Snowplows and Bumblebees

So...... this year we had a ton - literally - of snow at our place!  We had at least 4' here in Big Lake. It required plowing a number of times for snow and then again in the spring to push the slush out of the driveways and so the car wouldn't sink!  It never fails that when we get snow like that and we are trying to keep snow out of the way of drivers, and parkers, and garbage guys, and, and, and.... you get the idea - that something gets hit by the plow or crushed by the plow or just simply destroyed by the plow! 

This is the bottom of the stairs where the  welcome pot and the lavender for luck usually live - they are covered with snow and there are two steps under this snow pile that you can't see!

This year the snowplow got  two of my flower and herb pots that sit around the front stair area and parking area to give some color and make the grabbing of herbs from the kitchen easy!  One of them was completely destroyed and only the brown stain of garden soil remained to give any clue that there was something there at all!  The biodegradable pot pieces blew off into the yard for my garbage spring collection ritual.  I didn't even get a picture of it - too sad!

The other one was the "Welcome" pot that sits near the bottom of the stairs and overflows with flowers with it's welcome of anyone who comes to the house.  It protects the "lavender for luck" that lives in pots also at the bottom of the stairs.  See lavender below.  

So I set out to make a new "Welcome" pot and to upcycle the old broken one - I decided to make a bee habitat complete with Mason Bee Bottle!  I am always looking for ways to get the bees to the yard (without having to actually have bee hives), so last year I was given a Mason Bee Bottle by my lovely niece!  What is a Mason Bee Bottle you ask?  

Mine happens to be a recycled wine bottle filled with little bamboo tubes.  Mason bees are the pollinators of every gardeners dreams!  They one mason bee does the same work as 100 honey bees!  100X the pollination!  They live in little tubes, or empty grass blades, or hollow sticks, or anything that makes a tube I guess.  Mason bees are also less likely to sting.  You don't get the honey, but hopefully Ill get the apples and cherries!

Ill be honest - I have never had mason bees that I know of and I may end up having to order some?  I don't know - but I'll be happy to get any bees and pollinators to the orchard area with this.

I started by cutting off the mangled top of the old "Welcome" pot.  I used a sabre saw - which I call a swordfish saw because that is what it looks like!

Then I filled it with dirt in preparation for my bee attracting plants!

You can see the where the tires from the snowplow truck scraped on the side of the pot!

Next I prepared the hook to hold up the mason bee jar.  Of course - I used a broken hockey stick for the stake!  I used a hanging basket hook for the hook part and just used some screws and my trusty drill to connect them together.  Mason bee jars need to hang.

It worked great!  

Next I planted my bee attracting plants!  For this one I used Anise Hyssop, Borage, Alyssum - both white and purple, and also some white, lavender and purple Osteospermum, (African Daisy).  These all bloom well and often throughout the summer to help feed and attract the bees and other pollinators.

I didn't want to crowd it too much as the borage and the hyssop will get tall and the others will bush out a bit.

Then I planted the stake and hung the bee bottle from it!  The hockey stick stake just is stuck in the pot all the way to the bottom.  The soil and plants will hold it up.

Another lovely angle of the new bee habitat!  This may not be a tall enough stake to lure the mason bees - it is supposed to be 4-6 feet high - I only have about 4 feet here total - we'll see how it works!

If you aren't a fan of having bees in your yard, or if you have someone who is allergic maybe you could also hang a cute birdhouse or have a bird nest in here too - lots of options!

Bee Bottle recommends that you place it under an eave, or a covering of some type, but I need the bees out in the apple and cherry orchard area so I am using this great birch tree as my cover!  Here is the habitat, freshly situated and ready for the bees!

Here it is just a week ago with the borage and the hyssop all grown tall and ready to pop blooms!  The other plants are there still and blooming.  It has had a lot of bees on it so far - I don't know if there are any mason bees living in there but I don't want to mess with it right now and screw anything up so I'm just leaving it alone to do it's thing!  Bee Happy!

Here is the beginning of the new Welcome pot to go at the bottom of the stairs!

I used cardboard 3" stencils and some acrylic paint in various colors.  I taped the stencils into place using rolled up scotch tape - it makes it easy to reposition them if they are crooked, and doesn't mess up the stencils.  I used a pencil to draw the shapes after I had them in position and then used small paint brushes to paint inside the lines.  I am not an artist who can just do freehand.

Let it dry overnight and its ready to place where it lives!

Here it is in all its glory!  Still need to do some weed clearing and some rock repositioning but it is ready to take off an bloom with Nastrutuims, sweet peas that will climb the railing, and some lovely trailing lobelia.  Between the lavender and the other plants the stairs will be welcoming and smell delightful too!

I hope that wherever you are hunkered down and whatever your situation, you have room for some flowers and a little bee or bird habitat.

Bee safe, Bee well, and Bee Blessed!