OUR wildlife, particularly in urban areas, is becoming much rarer, which is a real shame because part of the "life" of the garden is to be able to see our wonderful and unique creatures going about their daily activities.
When travelling overseas some time ago, I met a man who asked me "Why would I go visit Australia? After all, you don't have ancient buildings, very high mountains or glaciers."
"You're right," I said. "We don't have those things but what we do have in abundance is very unique wildlife and vegetation."
Our wildlife and plants have evolved to be unlike anything else in the world.
WA is justly famous for its varieties of wildflowers and each state has types that may not be seen anywhere else.
Our wonderfully coloured parrots are the envy of the world. Then, of course, Australia wouldn't be as well-known except for the kangaroo and koala.
To help preserve this treasure it behoves us all to endeavour to turn our "patch" into wildlife havens, whether we live in a city, town or countryside.
Your first approach to this is to grow some native plants, particularly those with nectar or seeds - even better if they are indigenous to your area.
The creatures in your area have evolved with this in mind. This does not mean you can't grow exotics because you can and many local creatures will enjoy them as well.
If you have a large property this isn't too hard to do - but what if you live in an apartment or townhouse? You can still grow some in pots on your balcony or outside in courtyard gardens. Of course, if you live higher than ground floor then probably the only thing you will attract are the birds and butterflies but that is better than nothing.
You can bring many creatures, including frogs, into your garden by supplying plenty of drinking and bathing water - bird baths, water dishes (old casserole dishes do the trick) and water features.
If you're lucky enough to have some trees, you can install nesting boxes. Logs make great places for lizards to live. And please don't destroy spider webs.
Contact your local council to see what can be done in your area. The more each individual can do the better.