Saturday, September 08, 2007

Lizards are Army Strong


I have an Army of lizards in my garden working 24 – 7 keeping the garden free of bugs.
Over the years that I been gardening in Florida, I have come to the conclusion that my best friends in the garden are the hundreds of lizards I have thru out.

Lizards are very territorial, and they will eat any bugs that dare to come into their territory. They will fight or chase any other lizard that would intrude in their spot.
In my garden their only enemy are stray cats. Lately our city has been capturing all strays in our neighborhood (they are taken for adoption to the animal service department) I can definite notice an increase in the population of this wonderful reptile.

Lizards seem to know that I am very appreciative of the job they do, when I am working in the flowerbeds turning over the dirt they are not shy to be around me waiting to see what comes out of the ground.
What is so great about gardening is that not only are we part of growing beautiful plants we are also creating an ecosystem friendly to all, birds, lizards and even bugs.

9 comments:

Carol Michel said...

We have no lizards in our gardens here in Indiana. I'm not sure how I'd feel about having them all around while I gardened... I guess I would get used to them...

Carol at May Dreams Gardens

LostRoses said...

I didn't realize lizards were so common there, Rusty. I bet you don't every buy bug spray!

Jeanette said...

I saw a lizard in my garden the other day when i moved a log i got such a fright when I saw it move I dropped the log hahaha but not on the lizard.Yours are not at all shy, just sitting there on your flowers ,,

Jacquie said...

Excellent post. I must agree with you, my "army of lizards" are my allies in the garden. Most recently, I come to realize that the smoky black "racer" snake and the stilted great white Heron who walk the neighborhood are also in search of our friends.

http://homegrown-miami.blogspot.com/
HomeGrown

Yolanda Elizabet Heuzen said...

Those are no lounge room lizards, that's for sure. What great garden friends they are! Birds, ladybirds, frogs and hedgehogs are my garden friends as they eat what is the greatest garden pest in my garden :slugs!

Meems said...

from all your commenters, i realize now that what is so common for us floridians isn't so common for other parts of the country and world.

we DO have an abundance of these critters in all sizes. they scurry around in the leaves (mulch)and jump from one thing to the next... i guess i have just gotten used to them. i do appreciate their food of choice... you are right... it helps out a great deal.

won't it be nice when we can get a little relief from this wicked heat and drought?

Susan said...

I love my lizard friends. When my husband's family visits from up north they are always frightened by them. Like Meems said, we are so used to them. My mother has a black racer that has almost eliminated hers, but the good news is that he also has eliminated the large lubber grasshoppers.

Dirty Fingernails said...

I just love the lizards in my garden as well and I get mad at the cats if they catch one..

Ewa said...

Lizard topic reminded me how excited I was this summer seeing a tiny lizard (5 cm) in my garden, here in Poland. I love them and seeing them in the garden is great. Mine was tiny and shy, so it escaped very fast :(