 The authors home garden in its early stages. Designing for wildlife - have we got our priorities right? The motivation for planting a garden is often to attract a wide variety of birds, reptiles and insects. To create a small ecosystem that provides for most of their needs. We can then enjoy watching and interacting with our garden's wild residents and visitors. However, I do feel uneasy when I admit that when I’m planning a native garden, I first think of my needs; how I want the garden to look and be maintained. i'll think about the aesthetics...
...then some practicalities come to mind
In my defence, I think these are predictable (and sensible) humancentric planning issues for a gardener, whether they live in the city or on a country estate.  A wild, prickly part of my garden, with a Bushy Needlewood (Hakea decurrens) in the foreground and woody small wattles towards the back that desperately needing a prune What if wildlife became the paying clients? - we'd have to put their needs first, before our own Sadly, it isn’t until all the human needs are considered that the needs of the local wildlife shuffle forward, heads bowed, caps in hand. Up to this point, the garden layout and plant selection has been all about my likes, dislikes and fears and not very much about the needs of wildlife. What if we flipped this planning process on its head and put the needs of the birds, butterflies and native bees first and our human needs second? What would the garden look like, would it look much different? A friend suggested that a wildlife-designed garden would be prickly, untidy and overgrown. This is largely true because nature is random and 'messy', and often consists of a mix of emerging plants, dead plants and woody shrubs & trees that in the home garden would 'desperately need a prune'. Perhaps the prickly plants could find a home in a less visited, back corner of the garden. That's also a quieter and more desirable place for wildlife. Also, the forest/woodland floor is usually a 'trip hazzard' with fallen branches, logs, tussock grasses and native herbs strewn about. That sounds too hazzardous for a home garden.  A natural looking landscape where a mass planting of Silver Tussock grasses and fallen logs provide safe habitat for foraging animals at ground level Laying the ground rules Starting with their basic needs, designing for wildlife should provide safe places for them to live, hide and feed at all levels in the garden. At the ground level these refuges are usually logs, large rocks or piles of cobble sized rocks, twiggy fallen branches for perching, fallen limbs, tussocky plants, native herbs some groundcovers and leaf litter. Mm! that's sounding very like the trip hazzard I described as undesirable earlier! Perhaps that would be an acceptable feature to include in parts of a home garden. Ideally the plants would mostly be local to the area and include small indigenous flowering herbs and groundcovers that form a natural carpet over the soil surface. I’m pretty sure my clients would go ‘wild’ about the local indigenous plants because they’re the plants that they have evolved with and know the best. Also, the tussocky plants like perennial grasses - Kangaroo Grass, tussock trasses, wallaby grasses, mat-rushes, flax lillies, and Kangaroo paws would look sensational in same species clumps. Some reliable 'carpeting' groundcovers:  Logs and rocks are easier to isntall at the beginning, Logs and rocks - the practicalities The logs and rocks are much easier to add at the beginning because there are no plants that may be damaged, though I have done it much later when the plants were already established, because that’s when a trailer load of big logs from a Council roadside clean-up became available. These can become ‘feature-pieces’ and they provide wonderful perches for small birds, sun-baking habitat for skinks and safe refuges for moths, butterflies, bees and dragonflies, particularly when the temperature warms up and they’re looking for cool, moist, shaded areas of the garden.  Mass plantings of Coastal Correa, Correa alba and Gold-dust Wattle, Acacia acinaceae in a Kensington streetscape. And we’re off the ground As we move up into the shrub layers, flower colour becomes more of an important feature to passing wildlife, particularly if each species of shrub is planted in same-species groups/clumps. When the flowers of the same species are blooming 'en masse', it becomes a ‘must-check-this-out’ feature to passing birds and insects. Mass planting isn’t always possible in small urban gardens. It can be a trade-off between creating diversity with a mixture of single plants and the visual impact of a few species mass planted. In larger gardens mass plantings are a stunning feature for wildlife as well as for human visitors.  