You used to find them more often in the garden, but today lizards have disappeared in many places. But they can find new habitats in natural gardens. But how can you make your garden lizard-friendly?
To the point
- Lizards useful for the garden
- Create different living spaces
- Natural garden best conditions
- Lizard castle, cairn or dry stone wall
Table of contents
- Lizards in the garden
- Build a lizard castle
- Create a pile of stones
- Construction of a dry stone wall
- Plant wildflowers
- What should you pay attention to?
- frequently asked Questions
Lizards in the garden
Lizards are beneficial insects in the home garden. They are hard-working hunters, make a valuable contribution to plant protection, prevent the excessive spread of pests and are important for preserving biodiversity. This requires that the garden is designed close to nature and managed ecologically offers a variety of habitats, because lizards only settle where they have optimal conditions find.
In a natural, untidy garden, small oases can be found almost everywhere as shelter, for laying eggs and for overwintering. So you can simply let part of the garden go wild, plant natural hedges, stone or Create piles of dead wood or dry stone walls with deep gaps, joints and holes and wildflowers plant. Or should it be a lizard castle?
Build a lizard castle
The ideal location for a lizard castle is sunny and quiet. Ideally with dense, structured vegetation slightly off the north side, wildflowers or a hedge of native trees nearby. This is how lizards find both hiding places and food. The castle consists of an underground and an above-ground part.
Construction:
- First dig a square hole 150 cm wide
- about 60-80 cm deep for safe wintering
- 10-20 cm high layer of gravel as the bottom layer
- On top of it there are stones at least 20-30 cm in size
- If necessary, incorporate thicker branches, large logs and leaves
- pile up to 60 cm above the soil surface
- Increase the total height to around 100 cm with smaller stones
- Cover the north and west sides of the castle with soil and plant them
- Be sure to leave the south side open
A drainage layer should be added, especially if the soil is poorly permeable to water. This can be omitted in well-drained soils. By the way, the area around the sunny spot can easily be planted with houseleek and stonecrop.
If you would like to create additional breeding places for the lizards, you can pile up a small sand area on the south side of the lizard castle, about 30 cm deep and 50 cm wide.
Create a pile of stones
It's a little easier to create a pile of stones of different sizes. This creates numerous cavities in which lizards can find protection and shelter. The more different the structure of the stones, the more diverse the spaces between them and the more animals can settle there.
There are a few things you should keep in mind when investing:
- Choose a sunny, quiet, wind-protected location
- Soil should be well drained
- First remove the upper layer of vegetation
- Loosen the soil to a depth of about 30 cm
- Use regional stones of different shapes and sizes
- Large part with a diameter of 20-40 cm
- Place a few large stones at the bottom as support stones
- then pile the others in a pile
- 80-120 cm is usually sufficient
A good alternative to piles of stones are piles of dead wood or hedges made of branches, twigs, pieces of roots and dry leaves or moss as filling materials. They can be expanded as desired and should not be placed in a depression or hollow to protect against moisture.
Construction of a dry stone wall
A dry stone wall also offers lizards warming sun decks and cool hiding places. Ideally it is in an east-west direction. Dry stone walls are generally built without mortar and the stones are simply stacked on top of each other. This requires regional natural stones, gravel, grit, building sand and joint planting.
Instructions:
- first an approx. Dig a trench 40 cm deep
- about 10 cm wider than the wall itself
- Compact the subsoil and fill it with 30 cm of gravel or chippings
- condense the whole thing again
- layer the wall stones on top, starting with the largest
- Lay stones loosely on top of each other, staggered joints
- When located on a slope, there is a slight inclination towards the slope
- become narrower towards the top
- Layer stones in such a way that a stable wall is created
- maximum height of 60-80 cm
Once the wall is built, it's up to them planting, which can be used to fill holes, joints and cracks. However, you shouldn't use too many plants so that the lizards can still find enough places to hide. Suitable for planting include: a. Spring cinquefoil, stonecrop, viper's head, small hawkweed, silver thistle, cypress spurge, spikelet speedwell or common thrush.
If you use stone slabs, you should occasionally stabilize them with smaller stones. This is not necessary for stones of different shapes; they should stabilize themselves.
Plant wildflowers
While natural stone walls for sunbathing, hedges and piles of dead wood as a retreat and sandy areas with little Plants that can be used to lay eggs include insect-friendly wildflowers and other herbaceous and berry plants. or nectar producing plants both protection from predators and a plentiful supply of food. In the latter case, it is particularly important that the planting is dense. It may take some time before lizards and other animals finally move in, because these animals first have to become aware of it.
What should you pay attention to?
- Sunny places, enough food and places to lay eggs are a must
- as well as shade-providing shrubs or perennials
- Leave affected areas undisturbed
- Avoid pesticides and other poisons in the garden
- Promote the settlement of beneficial insects
- Cover barrels on the ground as well as light and water shafts
- Place sticks or stones as a ramp
- Set up a small bowl of water
- Only mow during the day and avoid using robotic lawnmowers
- Protect areas from domestic cats and dogs
frequently asked Questions
They mainly feed on worms, snails and insects such as flies and mosquitoes, but they also do not disdain seeds and fruits.
The particularly protected wall lizard as well as the sand lizard, forest lizard and green lizard are native to this country. The common western sand lizard or A protein contained in their blood is even said to have the potential to prevent tick-borne Lyme disease.
Unfortunately, it is not guaranteed that lizards will actually find their way into the garden after it has been made reptile-friendly. But with a natural garden you also create habitats for numerous other animals. Under no circumstances should you take lizards from nature, it is forbidden.
