by Diana Studer
- gardening for biodiversity in Porterville, near Cape Town in South Africa
We have no manicured lawn. We've learnt to adjust to a hotter summer, but still in the Western Cape’s familiar mediterranean climate. They say build it and they will come – and indeed they have!
The Story of Elephant’s Eye
Chapter 7
Gardening for biodiversity
We live in a small country town, our garden behind a wall. We have a few diamond panels at the base of the wall – for frogs and snakes and lizards and striped mice. Our wildlife is birds and smalls.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik_m4_uuvIcEWPirARPksKqwMwZYSQRN-08JnafGbYkDtBkVz-oIbk4_MaaYxVv8X27FxFVIxLtrdtkQtUaPGY5SyZ5SeSnMbL2msFFsAsNZdOoK_9aCd7L0amBtoSIrj-D7bU7ugkQToe/s1600/1+rosy-faced+lovebird.jpg) |
Rosyfaced lovebird dining out at Spirulino's |
Most exciting was the endangered
Black Stork for which we named the little island in Ungardening Pond. Porterville lies in a dip which was once a
vlei, and I wonder how many generations back the frogs remember coming here. These summer nights towards Christmas the frog and cricket oompah band is in fine form.