So you want to build a Pollinator Hotel...

Well you can!  And you should.  Pollinator Hotels provide essential habitat for cavity-nesting insects like mason bees and leafcutters, as well as other beneficial critters like spiders, ladybugs, and butterflies.  You'll get to watch this mini-ecosystem unfold in your backyard, observing first hand its life cycles, food chains and day to day goings-on.  Your hotel can be tidy and symmetrical, or thrown together with wild abandon.  You can build them to suit your fancy, changing features and adding on over the years.  And with a little ingenuity and a bit of time spent gathering materials, they're inexpensive and easy to put together.

I build these wild bee houses using salvaged fenceboards and shingles, blue-stain lumber milled from trees killed by bark beetles, and whatever else scraps I can find.  (If you want to buy one, here's my Etsy Shop!)
You can also expand on this idea and install a Pollinator Hotel on-site.  We did this recently as part of the Homestead Hey Day spring celebration at the historic Moon-Randolph Homestead in Missoula.  Volunteers pooled their craftsmanship and creativity, using scrap wood from around the ranch, locally gathered natural materials and hand tools to build a beautiful and functional house for helpful bugs.  We've still got some finishing touches to do, drilling holes in the logs and stuffing crevices with bee tubes, but for one happy afternoon's work, it turned out pretty incredible.  
If you want to build your own you'll want to follow just a few basic guidelines.  Here are some tips to help you get started.

1.  Build a frame
Anything goes, pretty much!  You might want to sketch out a plan before you begin.  How big?  Do you want formal rows of tubes and drilled holes, or rustic compartments of natural materials?  Will it be built on posts, or hanging?  Do you want to stack materials so the hotel can be dismantled and rebuilt easily, or do you want a frame that's held in place by screws...or cement, or...?  Do you want to include spaces to put soil and grow live plants on the structure?  If so, you might want to put them down low so you can water without drenching your insect nesting materials.

Whatever you decide, remember that native bees need one end of their nesting cavity closed.  If you're using completely hollow tubes, you'll want to put a backboard of some sort up.  If you're drilling holes through logs, you can opt to not drill all the way through (for example, drill a 6" deep hole in a 7" deep log).  I personally recommend drilling all the way through and putting up a backboard, however.  That way if you ever decide to clean out your bee holes, it's much easier.


2. Put it in the right place
You'll want to locate your Pollinator Hotel in a place that's at least somewhat shielded from heavy wind and rain.  Face the opening to the south or east so it gets plenty of warm morning sun.  If you live in a really hot sunny location, some afternoon shade in midsummer is helpful too.  Raising the frame off the ground a few feet deters ants, who have been known to sneak in and steal the pollen reserves left for developing larvae.  Just don't put it so high that it's out of insects' normal flight paths.  Somewhere between 4-8' off the ground is ideal.  And make sure the insects have access to a source of food (pollen from trees, shrubs, flowers or vegetables within a couple hundred yards), water and mud, which mason bees use to line their brood cells.  We located ours at the edge of the vegetable garden, facing out towards an ancient orchard.  The early spring flowers of fruit trees are perfect for mason bees (also known as blue orchard bees).  Remember that, once you start to fill in your frame, it will get heavy, so you might want to get it in place beforehand.

3.  Provide nooks and crannies
The idea is to mimic the natural nesting sites of insects in the wild.  This helps mitigate the effects of habitat destruction as native ecosystems give way to concrete, asphalt and (gasp!) turf grass.  So build one for environmental stewardship and conservation!  But also do it for yourself.  Attracting a diverse array of native insects to your yard and garden leads to a healthier ecological balance (thus reducing insect pests), better pollination of your fruits, flowers and veggies, and an awesome opportunity to observe these fascinating creatures up close.
Try to provide a diversity of cracks and crevices to accommodate different nesting habits.  Ladybugs, beetles, lacewings, beneficial spiders, moths and butterflies all seek shelter to raise their young and overwinter, and many native bee species nest in hollow tubes and cavities.  Use different sized sticks, dead flower stalks (sunflowers work great), straw, pine cones, dry grasses and pieces of bark to fill compartments.  Avoid wood that's been treated or recently varnished.

