Lizards, skinks and geckos are visitors to many gardens in Australia, and are fantastic garden guardians, providing excellent natural pest control. Sadly, urban lizard populations are on the decline due to the loss of lizard friendly habitats - creating a lizard lounge in your garden will help encourage and protect these gentle, valuable creatures. And the best thing is - you don’t need anything special, just have a look around your gardens and your shed.
Creating a Lizard Lounge
Lizards need shelter to hide and sleep, protected from rain and predators. Predators include cats and dogs. You need to keep these pets away from lizards if you want lizards in the garden.
Stones, rocks, hollow logs, old earthenware pipes and even broken terracotta pots can all be used to make a shelter. Sophie will use existing elements from her garden to create the shelter.
- Try and stop water from entering the burrow as they prefer a dry shelter.
- Beware of disturbing other lizards if you are collecting rocks around the garden.
Lizards are cold blooded. This means they can’t produce their own body heat but rely on the warmth from the sun. They start their day basking in the sun to warm up before setting off to find food. They need a sun warmed rock or hard stone surface to warm their bellies in anticipation of a meal. Near there shelter, in full sun, place an old slate tile, flat rock or collection of bricks.
Lizards shed their skin a few times a year, and they appreciate a good rough stone or piece of tree truck to rub against to help to exfoliate. Make sure you include some rough elements in the design, Think of it like a lizard day spa! Lizards drink water so supply a dish of shallow water nearby.
Plants for a Lizard Lounge
The next step is the plants - lizards love plants and use them for shelter, and the seeds and berries for tucker. Sophie chooses to use some beautiful native plants in her lounge, including the groundcover Creeping Boobialla (Myoporum parvifolium), Kangaroo Grass (Themeda triandra), Purple Coral-Pea (Hardenbergia violacea cv.) and Muntries (Kunzea pomifera) for their delicious berries. For a range of native plants that would work at your place, check with your local nursery for some varieties your lizards will love.
Minimising the use of harmful fertilisers, pesticides, snail pellets and herbicides in the garden will encourage a much greater diversity of critters to your place. Now all you need to do is sit back, relax, and wait for the lizards to arrive.
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