies and solitary bees too.

Ladybird Tip

Avoid using chemicals and pesticides in the garden as they can deter good bugs like ladybirds that want to eat up your aphids for free. Leave little unknown bugs as they could grow into ladybirds. Lure ladybirds to your garden by making a concoction of honey, water and brewers yeast. Spread it in the garden and ladybirds will visit.

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A pond creates a home for frogs and adds a lovely water feature in the garden for you to feast your eyes on. You can design your own, in a few simple steps.

Frog ponds can come in all shapes and sizes. You can even leave out an old plastic kiddy pool or old bath. Let it fill with rainwater and add native plants and rocks.

Location

Build your pond away from existing large trees. This avoids problems with roots and with leaves falling in.
Build your pond away from houses, including neighbours, as frogs can get noisy when calling.
Choose a site that is shady for about three quarters of the day. You don’t want your pond to overheat in summer. Balance is the key. The right dose of sunshine helps algae to grow, feeding hungry tadpoles. Too much sun and algae, however, can reduce water quality.
Try to make the pond as wide as possible, and around 30 cm deep.
This is suitable for small aquatic animals. Your local council can advise you on the maximum depth you are allowed, with and without a fence.
Try to build your pond in an area where water naturally collects. For example, a depression, or under a roof-top pipe where rain drips.

Design Features

Before digging, consider water supply and drainage as well as electricity supply for lights, pumps and filters.
Build an overflow area (a place below the pond height). This is to control where the water overflows in case of heavy rain.
Screen your pond to make sure no plants, snails, frogs or eggs can leak out. This keeps your fish in the pond and protects your local waterways from any potentially harmful escapees (especially important if you have non-native fish).
Include gently sloping sides to allow frogs to get in and out of the pond easily.
Make a ramp to help frogs with slippery feet climb out easily. Prop a log or a few rocks over the pond’s edge.

Preparation

If you use a plastic pond liner, make sure it’s tough and not easily punctured. Plastic pond liners can be cheaper and easier to install than concrete ponds.
Rinse your new plastic pond before you install it as frogs are sensitive to chemicals.
If you choose a concrete pond you need to “cure” it with a combination of filling, scrubbing and painting with vinegar as well as several water changes.
Line the base of the pond with gravel or washed sand.
If you fill your pond with tap water remember to allow time for the chlorine in the water to dissipate (at least 5 days) or use a chlorine neutraliser from a pet shop.
Install your filters, fountains or waterfalls first and ensure everything is working as you intended it to.
Once you’re ready, add your plants and let them settle in for at least a week. Remove any obviously dead leaves as they will pollute the water.
Add native fish (if you like).

Plants

Native plant and water garden nurseries, and some pet shops, will have a range of natives for planting in and around your pond so that frogs and tadpoles have somewhere to shelter.
Reeds and sedges are ideal for the shallows of your pond. They look good, keep the water clean and provide shelter for fish and frogs, and food for tadpoles. If locally native, try out nardoo, native water lily and water ribbon.
Keep your plants in containers for easy maintenance and to protect your plants.
Containers with emergent plants can get top heavy. Secure them with bricks.
Plant local native reeds, sedges, grasses, shrubs and trees of differing heights around your pond for shade and protection. If local, try Kangaroo Grass, Swamp Banksia, Saw-Leafed Sedge and Native Ginger.
Contact your nursery or council to find out what plants are locally native.

Around the Pond

Place rocks, logs, leaf litter, bark and upturned flower pots around the pond. Frogs will use these to hide under from predators and to keep cool during the day.
Create wet, boggy areas around the pond by watering the ground or mulching it. Newly morphed frogs have better chances of surviving in a place with lots of moisture.
Place loose, sandy soil in these boggy areas. Frogs use these as stepping stones when moving to different habitats.
Install a solar powered light to attract insects for frogs to munch on.

Maintenance

Clean filters regularly.
Top up the pond with the garden hose if it needs it, but don’t add more than 10-20% at any one time.
Scoop out a little dead plant material—it makes great compost. Don’t scoop out too much though, as tadpoles eat algae growing in ponds.

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Encourage butterflies in your garden by including lots of nectar-giving flowering plants, muddy puddles for them to drink from, and somewhere to shelter.

This lovely Butterfly Box makes a graceful addition to any garden. Using a few tools and some untreated wood, it’s easy to build with the help of an adult.

You will need

Untreated wood
Sand paper
Nails
Hammer
Drill
Screws
A pole or wire
Twigs
Paintbrush
Non-toxic paint

Instructions

Sand your wood
Attach front and back to the top and base with screws or nails
Attach sides with screws (so they can be removed)
Mount on pole or attach wire to back and hang from fence – position it in a sunny spot near flowering plants or shrubs
If desired, paint with non-toxic paint
Place twigs and bark inside for butterflies to rest on
Enjoy!

Tips to Attract Butterflies

Plant local natives including grasses, nectar-giving flowering plants, and citrus. This will give butterflies somewhere to feed and lay their eggs.
Plant a variety of heights of plants so butterflies are protected from strong winds.
If you want to see butterflies, you’ll need to see caterpillars, too. So avoid using chemicals or pesticides in your backyard.
Include rocks in your garden so butterflies have somewhere to sit and sun themselves.
Place a shallow dish of muddy water in a sunny spot so butterflies can have a drink.

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