Plantings that work on the Peninsula
A short list of local plants that turn a garden into habitat, rather than a vase.
For nectar
Coast banksia, silver banksia, local grevilleas, correa, and a eucalypt if you have the sky for it. Stagger the flowering so the yard is not a desert between fashions.
For cover
Coastal tea-tree, hop goodenia, saltbush, and the unfashionable habit of not pruning everything into a ball. Fairywrens need a thicket they can disappear into. So do the insects they eat.
For seed and hollows
Leave grasses to stand through autumn. Keep any hollow-bearing limb that is not actually coming down on the house. A nest box is a letter; a real hollow is the address they already know.
What to skip
A monoculture of hybrid grevillea will give you lorikeets and miners and very little else. Variety, including plants that are not always in flower, is what makes a yard readable to more than one guild.
