Years ago we had some huge yukka in our front garden, right in front of the deck. It took Jamie some effort to dig them out, but it was worth it as those bastards suck all moisture for metres around it. If you've ever seen the roots of a yukka, you'll know what I mean, and if you want to grow anything in your garden and have a yukka - good luck, and get rid of it. I hate them!
Anyway, our theory was correct - we ended up with a beautiful native garden on one side of the deck where we planted banksia, grevillea, leucodendrons, and some other plants. They thrived without the water to suck the life out of everything around it.
It's also a haven for birds - something we call birdscaping, as everything we plant apart from vegetables is to attract birds to the area. Native birds love native flowers - it's not rocket science. You need a mixture too, some shrubs that provide cover for small birds like finches and wrens, as well as flowers for honeyeaters and trees for larger birds.
Small honeyeaters
We have eastern rosellas, gang gangs, blue wrens, all kinds of honeyeaters, and a lovely pair of doves come down to drink - it's better than Netflix, especially round 4 o'clock when they all come down.
A young gang gang without the pink plumage
So we decided we'd finally get around to birdscaping the other side of the deck. We marked out the area we wanted for the bed with some metal edging, and Jamie got to work digging out the kikuya grass, which has some nasty long roots. Now it's my job to locate some native mulch, and some plants.
Jamie actually dug it all out yesterday, and it's a bit bigger than the mock up above, which I'm pleased about. I'd go take a photo but it's tipping down rain for the first time in ages, and I don't want to get soaked.
Blue superb fairy wren
I'm also on the look out for a couple of bird baths - honestly, I don't understand why people don't landscape for birds, particularly people around this area that have been complaining about insects all summer. A few native plants and a birdbath is all it takes - unless you have five acres like us and want to plant all the plants for all the birds.
Here's a list of all the birds we've spotted on our property, either landing or overhead (pelicans never land sadly). We wrote this on a road trip one day, realising we had more birds at our place than some of the wildnerss areas we'd been too!
Bird Sightings on Our Property
dusky moorhen
purple swampphen
coot
masked lapwing
silver gull
yellowtailed black cockatoo
gang gang cockatoo.
Galah
corella confirm type
Sulphur crested cockatoo
rainbow lorakeet
king parrot
crimson rosella
eastern rosella
Turquoise parrot.
Cuckoo confirm type
boobook owl
laughing kookaburra
noisey miner
tree creeper - confirm type
satin bowerbird
Superb Fairy wren
Scrub wren.
Spotted pardalote.
striated purdalote
new holland honeyeater
white naped honeyeater
white plumed honeyeater
red wattlebird
eastern whipbird
black faded cuckoo shrike
crested shrike-tit
golden whystler
grey shrike thrush
marked wood swallow
pied butcherbird
magpie
currawong pied
Raven
willie wagtail
grey fantail
magpie lark.
silver eyed
Fairy martin
black bird
common starling.
Red ground finch
Sparrow
Bronzewing. (common)
Crested pigeon
Chestnut teal
grey teal
black swan
wood duck.
pelican
australian darter
white necked heron
white faced heron
little egret
lathams snipe
straw necked ibis
Australian white ibis
yellow billed spoonbill
shouldered kite
whistling kite
Grey goshawk. (white morph)
little eagle
Square tailed kite
wedge tailed engle
nankeen kestrel
With Love,
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