Things are starting to take shape!  Peter cuts plant stalks into tubes, Tyson saws logs, and Natasha slices bark rings to build compartments.

4.  Make the bee holes the right size and depth

Mason bee cells in a milkweed stem

Tubes and drilled holes should be about 6" deep.  This is important.  Nesting mason bees will fill the first ~4" with female eggs, and cap each tube with a couple males.  The eggs hatch into larvae, which pupate into adult bees at the end or the summer.  The males emerge first (presumably to be offered up to any predators lurking outside the nest) followed by the females a couple weeks later.  If your tubes are too short, you risk having all female eggs.  Cavity nesting bees also avoid holes that are too deep, so try not to go over 8" or so.

There are thousands of species of wild bees...all different sizes and with varying preferences.  When drilling holes or cutting tubes, the standard recommended diameter is 3/8".  I've seen bees nest in holes down to 1/8" and as big as 5/8".  I try to provide a variety of sizes, to see what different species I can attract.

Gathering tubes

Finding hollow-stemmed plant materials can be tough.  If you live in an area with bamboo, that works perfect.  I try to use the previous year's dry stalks of Japanese knotweed (an abundant noxious weed), Fuller's teasel (a pain to process, with all the prickles), Queen Anne's lace, milkweed, elderberry, even corn stalks.  Remember that many species have nodes that go all the way through the stem, so these parts need to be cut out or placed towards the back of your hotel.

5.  Protect it
Besides choosing a sheltered location, it helps to put some sort of slanted roof on so rain rolls off.  And if you're worried about birds, squirrels or deer getting into your nesting materials, put some small-gauge chicken wire over the front entrance.

6.  Maintain it over time
If you're using straw, dry grass or other decomposables, clean out the compartment and replace with fresh materials each spring.  In the case of bee cavities, mites and other pests can build up if the tubes aren't cleaned out periodically.  Once every four years or so you'll want to scrape out debris with a poker or replace the tubes entirely.  Some people recommend spraying the holes with a 5-10% bleach solution to kill mites.
Keep an eye on your Pollinator Hotel.  Over time, you'll have an idea of who lives where, what the most popular rooms are, and how well each material and arrangement is working.  Experiment!  Change it up.  Have fun.

If you want to learn more about native pollinators, visit my Wild House of Bees page.  Also check out this excellent compilation of insect habitats from Inspiration Green to see what people around the world are building.  And please, post pictures of what you come up with!

Welcome back, Spring!

Happy Ides of March, everyone!  I'm back after a solid winter break, and pretty excited to be packing away my long undies and sharpening up my garden tools.  It's been a badass winter...

Here's my back yard, June 1st a couple years ago versus March 1st this year.  All that snow is from one day, btw, and is well over ten feet high.  It was an excellent blizzard, and after a day of subzero temps and howling yowling winds, the weather is pretty much back to normal for this time of year.  Sunny skies mixed with some drizzly rainshowers, and temps in the glorious mid-50s.

A hike on Waterworks Hill yesterday told me that the bitterroots are out in droves.  I found hundreds of the bright green anemones tucked into the rocky northeast slopes.  Now I'll start keeping my eyes peeled for buttercups, draba and Rocky Mountain douglasia.  The earliest spring wildflowers are some of my favorites.

Draba verna, each flower no bigger than a grain of rice.

