Turn your backyard into a thriving wildlife haven with Australian native plants that attract birds, bees, and other beautiful bush creatures.
As gardeners, we spend a lot of time lamenting our beloved plants turning into expensive rabbit and wallaby food. While it can be disheartening to wake up and find your rose bush decimated by the neighbourhood possum, discovering an echidna or eastern barred bandicoot among the hakeas is a thrilling experience.
Inviting wildlife into your backyard isn’t difficult. With a bit of planning, some thoughtful research, and plenty of native plants, you might one day find yourself unwinding to the gentle twitter of birds on a sunny afternoon.
Critter cheat sheet
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What to attract |
Plants |
|---|---|
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Provide nectar for pollinators and insects with… |
Flowering plants, such as eucalyptus and acacia |
|
Attract birds and butterflies with… |
Flowering plants in hues of red and yellow for birds, and pink, red and white for butterflies |
|
Provide food and shelter for wildlife with… |
Grasses and shrubs in varying heights. Birds enjoy sheltering in spiky plants, such as grasses and hakeas |
|
Attract pollinators with… |
Flowering plants in shades of yellow, blue, white and purple |
Come into the nursery to explore our diverse range of Australian native plants.
Acacia binervia Sterling Silver
Buckingham Celsissima
Correa pulchella Pink Mist
Corymbia ficifolia Wild Sunset
Elaeocarpus reticulatus Pink Form
Eucalyptus pulverulenta
Lilly Pilly ‘Backyard Bliss’
How to establish a wildlife-friendly garden
Assess your current garden
You don’t just have a bare patch of lawn. There is a complex web of living flora in your garden, be it weeds, a wild, rambling rose bush, or a voluntary agapanthus. Whatever is growing in your space is already encouraging some form of wildlife, and the worst thing you can do is destroy everything to start from a blank slate. Think about how you can incorporate existing trees and shrubs into your plan, and plant natives around them. This will provide current visitors with food and protection while you tackle the agapanthus at a later date.
Draw up a plan
It may be tempting to buy a higgledy-piggledy mix of plants and hope for the best, but a simple garden plan is essential to help define what you want from your space. Perhaps you want to attract smaller birds, provide skinks and tree frogs with a place to stay, or create a pollinator patch to support bug diversity. Prioritising one achievable goal at a time will prevent overwhelm and allow you to focus on what matters most.
Find out what grows in your area
A Sunday drive through your neighbourhood or a walk through the bush can give you a good sense of which native plants are endemic to your area and what bush creatures rely on them for habitat and food. Equip yourself with a plant identification book or app, take plenty of pictures, and make a list of plants you’d like to incorporate into your backyard. When you’re done, bring your list into the nursery and we can guide you from there. Most local councils have a list of native species that grow well in your region. Check your council’s website for more information.
Add other forms of habitat
Planting a host of native plants will encourage critters into the garden, but without other forms of habitat, they’re less likely to stick around. Natural elements, such as rocks, mulch and logs, provide countless hidey-holes for blue-tongued lizards, she-oak skinks and echidnas. Shallow bowls of water can do wonders for local lizard friends, honeybees and fairy-wrens. A slurry of cow or horse manure, placed a little way from the house, can also create ideal conditions for hoverflies to breed.
Be sure to plant plenty of understory grasses and shrubs, such as Leucophyta brownii ‘Silver Nugget’, Casuarina glauca ‘Green Wave’ and Correa ‘Ice Chimes’, as well as groundcovers, such as Banksia blechnifolia, Hibbertia scandens and Thryptomene saxicola ‘Supernova’, which act as environmental corridors for smaller birds, bandicoots and antechinuses.
Planting colours to attract creatures
Beyond creating habitat with plants, such as Lomandra longifolia and Hakea epiglottis, adding vibrant native flowers can also help attract wildlife. Honeybees prefer white, blue, purple and yellow blooms, while native bees and butterflies are especially drawn to indigenous flowers, such as Leptospermum obovatum ‘Starry Night’ , Ricinocarpos pinifolius and everlasting daisies.
Native birds are drawn to plants, such as acacias, grevilleas and callistemons. They are especially drawn to the colour red. Think flowering plants, such as Calothamnus quadrifidus, Grevillea ‘Flaming Red’ and Callistemon ‘Rhapsody in Red’.
Protect young plants
Wildlife-friendly gardens tend to attract all creatures, including larger grazers that may nibble on young plants. It’s essential to protect your plants for at least the first three years, giving them time to establish strong roots and resilience against hungry visitors.
To invite wildlife into our gardens is to open a doorway to the living world. Not only does it benefit the environment, but it also deepens our connection to nature, nurturing both mind and body in the process.
