Wildlife-friendly gardens spread across the Bellarine

BELLARINE Catchment Network is expanding a successful trial of its Gardens for Wildlife program to cover most of the peninsula.

The Bellarine Peninsula is home to precious and unique plants and animals, including the Bellarine yellow gum, moonah trees and the threatened coastal saltmarsh around the wetlands.

On any given day, you can spot wildlife including yellow-tailed black cockatoos flying overhead, jacky dragons hiding in the leaf litter and the sound of the growling grass frog in nearby waterways.

Bellarine Catchment Network says the peninsula’s residents love and appreciate these plants and animals, and the Gardens for Wildlife Bellarine program it is facilitating is helping people start to build wildlife-friendly homes and spaces for indigenous species to flourish and thrive.

During a free one-hour garden visit, residents are provided with advice including which locally indigenous plants help create habitat for small birds, what plants are great for frogs and butterflies, ways to encourage skinks and how to reduce the spread of environmental weeds.

So far, 100 garden visits have been conducted, with more than 2,000 resources and 1,000 locally indigenous plants provided.

The response has been enthusiastic, with one participant saying they were “thrilled to have such an enthusiastic visitor to my garden providing lots of useful information and leaving me planning what to do next with the great ideas and suggestions”. Another said “in the brief time [the facilitator] was on site, they offered me another dimension on viewing our garden. So many ideas and sound information about habitat and food plants”.

The Gardens For Wildlife Bellarine program is now offering the garden visits to all Bellarine residents except those in Point Lonsdale and Queenscliff, who can contact the Swan Bay Environment Association and its own Gardens for Wildlife program.

The program is funded by the City of Greater Geelong and the Barwon Heads Community Bank Branch in partnership with the Barwon Heads Community Arts Garden.

A free Gardens For Wildlife workshop will be held at the Barwon Heads Community Arts Garden on November 26 at 1pm and is open to all wanting tips and tricks on wildlife-friendly gardens. The event starts from 12 noon with a complimentary barbecue with Barwon Heads Community Arts garden members.