I'm starting up a new project with Watershed Consulting, hunting for Mecinus janthinus, the biocontrol weevil that attacks the noxious weed toadflax.  The hard cold temperatures this winter (we had two good stretches where it was under 20 below zero) killed off quite a few bugs, which overwinter as adults in the toadflax stems.  Our plan is to find stems that were hidden underneath the snow during those cold snaps.  Hopefully the snow will have provided some protection from the frigid temps, much like an insulating blanket.  We'll see!  Once we find the weevils, we'll pack some of the population up and ship them out. The simple version of how biocontrol projects like this work is this:

Linaria dalmatica, Dalmation Toadflax

A non-native plant moves into an area where it has no natural predators, nothing to check its growth.  In some cases, this exotic plant turns out to be such a good competitor that it starts displacing the native plants of the area, which in turn has a devastating ripple effect on the local ecosystem.  The plants that have really really bad environmental and economic effects get deemed official "noxious weeds," and are thereafter subject to some government regulations.  One of the ways we try to control these noxious invaders is through the use of biocontrols...in other words, introducing predators that will attack the weeds and slow their population growth.  Like a weevil, that eats toadflax.  It's a long, somewhat complicated process (you can imagine the risks involved in introducing another exotic species into the environment) but in the end, biocontrol agents really do work as a weed management tool.  So we introduce the bugs, let their population build up to a healthy level, then collect some and ship them to other parts of the state that have the weed but not yet the weevil.  And so on and so forth.  

Matt, from my 2013 Youth in Restoration crew, getting biocontrol weevils ready to ship.

It's a fascinating and effective process, and one that I'm really excited to learn more about.  Over the next few weeks, you'll find me out in the hills, rambling through weedy patches, slicing stems and looking for Messinus.  Did they survive more on north or south slopes?  Low or high?  Big stems or small?  The Bitterroot Valley or the Swan?  So many questions.  I'll let you know how it goes.

In other news, I'm still building wild bee houses, and now is the season to order one!  You can visit my Flora montana Etsy shop, or pop in to one of the Missoula businesses that carry them (the Naturalist's Mercantile and The Buttercup Market and Cafe, at the moment).  I have woodblock photography and bee houses on display (and for sale!) at the Montana Natural History Center through the end of April, and will be setting some stuff up at Bad Goat for a First Friday show in May.  And of course, feel free to drop me a line if you'd like to order one directly from me!  I'd love to hear from you.  Happy spring, everyone.  I'll be back soon with the first of this season's Plant Profiles.  Keep in touch.

Wild House of Bees FAQs

Wild House of Bees

Frequently Asked Questions

Q.  What kind of bees live in a house like this?
A.  NOT honeybees!  These houses are for native solitary bees.  There are thousands of species of bees native to North America.  About 70% nest in tunnels dug in the ground, and the rest prefer hollow stemmed plants or other holes found in nature.  The most common "cavity nesters" in Montana are mason bees (Osmia spp.), leafcutter bees (Megachile spp.), carpenter bees (Ceratina spp.), yellow-faced or masked bees (Hylaeus spp.) and cuckoo bees (Nomada spp.)  Many wild bees don't look like "typical" bees at all, but rather resemble ants, flies, hornets...or even little flying metallic robots!

Q.  How do you get the honey out?
A.  You don't!  Native bees don't make honey.  Instead, they provide pollen reserves to feed their young.

Q.  Will my bee house attract wasps?

A.  No!  Aggressive paper wasps are no more likely to take up residence in your bee house than in any other cranny they find.  They nest communally in paper combs, and won't move into your bee tubes.  There are, however, native solitary wasps!  Like our native bees, these wasps are non-aggressive and fascinating to observe.  Read more...

Q.  Do these bees sting?
A.  Rarely.  Without a hive or honey to defend, native bees are extremely docile.  Many don't have stingers at all, and those that do will only sting if severely threatened.  The stings are relatively painless...more like a mosquito bite than a bee sting, really.  Even if you're allergic to honey bee stings, there's little cause for concern.  There have been no recorded cases of people going into anaphylactic shock from native bee stings.  Read more...

Q.  Do I have to order bees?
A.  You can, but it's not necessary.  Unlike European honey bees, solitary bees occur naturally in the environment, and are actively searching for cavities to nest in.  It might take a little while for the wild bees to find your nesting box, but once they do they'll come back year after year.

