Facilitated by local environment organisation Bellarine Catchment Network, the Bellarine Gardens For Wildlife program is hoping to help Bellarine residents to build wildlife friendly gardens.
Participants will receive a free one-hour garden visit and will be givenh advice including which locally indigenous plants help create habitat for small birds, how to deter invasive Indian mynas, what are butterfly-encouraging plants, ways to encourage skinks and geckos, and more.
Each participant also receives a ‘resource pack’ featuring wildlife brochures and plant booklets.
With funding from the City of Greater Geelong, the Bellarine Gardens For Wildlife program has been facilitating garden visits to residents of Ocean Grove and Indented Head and the program is now expanding to include St Leonards and Barwon Heads.
Julia Murphy, an Ocean Grove resident who received a garden visit last year, said she was “blown away by what was there and wanted to restore it back to what it should be”.
She was surprised at what was in her garden, including among a mere patch of grass including sun orchids, small bursarias and native grasses.
“The best part of the visit was finding out how much biodiversity was actually in our garden and it was exciting to know that maybe around 100 to 200 years ago, this is what it probably looked like,” Julia said.
“In an urban settting, it’s really important to encourage wildlife and with all the housing developments, there’s no habitat corridoors for wildlife to move though. We are trying to create homes for them here too”.
The program is available in Barwon Heads with funding from the Barwon Heads Community Bank’s ‘Legacy Project’ and will be delivered in partnership with the Barwon Heads Community Arts Garden.
In addition to the 1 hour visit and complementary resource pack, each Barwon Heads resident who books a garden visit will also receive a one-year membership to the Barwon Heads Community Arts Garden.
To launch the program in Barwon Heads, a free, public Gardens For Wildlife workshop will be held at Barwon Heads Community Arts Garden on Sunday October 30 at 1pm and is open to anybody who wants to know how they can encourage wildlife into their garden.
The workshop will provide tips and tricks on how to build a wildlife-friendly garden and how to become involved in the program.
For information, contact Naomi Wells at naomi@bcn.org.au. To book a garden visit, head to calendly.com/gardensforwildlife