A small garden with a mass planting of Lemon Beauty-heads, Calocephalus citreus. The Cut-leaf Daisy, Brachyscome mutlifida, is in the background Pocket-sized gardens can take advantage of this mass planting feature using small native and indigenous herbs like the daisies. I’d highly recommend some of the native daisies local to your area. They will be the 'stars' of the show in spring and attract lots of insect pollinators. Coincedentally, the scientific family name of the Daisy family is Asteraceae. ‘Aster’ coming from the Greek word for 'star', which reminds us that daisy flowers will be bright, showy, colourful and star-shaped. Here are some beautiful native daisies that would suit a mass planting in a small/large garden, rockery or restored grassland. Their images are below; Cut-leaf Daisy, Brachyscome multifida - mauve or white flowers, Sticky Everlasting, Xerochrysum viscosum – an upright annual with bright yellow button flowers; Lemon Beauty-heads, Calocephalus citreus, pale lemon heads with grey foliage (also see image above); Hoary Sunray, Leucochrysum albicans has the most stunning white and yellow daisy flowers with pink flower buds and grey grass-like foliage.      How important is flower colour and scent to pollinators? A variety of colours and nectar will attract a lot more pollinators. The diagram covers pollinators and flower colour very well, but doesn’t include native grasses. Grasses are important for the variety of moths and butterflys they attract. For example, Kangaroo Grass, Themeda triandra, Weeping Grass, Microlaena stipoides and tussock grasses, Poa spp. are host plants for native butterflies, like the Common Brown, that lay their eggs on the leaves of grasses, which is food for their caterpillars.
Plant families A key design feature for 'my wildlife clients' will be a mixture of plant families. Here are a 16 families that make wonderful food and habitat plants, keeping in mind that a variety of flower shapes & colours, edible leaves & berries will be a big drawcard. Your challenge for a diverse garden: Choose 7 shrub species, each from a different plant family. This will maximise the food and habitat for birds and insects: Below are listed 16 plant families (& 28 genera shown in bold). Which 7 species will best suit your garden's soil, position and native wildlife?
Tall trees Though trees and understorey provide critical food and habitat in larger ecosystems, they can dominate small gardens, competing for light and soil moisture. It will save future frustration if you factor in the potential spread of rootsystems of the larger plants you may be considering. A helpful rule of thumb to estimate the spread of invasive roots is - a plant's height x 1.5. So, a 10m tall eucalypt will have 'aggressive' roots at least 15m from its trunk, in all directions and particularly where you water. Plants that grow under tall natives, therefore need to be tolerant of shade and be adaptable to extremely dry soil conditions. Saltbushes, correas, westringias and eremophilas will often do well in these conditions, particularly of they are watered for the first 12 months to establish them through the dryer months.  Getting a workout in the garden. Lets talk about compromise As much as I would like to follow the design brief of my wildlife clients to the letter, the human needs for safety, convenience and aesthetics will always be strong motivators, A garden designed for wildlife will doubtless begin as an artificial space created for pleasure, contemplation and shelter, but in time and with studied neglect, it will likely achieve some wild, natural elements that are suited to a larger variety of birds, reptiles and insects. Though wildlife will always contribute greatly to these design elements, gardens will continue to be a reflection of their human creators. They are a wonderful way to connect with nature, maintain our mental health, and provide motivation to get outside into the fresh air and challenge our bodies in ways that a gymnasium never will.  For an inspirong read, this article appeared in The Conversation on 14/11/2025: It has a link to a well illustrated brochure on urban revegetation, produced by the University of Melbourne.
We planted two woody medows a decade ago to see what would thrive. Now the concept is popular accross Australia
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'RECREATING the COUNTRY'
Ten key principles for designing sustainable landscapes Second edition Updated & expanded Click on the image below to read more 
Stephen Murphy is an author and ecologist. He has worked as a nurseryman and designer of natural landscapes for over 30 years. He loves the bush, actively supporting Landcare and conservation initiatives throughout Australia
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