Neighbour's Increasing Interest in Birds

Wendy, the hard work is in filling the plastic tubes with soil. I know. For 8 years I filled 1000 tubes each year! But the satisfaction from watching indigenous trees & shrubs grow in those tubes is enormous!

Tim, you're right there. He told me that he's seen yellow-tailed black cockatoos feeding in his Drooping She-oaks Allocasuarina verticillata & the cockatoos are often at our place feeding in the Banksias & feral pines. (The latter, of course, will be exterminated when the Hakeas I've planted are able to attract the cockatoos. That's if the pines don't die of natural causes first). Already his efforts are paying dividends for both of us. In fact, in my area a network of scrub patches & wildlife corridors is developing nicely. Biodiversity lives!

I'll warn all things in pots to keep their heads down, Wendy.

Since I stopped growing plants in tubes I've been collecting seeds from my plants & broadcasting them on my property, along roadsides & in other places where I've judged that the species used to grow but where there is a plethora of weeds. I make allowances for things like powerlines, culverts & other infrastructure so that the plants won't cause damage when they grow. I also give seed to people who are interested in restoring indigenous vegetation to their properties. The results have been spasmodic & depend a lot on factors like seed viablitiy, weed density, weather conditions, council roadworks & contractor spraying. But it's good fun collecting the seed from my place & checking for results on broadcast sites. And while it keeps me off the streets it often keeps me on the roads. So there's another way of benefitting wildlife which only requires the occasional gentle burst of energy.

It's an activity probably better suited to rural conditions but I imagine it can be adjusted to suit other conditions. E.g., local parks & street verges.