Q.  How long will my bees live?

A.  Native bees have a pretty short life span.  Using mason bees as an example, the cycle goes like this:  in the spring, as soon as temperatures are warm enough, females will emerge and start looking for flowering plants to collect pollen from.  Back at the home tube, they'll stash a little pollen bundle along with a freshly laid egg, pack in some mud, and start again.  Pollen, egg, mud...pollen, egg, mud...until the tube is full of about 8 cells.  The two or three cells closest to the tube opening contain unfertilized eggs which will result in male bees, and the inner eggs will hatch females.  Mama bee will continue filling up tubes until her life span is reached, around 6 weeks.  When the eggs hatch, the bee larvae eat the little pollen reserve and spin a little cocoon to begin the metamorphosis process.  The larvae pupate into young bees, which wait out the winter inside their nesting tube.  In spring, as soon as temperatures are warm enough, the fresh crop of bees will emerge.  Males come out first, mate with the females and die.  And the whole cycle starts again!

Q.  Do native bees compete with honey bees, or vice versa?
A.  Yes and no.  Yes, wild bees and honeybees are after the same resources; nectar and pollen.  But in many ways, they go about gathering these resources very differently.  Honeybees are great pollinators of farm crops.  They bounce down field rows from one flower to the next, returning to a hive that can be conveniently moved anywhere in the country that has warm weather and a flowering crop.  Commercial agriculture as we know it is entirely dependent on honeybees this way.  But remember, honeybees are native to Europe.  They didn't evolve alongside the plants that grow naturally here, and as such, are terrible pollinators of native plants.  They can only operate in a narrow range of temperatures and dates, and aren't adapted to the myriad of flower shapes and sizes found in the wild.  There are thousands of species of native bees, each born to fill a special little niche in nature.  And in fact, native bees actually help honeybees become better pollinators themselves (read more on this UC Berkeley study).
The best way to ensure there's enough food for everybody is to grow a variety of bee-friendly plants that flower throughout the season.


Q.  When should I hang my bee house up?
A.  As soon as the weather warms up to the mid-50s, wild bees will be out foraging and looking for a place to nest.  Around here that usually starts around March, and ideally your bee house should be up before then to provide a warm welcome!

Q.  Does it need to hang in a special place?
A.  Since bees can't fly when it's too cold, they like their nests to face the warm morning sun (south or east).  But super duper hot midsummer sun could cook them, so a little shelter is nice.  Maybe on a tree that lets in spring sunlight, and provides some shade when it leafs out in the summer.  They should be about 5-10' off the ground, in a stable place that doesn't get too jostled around, and be near a source of mud and flowering plants.  That said, you can hang your bee house pretty much anywhere!  They're perfect for small yards or porches, in the city or country, in any type of ecosystem where they can find food.  Providing a little more habitat for the bees can never hurt.


Q.  What are they built out of?
A.  I use a variety of recycled materials, depending on what's available.  This is a great way to use misshapen, warped or otherwise "imperfect" reclaimed lumber that isn't fit for more precise building projects...the bees don't care about wonky angles or bent boards!  I also try to find blue-stained lumber cut from trees killed by bark beetles.  Might as well make something beautiful out of that ecological mess.  Each house is coated with an inert mineral oil for a little extra protection from the weather.  For the tubes, I try to use invasive species, making a nice combination project of weed eradication and pollinator conservation.  I've experimented with Fuller's teasel, water hemlock, elderberry, sunflowers, milkweed, corn stalks, raspberry canes and some others.  

Q.  How long does a Wild House of Bees last?  
A.  With a little upkeep, you can use your Wild House of Bees for many, many years.  Since the smell of varnish repels bees, the wooden frame is coated in non-toxic mineral oil to prevent rotting.  If you wish, you can paint on a new coat every few years to keep the wood nice and sealed.  You can find it at any drug store for pretty cheap.  The only other thing that may need upkeep is the nesting tubes that fill in the frame.  Replacing these tubes every few years will help discourage pests and parasites from taking up residence inside, and get rid of any tubes that begin to rot...they are, after all, just hollow plant stems and sticks!  The back of your nesting box can be easily removed for cleaning out and replacing tubes.  You can cut new ones of your own if you have a source, or order them here.  

