My favorite garden in Los Angeles is the one at the Natural History Museum. It resides in one of the more lifeless parts of the city, surrounded by a sea of concrete and asphalt adjacent to a park that’s just poorly tended grass and roses. The premise of the Natural History Museum garden is, “build it and they (life) will come.” During the four classes we’ve taught in the NHM garden we’ve witnessed that life: insects and birds in abundance.
In addition to lots of life-attracting plants, the NHM folks have created habitats for insects like the one in the pictured above. These cute little native bee habitats sit atop a 8 foot four by four. I’m going to steal the design for our front yard. As soon as I can get Sketchup working again on my computer I’ll draw up some plans and make them available.
In the meantime see the fact sheets on the Xerces Society website for specifics on building and maintaining insect habitats.
Hi, I have to share a picture of the beautiful solitary bee house my husband made for me. http://moonrisesandmorningtea.blogspot.com/search/label/Old%20made%20New
O.K. I don’t know how to post a photo to this comment, so the above is the website address for the blog post I posted it on. There is also a separate post about solitary bee facts: http://moonrisesandmorningtea.blogspot.com/2015/06/just-facts-lady-just-facts.html
and a post about my dilemma with the issue of disposal tubes for Mason bee houses vs. letting nature run its course. I have decided to go with nature. It was a no-brain-er really. http://moonrisesandmorningtea.blogspot.com/2015/06/mason-bee-and-marriage-pickle.html
I love your blog and read it everyday. It’s nice to have gardening information that is relevant to So. Calif. Carol
What a beautiful bee house! We also poked around your blog a bit and saw some other wonderful things you and your husband have been up to. Love, love, love the penny wall! And the bottle edging is a fantastic idea. I’m tempted to steal them both….
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I share this blog site with my 2 daughters. The penny wall is hers, as well as the bottle edging. The picture of the penny wall doesn’t really capture the beauty of it. It is amazing. Penny wall daughter lives in East San Diego County. I am forwarding your comment to her. She will be pleased you appreciate her creativity.
A simple bundle of hollow sticks wrapped with twine is a good alternative. Make many, hang them in the shade. They will fall apart in a few years – this is a good thing.
Bees need a clean house, so anything permanent means you are committing to cleaning it out regularly.
These are free, recyclable, and don’t need to be engineered.
Thank you ET. You just solved my marriage/mite problem. The drilled logs can be replaced in the housing my husband made. I just tried it, and they slip out easily. It took your comment for me to see the obvious.
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