Building a Bee House

Mason Bees (Osmia) are smaller than honeybees, and great pollinators in your garden. They do not sting. They build nests inside hollow tubes, where the female lays one egg, then mixes nectar and pollen with wood shavings and deposits it into the tube. Then, she lays another egg, and repeats the process. She lays female-destined eggs in the back of the nest, and male eggs towards the front. She caps off the end of each tube with a kind of wax. As the eggs hatch, the larvae eat their provision of pollen/nectar/wood pellet to gain energy. By the summer, the larva has consumed all of its provisions and begins spinning a cocoon around itself and enters the pupal stage, and the adult matures either in the fall or winter, hibernating inside its cocoon.

I thought I might try to make a bee house for these little bees. Instead of buying wood and drilling holes in it, and being of the mind to reuse rather than throw out some Salvia apiana (White Bee Sage) flower stalks after they had flowered (and fed many a hummingbird and Carpenter Bee), I thought I might cut them and dry them to see if the tubes would work. The stems are hollow and reed-like, of varying diameters.

 

 

I cut the long flower stalk just below where the flowers end, where it joins the rest of the plant.

There were plenty of leaves that can be dried for making sage bundles for smudging.

I cut the stalks into 4-6 inch sections. Where the flower stems grew at the node, it narrowed down the space in the tube.

 I took a metal skewer and carefully hollowed out the inside of the tubes.

 

I used flexible green garden tape to hold them all together.

 

 Here is the house, attached to the side of my pygmy palm near the house. It is shaded, but gets morning sun. I have no idea if it will work, but I will keep you all posted! Happy Pollinating!

 

 

Reuse/Recyle/Repurpose in the Garden

Some folks might think I was a hoarder, since I don't like to throw functional things away. Who knows when I might need something, and if I have stuff stored in a convenient place, it saves me a trip to the hardware store, or wherever. For example, I buy eggs in cardboard cartons. I can use them to start seeds, or rip them up for my compost pile if I need something dry to add in with too much moist waste. A friend of mine who was redoing a bathroom had extra tiles of many sizes. The 4 inch square ones can be broken up and used in mosaic pieces. I used the longer narrow ones as plant markers. Take a sharpie permanent marker, and write the name of the plant on the tile, and just place it into the pot, or glue it onto a popsicle stick and stick it in the soil.

A few other ideas I've used:

--Newspaper can be shredded and used in the compost pile, or as a weed barrier. Place six layers of newspaper on the area, then cover with mulch. As the paper decomposes, it also feeds the soil, and gets rid of weeds at the same time. Worms love to eat the paper, and their castings enrich the soil.

--Wine corks and foam peanuts from packing boxes can be used in the bottom of big pots to keep the soil loose and give the pot good drainage.

--small jars with tight-fitting lids can be used to store seeds, herbs, anything small.

--Old pots can be reused as planter liners, which can be switched out in each season by filling with a new plant.

--A used shower curtain makes a good liner for your trunk or back seat when transporting dirty stuff from the nursery that could spill and mess up your car.

--used nylon panythose can be cut up and used as delicate plant ties.

--plastic silverware can also be used as plant markers.

--I put colorful old bottles in the garden among my plants, for some added color and interest.

--shells and small stones can be placed on the top of the soil of potted plants to add some interest. You can also put them in a water feature and watch the water cascade over them.

--I've seen old toilets, kids cribs or bassinets, even wheel barrows used as planters. Just be sure there is a way for water to drain out, so as not to drown your plants.

--I like going to garage sales and seeing what kind of neat stuff I can find to put in my garden to give it an individual, one of a kind look. Planters, pots, bottles, statues, stands, who knows what might capture my imagination?

When I put in my new landscape, I went around the house to see what kinds of things I might find that could stay outside and add some interest and "funkiness" to my newly-planted space. Stones and shells looked great on my little wall, and the lizards like to hang out around them and do their little push-ups!