How to Re-wild your Suburban Garden

Mel’s Instagram page @rewildingsurbia is full of the most amazing photos and videos of native bees and other creatures that come to visit and live in her suburban garden in Lake Coogee in the south of Perth. Mel shares with her thousands of followers how she transformed her verge from mostly lawn to a thriving native garden paradise. 

Mel was in her veggie patch one day when she first spotted a native male Leioproctus bee roosting  and discovered females nesting in her veggie garden. This inspired her to dig up her front verge of grass and replant it with native species.  

Converting her 78 m2 verge from grass to natives was a slow process as the grass runners were still able to grow through the mulch that was laid after the grass was dug up. Mel ended up placing cardboard around her newly planted natives to shade out the runners. Once the native plants took over, it become a haven for many species, especially native bees including blue banded bees, leaf cutter bees, resin bees, reed bees, cuckoo bees and Lasioglossum species.

Mel’s front garden is a productive food forest inspired by her Italian heritage with many raised garden beds full of flowers and abundant vegetables, complete with worm farms, a large bee hotel and compost bins. In among the vegetables and fruit are companion plants such as native straw flowers, marigolds and sunflowers, all which attract a range of pollinators like butterflies, bees and ladybugs.

In the back yard is a dedicated habitat garden featuring logs and more native plants, bee hotels and bare earth for burrowing insects as well as bird baths. Logs are great for all sorts of creatures like lizards as they provide shelter from the sun and predators. Mel also encourages cavity nesting native bees by drilling holes in these logs. Different species of bees like different sized holes so best to have a range of sizes (between 2 and 8mm) to accommodate different species. Larger insects and wasps will nest in larger holes if you prefer an insect hotel. Having a water source such as bird baths is important for insects and birds during the heat of summer. Small ponds with water plants will attract dragonflies and even frogs if you are lucky. The gardens have an amazing ecosystem now due to not using pesticides but letting natural predators such as wasps and spiders keep it in balance.

Mel’s top tips to encourage bio-diversity into your backyard:

– Create natural habitats with logs, rocks and leaf litter

– Plant native plants to encourage native insects and animals

– To encourage native bees install a bee hotel and leave patches of bare sand (without manure, composts or mulch) for ground nesting bees

– Don’t be in a rush to remove unwanted insects and avoid using sprays and let natural predators come to your rescue