Bush Gardens

These use native plants of Oceana to reduce water needs, boost biodiversity, and celebrate the native heritage of countries and islands of the region. The guide below is specifically for Australia, so if you live elsewhere in the region, make sure to pick natives of your own to help support your local wildlife.

Community Gardens

Community gardens can fill a wide range of needs from producing food and providing education opportunities to providing therapeutic benefits. They can be a gathering places, and encourage increase community engagement.

Garden Ponds

These can range in size from a small container with a pump for aeration to a lake. The primary concerns are the inclusion of plant life, sloped areas that wildlife can use to access or escape from the pond, and some kind of filter or aeration device to ensure water movement and aeration. Rocks can provide hiding places for aquatic animals, or create safe perches for wildlife to sun themselves or set themselves on to drink, hunt, play, or rest.

Native Garden

These are gardens that specifically focus on growing whatever species are native to your region. This means the appropriate plants grown will vary depending on where you live: hemisphere, growing zone, country, region, and even eco-regions within your state/parish/county.

Native gardens are particularly important for native wildlife including pollinators, birds, bats, and more.

You can grow and learn about your regions history, medicine, and cuisine just by acquiring and growing them. 

It is vital to weed out invasive plants to make room for the natives, so this kind of garden is a constant learning experience as you learn to differentiate native from invader. You'll see more wildlife return to your area and be able to harvest valuable plants for tea, salads, and other uses.

Ocean-Friendly Gardens

The main focus of an ocean-friendly garden is to reduce run off from erosion and chemical use, which are two major threats to wildlife throughout out watersheds and all the way to our oceans.

By using landscaping design that helps retain nutrients and soil you save soil while protecting wildlife.

By reducing or eliminating fertilizer use, and by avoiding chemical pest control, we can reduce the number and size of dead zones affecting our waterways, lakes, bays, and coastlines.

The guiding principles are CPR:

Conservation

Permeability

Retention

Pollinator Gardens

Pollinators come in many forms, even some we might not think about: bees, wasps, butterflies, moths, birds, and bats. Pollinator gardens provide these important species with adequate food, and sometimes other resources too like shelter, water, and nesting materials like tall blades of grass or a bare mud patch for nest builders to build with.

Meadow and prairie gardens change year round as the wildflowers bloom, die, and are replaced by others. Some mowing may be needed, but we suggest a push real mower or a scythe to reduce harm to the garden and animals living in it. Farmers for Monarchs gives this advice for mowing a Monarch habitat so as not to kill your pollinators. 

Rain Gardens

These areas are designed for intermittent or continuous rain. They may be dry most of the year, only filling with rain water and run off a few times a year. They are not permanent enough for most species to use for breeding or feeding, but they do prevent run off pollution, and enhance groundwater recharge. They can also help reduce flooding, erosion, and reduce waterway nitrification which causes ocean dead zones.

Raised Gardens

These are a good idea if your garden soil is too hard to work with, if the soil is heavily polluted, if your gardens suffers from flooding, or for people who want to garden, but can't physically get down to ground level. A raised bed might just have raised rows, a single layer or wood planks, stones, cinder blocks, or bricks. For elderly gardeners, people with disabilities or mobility issues, gardens can be built high enough to allow gardeners and visitors to touch plants and soil from a standing or sitting position. Pavers or similar path options can be included to enhance access for wheelchair and cane users.

You can reuse old objects like bathtubs and troughs if you don't want to buy a kit or build a raised garden by hand.

Raised beds are appropriate for growing food (including square foot gardening), pollinator gardens, and sensory gardens, but they can be prone to overheating or drying out.

Sensory Gardens

These spaces can help wildlife and biodiversity, but the primary focus is utilizing the therapeutic nature of gardens, and the use of our senses. Sensory gardens are highly inclusive, creating spaces where people with vision impairment can touch, taste, hear, and smell. Autistic visitors and gardeners can maintain a healthy sensory diet and unwind from the stressors of daily life. For people with mobility issues, it's important to include benches, and raised beds for those who want to safely touch plants or participate in gardening activities. Near loud roads and city centers, thick borders of hedgerows can drastically reduce noise pollution, while water features and chimes can help create a more pleasant soundscape.

Vertical Gardens

Vertical gardens are excellent for small spaces, by expanding useable space into places that might otherwise go unused. These are more complicated, and require various materials including plastic liners and fixtures, but they use far less space and water than other types of garden. They can reduce irrigation water needs by about 80% for farmers, though this statistic may focus on indoor setups.

Moss, native wildflowers, succulents, ferns, and even ornamental grasses can be appropriate for these gardens, but it is important to understand the climate, water needs, and provide basic care such as routine trimming, de-heading, and watering. Some companies not only install wall gardens, but also provide specialized gardener services, since the care requirements are a little different from your average lawn care needs.

Waffle Gardens

These were used by the Zuni people, and the technique is still used today. The Dine and other people from around the world have long used more or less the same practice to produce food even in hot, arid regions.

Water Gardens

These can be important for wildlife, providing hydration, food, protection from predators, and space for reproduction.

Make sure water gardens are safe for wildlife by providing easy access points, including rocks, ledges, or even a ramp to help animals climb out if they can't swim. 

A variety of plants including partially submerged grasses or reeds, floating plants such as lilies, and fully submerged plants will provide wildlife with plenty of hiding space for species such as tadpoles and dragon fly larvae. These are both important predators who will help reduce the number of mosquitos and other problematic insects without the use of pesticides.

Be very careful about keeping pesticides away from water gardens, as the chemicals may be advertised as "safe" or "eco-friendly" yet kill frogs and other aquatic animals within moments of skin contact, or when those animals eat contaminated insects.

Click the Water Garden button to learn more about creating, planting, and caring for water gardens.

Wildflower Gardens

Click the Wildflower Garden button to the right to find our wildflower resources. They include guides and apps to help you find the right species for your area, seed swaps, and other methods of obtaining seeds, cuttings, or plants.

Xeriscapes

Xeriscaping uses drought tolerant plants including deep-rooting ornamental grasses, bushes, wild flowers, succulents, and cacti. Rocky surfaces can help prevent wildfire spread while also preventing evaporation from soil. In heavy rains, the rocky surface prevents erosion, and rain capture features can help the land absorb water, reducing or even eliminating the need for watering.