For the Birds and Bees

My friend Jimmy makes these screech owl boxes, and he gave us this one a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, I think we just missed the season just before mating when the birds are hunting for nesting sites. Hopefully this will attract a screecher next year!

I built this wabi-sabi native bee and bug house for the burrowers. We have about 4,000 native bees in this country and many are extremely important pollinators. Non-native--but also critically important--honey bees, Apis mellifera, visit the garden all the time from hives that must be relatively close. But, I'm hoping this box will attract a more diverse pollinating crew, cuckoo bees and the like. For instructions on building your own, check out the Xerces Society [pdf].