The health of an ecosystem depends on a large and diverse population of pollinators. We have plenty of them at Vista Farm, but where they live is a mystery. They sometimes travel miles to get their favorite nectar so we decided to make it a little easier of a few lucky solitary bees, wasps or other flying insects by building a Bug Condo. It was an easy project for a morning.

Lying around in the Captain’s junkyard is a stack of concrete blocks. A friend has a stand of clumping bamboo he always wants cut back and in the meadow the cut grass is dry. We simply cut enough bamboo in various sizes the length of the inside hole of the block to fill the space and stuffed the dried grasses and weeds in between to make it firm. The block is open on both sides, but the bamboo was cut at a joint so it’s closed on one end. The materials used will allow rain to dry, not like plastic or metal so, hopefully, mold should not be a problem although we’ll keep an eye on it. We set the bug condo on a tall post in the meadow facing sort of east so the inhabitants will warm up and get moving as soon as the sun comes up. It looks inviting. With the warmer weather, we’ll be looking for nesting soon. It’s still a little cool and there’s nothing blooming in the meadow except some Pineland Daisies and Mayberry.