Enjoying Nature in the New Zealand Garden

Forest and Bird, Issue 279, 1 February 1996, Page 45

Enjoying Nature in the New Zealand Garden

Henricus Peters

by Gordon Ell (Bush Press) 1995, 192pp, $29.95 What positive steps can the city dweller take to encourage wildlife back to where it once belonged? Can we ever re-create a place for wild animals and plants in town? Naturalist/publisher and former Forest and Bird president Gordon Ell has combined

and updated the best of his earlier works Encouraging Birds in the New Zealand Garden and Nature Hobbies for New Zealanders to bring us more than thirty projects "to attract birds, butterflies and other creatures’ to the private garden. As a how-to guide, the book provides practical advice on encouraging the passage and settlement of native animals around your home. Going beyond birds and lizards, it gives considerable coverage to insects, butterflies, frogs and spiders. The author even looks beneath the surface of the garden and discusses how to relate to "the creepy crawlies" that dwell there. "In some ways, suggests Ell, "the garden environment offers homes to a broader range of creatures than some wild places". A chapter is devoted to the "unplanted plants" and explains that not all are un-desirables to be weeded out. Algae, mosses, lichen and fungi will all appear without encouragement. Enjoying Nature encourages the whole family’s involvement in the study of nature. There are discussions on raising butterflies and moths and how to build wormeries, and aquaria. Ell stresses the problems of keeping wild animals in even temporary captivity. It doesn’t matter whether your backyard is a jungle or an impeccable lawn; nature can be found and encouraged. Enthusiasm is the key.