How to make your own pollinator garden and bee house!

Here are the steps we took to create our pollinator garden. At the bottom, you can find how we created our very own bee house! (As well as steps and materials you will need to make your own bee house to help our fuzzy and buzzy friends!)

For The Pollinator Garden:

Step 1

First, we found a sunny spot to dig. A good spot should have lots of room and have a good balance of sun and shade.

Step 2

Next, we decided on the size of our garden. We went with 15 feet by 10 feet. You may need a very long measuring tape for this, or something else that works for this job.

Step 3

After, we decided on our plants. You will need plants that pollinators like, and that will be easy to take care of. Remember, use plants native to your area, so don't use any invasive plants! If you want a list of the plants we used, go to the About Pollinators page. Choose plants that are a good fit for your garden, in terms of sun vs shade, and how much water they will get.

Step 4

Then, we dug our plot to plant. We only did a small section of the plot, as there was a lot to dig. For this step, we used a pickaxe, shovels, and our hands. To do this, you should mark where you are going to dig. Next, use the pickaxe to tear up part of the ground. This will make it easier to use your shovel. Then, use the shovel to dig into the ground. Finally, you can use your hands to rip out the last of the dirt and grass! For all of this, it will prove helpful to have a professional or someone who has a pollinator garden of their own to guide you. We also covered the rest of the ground that we did not dig up with big, plastic wrap-like material so that, over time, the grass would die. This will make it much easier to dig up the dirt.

Step 5

Following that, we planted the flowers and other plants in the ground that we dug up and covered the parts of the ground that did not have plants in it with mulch and surrounded the outside with plastic, to kill the weeds, so we can plant wildflowers there. Remember to water the plants 2-3 times a week. Depending on the plants you use, you should use the amount of water it needs per time you water it.

Here's how to make a bee house!

First, you are going to want to find a log (One that has fallen. Please don't cut down trees!) The log can be any size, but we recommend one about the diameter of your hand.

Cut the log into 1 or 2 pieces that are about 7 to 9 inches long ways.

After, you should drill 6 inches into the wood with a 7/16ths drill bit. (Drill into the flat side, not the round side) Don't drill too many holes, because this is for solitary bees, who don't like to live with too many other bees. We recommend 15 - 20 holes per log.

You will need bee tubes for the bees. We used the brand URATOT 120 piece bee tubes that we found on Amazon for $9.99. You will have to replace the bee tubes once a year, in the spring. You have to replace the tubes because you don't want the colonies to become diseased. Make sure there aren't any bees in the tubes when you replace them, or you can damage or kill bees.

Then, you will need to find these things:

Shingles
Chicken wire (or any plastic or metal mesh with holes about a 1/2 inch wide)
A wooden post, 8 - 9 feet tall, because you want the bee houses to be 5 - 7 feet off the ground. (This is the way we mounted it, but if you attach it to your house, a post is not needed, as long as the houses are at the right height.)
A staple gun or some other way to attach the mesh/wire/chicken wire to the contraption
Wood from a place like Home Depot or Lowe's, that is flat and about 8 feet long.

After you have all these things, you will cut the wood (not the post) into 1 1/2 foot piece. You will need six 1 1/2 foot pieces, two pieces that are long enough to support both bee houses on either side of the post, and two 8 inch pieces.

Then, cut two of the 1 1/2 foot pieces at a 45 degree angle on one or both sides, so that it creates a roof over the bee houses. The roof should fit over the bee houses comfortably while also leaving space in front of and behind the houses. This should be no more than a couple inches, but is important to the creation of the house. Before you attach any of the pieces to the pole, you should stain the wood with a protectant. This protectant should help the wood last as well as not be damaged by the elements, like rain or snow, because the goal is for it to last. It is also important not to paint it with anything that can harm the bees living inside it, so the stain should be eco-friendly. The stain we used was Behr brand. After staining the wood, we built it from the bottom up.

First we built the supports for the bee house. We built these onto the post. Then we mounted the bee houses onto the post using a nail gun. Please always use protective eyewear and have a cell phone at the ready. If you look at the picture, you will see that we have two boards under the beehouses. You will have to put these on before anything else. After that, we attached the roof, and then put the shingles on. Then we used a staple gun to cover any gaps with chicken wire, to protect it from the birds and any other animal who might enjoy a buzzy snack.

We used a post hole digger to dig the hole, which was about 2 1/2 feet deep. You can also use a shovel if no post hole digger is available. After setting the pole in the middle of the hole, we filled the hole with dirt and rocks with mulch on top to help support the post. Bees like to face south or southeast.

Congratulations! You now have a bee house! Now get out there and enjoy your new fuzzy buzzy friends! (Bonus points if you have a flower garden nearby. See how to make one above) :)

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