Blue tongue lizards – our backyard buddies

Four years ago blue tongue lizards were a sight unseen in our suburban garden of lawn, the odd palm and in-ground swimming pool surrounded by concrete. It took two years for our garden to become attractive to these gorgeous reptiles, and as our food forest has come to life they’ve come to make our garden their home. This time of year they’re often out and about sunning themselves – and we’re so pleased they’re here!  

Removing all the lawn and replacing it with ground covers and shrubs is one of the most important ways we’ve helped create a habitat for local bluey’s to enjoy. Gardening organically, without pesticides and herbicides is a great way to encourage our reptilian friends. We also have a few rocks in various places around our garden - they especially love our handbuilt rock retaining wall. Our blue tongues also love sunning themselves on the mosaic path we made from the driveway we ripped up. Here on the path they are within easy reach of vegetation to hide in, compared to when it was a large barren driveway surrounded by lawn!

We also leave a few small pieces of broken terracotta pipes tucked into corners of the garden for them to shelter in.

Blue tongues are great at eating snails in an organic garden – that is when they’re not too blissed out sunning themselves!

Do you have blue tongues in your garden?

Comments

[Linda Woodrow]

I found these: http://witcheskitchen.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/lizard-eggs.jpg in some potting mix in my shadehouse. I think the bigger ones are what I call land mullets, and the smaller ones little skinks. I put them back as close as possible to the original conditions, and I hope they hatch.

[Louise]

we've a got a lovely big shingleback lizard in our back garden, he suns himself on the pavers and then slips in a whole under the garden retaining wall if anyone gets too close. I like lizards around the place,

[Clare]

We're rather fond of blue-tongue lizzy who love our urban jungle so much she decided to raise her family here! Spotted a week ago - a cutie baby blue-tongue on our front patio. Definitely better than snail bait (we use coffee anyway)!

[HappyEarth]

Wow how amazing to find lizard eggs Linda, hope they hatch and the little guys can enjoy your amazing garden!

Fantastic to hear you have a Shingleback lizard in your garden Louise, and a blue tongue Clare, they are so wonderful to have around aren't they. How special your resident blue tongue has started a family in your yard Clare!

[nellymary]

He is a beauty...When we first moved in over 7 years ago, we had a lovely blue-tongue....but I guess he has moved on, being sick of being barked at and hunted....we kept capturing him to put him in a safer place away from our two little dogs....but I guess he got sick of that....Maybe he is just down the road in someone else's garden.

[Darren (Green Change)]

We found a huge blue-tongue in our yard on the weekend, the biggest I've ever seen. He was near the strawberry patch - something else blue-tongues will eat with relish!

[Sheila]

Beautiful, he must be so happy to be in your garden, great natural pest control too! None yet in our garden, one day though ..... :)

[Sue at the Little Shack]

This is wonderful! My 9 year old son, Zac, is crazy about lizards and has a blue tailed skink as a pet. He has just recently been researching blue tongued skinks and hopes to get one as a pet in the future. I will have to show him your blog entry in the morning. He'll be so impressed!

[Deb]

I love having these darlings in our backyard. We seem to have heaps and for several years have had babies too. The kids always want to keep them as pets. One we found with most of 2 legs missing and half of the other feet missing did become a pet for several years. He lived an a fenced off bit near the wood pile and my eldest daughter who loved him the most, would carry him around to find snails for him or push him around in her dolly's pram to find a nice sunny spot for him. After 7 years he passed away - we were all very sad. I don't know how long they live for but he looked very old when we found him.

[serendipity2000]

We haven't had a blue tongue for a while but we do have a huge diamond python that arrived yesterday morning. What an adorable photo of the snail hitching a ride and the look of content of the blue tongue's face.
Thanks for all your news because I enjoy every single one of your updates. We've only just started our journey this year and it was your blog that actually inspired me to start my own earlier this year and I'm loving every minute of it!
Keep inspiring Happy Earth!