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,

Join The Hive Garden Community! The HIVE GARDEN COMMUNITY supports gardening, homesteading, cannabis growers, permaculture and other garden related content. Delegations to the curation account, @gardenhive, are welcome! Find our community here!

Are you on HIVE yet? Earn for writing! Referral link for FREE account here!