Residents of the Bellarine Peninsula love and appreciate plants and animals and thanks to the Gardens for Wildlife Bellarine program are starting to build wildlife-friendly homes and spaces for indigenous species to flourish and thrive.
During a free one-hour garden visit facilitated by Bellarine Catchment Network, 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 there have been 100 garden visits with more than 2000 resources and 1000 locally indigenous plants being provided to residents.
People are loving the program, with one resident saying that they are “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 plant suggestions”.
An Ocean Grove resident said that “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 program is funded by the City of Greater Geelong and Barwon Heads Community Bank Branch in partnership with the Barwon Heads Community Arts Garden.
The Gardens For Wildlife Bellarine program is offering free one-hour garden visits to Bellarine Peninsula residents, except Point Lonsdale and Queenscliff, who can contact the Swan Bay Environment Association who facilitate their own Gardens for Wildlife program.
A free, public Gardens For Wildlife workshop will be held at Barwon Heads Community Arts Garden on Sunday November 26 at 1pm with a free barbecue with the Barwon Heads Community Arts garden members at noon.
To book a garden visit, head to calendly.com/gardensforwildlife
