Come Kereru, Karara, Tui 'n all

It is achievable to grow a productive and colourful garden and still maintain harmony with ''the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees'' without resorting to warfare! A well replenished bird table and birdbath is a wonderful way to observe your feathered guests-while remembering to keep your household pets restrained.

Planting hedges and native trees that produce edible seeds, berries, leaves, flowers or nectar will provide shelter, nesting spots and food to attract native birds. The first of the dawn chorus in our patch is the melodic tui who frequently dine on our nectar-bearing bottle brush trees and Kowhai. The handsome and heavy-winged Kereru (native pigeon) love our puriri tree for its abundant flower and fruit, while all the butterflies seem to be attracted to the buddleia (butterfly bush) .

The whole drama of the Monarch butterfly lifecycle can be monitored by the simple introduction of a few healthy swan plants and some good nectar-bearing flowers. The butterfly pop eggs on the underside of the leaf, the tiny

black and yellow striped caterpillars emerge with voracious appetites and munch their way stripping the plants bare before forming their stunning green and gold banded chrysalis that finally metamorphose into that quivering mass of glorious crumple-winged adult Monarch hungry for a first nectar feed.

Small, obscure and under-rated as insects may be they are vital in the avian food chain and thrive in thick humus layers of mulched or composted beds. Flitting fantails do a great service reducing the fly and spider population around the place while the pretty little silvereye or wax eye feed on fruit, seeds and nectar as well as dealing to greenfly and woolly aphid. A gardener's friend!

There are two types of native lizard (Karara) which can be attracted to your garden by providing rocky hiding places, vines, climbers and thick native undergrowth(coprosma). The smooth skinned browny-coloured skink and the baggy skinned grey-green gecko are both insect and fruit eaters.

While bees are busy in the daytime working the autumn flowering shrubs, vibrant yellow cassia (buttercup trees) and the red pineapple sage, amongst other pollen bearing flowers, don't forget the night time visitors like the humble and busy hedgehog who dines on all sorts of unsavoury beetles, bugs and slugs while overhead the Ruru (Morepork)sweeps in for a quick mouse on the hoof.

Please keep your well-fed and entertained cats in at night so they are less likely to decimate the bird and insect life you have so carefully encouraged into your garden.

Happy planning for the next season!