The Department of Conservation’s rules for attracting lizards are:
- Mulch your garden heavily to improve water retention for plants and create a humid environment for lizards and their invertebrate prey.
- Plant native berry or nectar producing species and use a range of species to ensure a continuous food supply year round.
- Grow organically or minimise the use of sprays to ensure insect populations thrive. Allow vines to grown up walls or steep embankments to reach the top so animals can easily move up and down.
- Discourage cats from your garden. Plant thickly so cats cannot access the area. Consider not replacing your cat.
- Plant thickly, including thick ground-covers and vines to create safe habitats that lizards can retreat to when predators threaten.
- Provide debris such as rotting logs, bark chips, layered rocks, boulders, untreated timber, corrugated iron and firewood, and encourage plants to grow around it.
- Design stone walls, retaining walls or embankments that have plenty of small gaps, cracks and crevices and encourage plants and vines to grow on them.