ANDREA WHITELY: A happy accident for frogs

Accidental gardener Clare Miles’ Yanchep garden began with a cry for help from a distressed frog in her backyard.

Clare collected the frog and moved it to the safety of her front garden, offering it a shallow bowl of water. With that, the ideas began to flow. The need for a habitat garden was born.

The family moved into their home in 2022. The encounter with the frog and subsequent garden transformation began only three years ago. The lawn was removed and the first steps towards a wildlife-friendly, mostly native garden were taken. Inspired by Pinterest, Australian native plant groups on Facebook and advice from family, Clare has helped the garden evolve by just giving things a crack, with plenty of experimentation, some failures and a growing fascination with the creatures that now call it home. “I have lost a lot of plants,” Clare admits.

Clare’s grandparents are all gardeners, while her dad built his own native garden and introduced the idea of adding zeolite to improve the health of her soil. That simple tip has become part of Clare’s approach to improving soil and supporting healthy plant growth while taking care of the frogs too.

Tubestock from Australian Plants Online and Waldecks has been used extensively, including grasses planted in the pond’s filtration area. Groundcovers act as living mulch and help new plants survive their first Yanchep summer. Aptenia ‘Baby Sunrose’ is one of Clare’s favourites.

The garden is designed completely with wildlife in mind. A mature agonis provides food and habitat for birds, with honeyeaters, wattlebirds, galahs and willy wagtails regular visitors. Black cockatoos can often be seen flying overhead. Corten steel tubes planted in groups give height variation and an opportunity to include more plants. Hardenbergia climbs a new garden arch, providing a perch where birds taunt the cat inside.

And then there are the frogs. With plenty of hiding places among the plants, bromeliads and shallow bowls filled with water, the garden has become home to a nightly chorus. Dragonfly larvae have joined the ecosystem, while Clare shares tadpoles with her community. At 10pm, it isn’t unusual to find Clare outside listening to and watching the frogs.

Even the family cat has been considered in the wildlife plan. Responsible cat ownership means a dedicated cat run, allowing the cat to enjoy the outdoors without threatening visiting birds, frogs and other wildlife.

Despite its growing biodiversity, Clare says the garden takes as little as 30 minutes a week to maintain — much less time than mowing a lawn. Some weeks, this busy working mum, whose boys are heavily into their sport, does nothing but observe.

Her advice for anyone wanting to create a wildlife-friendly garden is: start small, observe what works and don’t be afraid of failure. Remove weeds early — “one year of weeds is seven years of seeds”, she says — use groundcovers to protect the soil, choose plants suited to your conditions and give nature somewhere to hide.

Imagine that: one little frog who inspired an entire habitat garden.