Inspired by Green Hour, one aspect of the Mama*Earth Series is the sorts of activities you can do OUTSIDE with your children to encourage care of the environment.
How We Made a Lizard Rockery for Lizards to Shelter and Nest in.
Did you know lizards lay up to 30 eggs in a season?
Offering a safe place for them to hide and nest in encourages them to visit and stay in your yard to eat snails and other pests. We found a blue-tongue and looked into how to encourage more lizards to stay. We regularly do ‘Gecko Checks’ at night, looking on the outside walls of the house near sensor lights where bugs are attracted, and the lizards follow.
A simple poly pipe beside the fence, covered with some rocks is an easy and fun way to build a home for encouraging lizards to visit and stay, while protecting them from predators like cats. The rocks can also retain some warmth, and offer more nooks and crannies for little skinks and geckos to hide in, find bugs in and sun themselves on.
We had a great time with this activity, and check on it frequently.
Here’s a visual record of the creation of our home for lizards.
Making a Lizard Shelter in our Backyard…
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Lizards are protected by a simple length of poly-pipe.
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Our mossy rocks are from ancient shell fields of Mount Gambier stone.
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Big rocks first to hold the tube in place
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Smaller rocks fill in gaps and are like a puzzle to solve…
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Baby Jett helps out. He’s nappy-free during Green Hour of course!
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More rocks cover little holes and make hidey-holes for critters!
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We found all sorts of bugs when moving the rocks to their new home.
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Adding a few sticks is fun natural sculpting too!
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All rocks are in place now.
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We added bark, twigs and grassy bits to integrate our finished Lizard Rockery!
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- Lizards are protected by a simple length of poly-pipe.
-
- Our mossy rocks are from ancient shell fields of Mount Gambier stone.
-
- Big rocks first to hold the tube in place
-
- Smaller rocks fill in gaps and are like a puzzle to solve…
-
- Baby Jett helps out. He’s nappy-free during Green Hour of course!
-
- More rocks cover little holes and make hidey-holes for critters!
-
- We found all sorts of bugs when moving the rocks to their new home.
-
- Adding a few sticks is fun natural sculpting too!
-
- All rocks are in place now.
-
- We added bark, twigs and grassy bits to integrate our finished Lizard Rockery!
Some recommended resources for inviting, encouraging and helping out these natural pest controllers:
How to Make your Backyard Blue-Tongue Friendly…
Backyard Buddies…
Chemical Free Gardening Tips and Resources…
A question to you:
Do you have many lizards in your backyard? What if you created a few lizard hotels with your kids?
