The most common urban garden lizards are small skinks and geckos that mainly eat insects, worms and pests such as snails thereby minimising the damage such pests can do in our garden habitats. Lizards, as cold-blooded animals, cannot control their own body temperature so they need the energy from the sun to aid simple activities such as movement and digestion of food. They achieve this by basking in the sun or lying on warm surfaces. When they are in danger of overheating they seek shelter under vegetation, below ground or in water. A warm sheltered corner of the garden covered with a layer of mulch and furnished with logs and fallen branches, leaf litter, piles of rocks and boulders, natural cracks in the soil and ground cover plants (including native grasses, orchids and daisies) will provide many basking and sheltering opportunities for lizards and great habitat for many other small mammals, birds, and frogs.

Ecologists have discovered that reptiles love corrugated iron, particularly in Autumn & Spring when cooler temperatures can limit opportunities for reptiles to attain sufficient warmth. Metals heat quicker than stone and radiate heat to reptiles sheltering underneath. A groundcover planted adjacent to this spot will give the lizards a refuge to retreat to when threatened by predators. Blue-tongued lizards, slow-moving animals, are often attacked by domestic dogs and cats, and if not killed outright, can often die from the stress of the attack.