Q.  I don't live in Montana...will it still work?
A.  Absolutely!  Wild bees are looking for nesting places all over the country and indeed, all over the world! The nesting tubes in the Wild House of Bees will attract the native species found in your area.  Most of the info found here is specific to Montana but still applies to other areas.  If you have any questions about wild beekeeping in a different region, let me know and I'll point you in the right direction.


Q.  Where can I buy one?

A.  Each Wild House of Bees is made to order by hand, so no two are exactly alike.  They generally measure 9-18" tall by 9-12" wide, with prices ranging from $25-80 + S&H, depending on work and materials involved.  Custom orders are always welcome!  Check out upcoming Events & Exhibitions, or visit Flora montana on Etsy to order one today.

Visit the An Introduction to Wild Bees for more information, or dig a little deeper with this compilation of Resources for the Wild Beekeeper.  Good luck on your wild beekeeping adventure!  

~Happy Bees, Happy World~

Fuller's Teasel

Fuller's Teasel
Dipsacus fullonum
Dipsacaceae (Teasel Family)

Quick ID
Prickly thistle-like plants that are generally about five feet tall, although I've seen plenty reach the ten foot mark.  They're biennials, forming a rosette of leaves the first year and flowering the second season.  Flowers are light purple little tubes tucked into a spiny seedhead that perches atop the bristly stem like a pinecone.
Range
Fuller's teasel is native to Europe, and was first cultivated in the US in the 1800s.  It naturalized quickly and is now found growing wild all over the country, except in the northern Great Plains and some states in the southeast.  Look for big patches in moist areas by roadsides and other places where the soil has been disturbed.

What's in a Name?
The genus Dipsacus comes from the Greek "dipsa," meaning thirst.  This is in reference to the leaves, which close around the stem to make a little cup where water collects. Studies have shown that the more insects that land in these cups, the more seeds a teasel plant will form, which implies that Dipsacus is at least partially carnivorous.  Rawrrr!
The species name is fullonum, pertaining to fullers (people who cleanse and process wool into cloth).  Traditionally, dried heads of teasel were used for this purpose, attached to spindles and "teased" through wool to clean out dirt and raise the nap of the fabric.

Nowadays the industry uses wool cards (which look like a brush for a kitty), but some purists use the pointy, hooked seed heads still today.  Apparently, when there's a lot of resistance in the fabric, the easily-replaced teasel head just breaks, whereas metal cards will rip the cloth.

Tidbits
The stems of teasel are hollow, making them perfect for building a Wild House of Bees!  In spring, solitary cavity-nesting bees will fill these tubes with a row of eggs, which will hatch and pupate over the summer.  The young bees spend the winter in the stems, and emerge in spring to begin the process anew.  They survive by feeding on a little pollen reserve (or in the case of wasps, a meaty little insect body) left by the mother in the nest cells.  Did you know that insects in the order Hymenoptera (bees, wasps and ants) are the only insects in the world that provide food for their offspring?  Awesome.  
Wild Gardening

By most accounts, you probably shouldn't grow teasel in the garden.  It's at least some level of noxious weed in Colorado, Iowa, Missouri and New Mexico, and has invasive tendencies wherever it gets established.  That said, the spiny seed heads are awfully pretty, and especially nice for dried flower arrangements.  But remember that human dispersal is the number one way teasel seeds are spread, and once it gets out into the environment, it can quickly crowd out native plants.  Using dried seed heads in floral arrangements that are going to leave your house is probably not a good idea.  Better idea--find a wild patch, pull up the stalks, trash the seed heads, and use the stems to build little native pollinator habitats.  Everybody wins!

Wild House of Bees - An introduction

Wild House of Bees: "The Prototype"

I think I've finally got it.  The past few months I've spent more hours than I can count thinking about bees.  Reading about bees.  Dreaming about bees.  Trying to build a perfect little bee house...a Wild House of Bees...and I think I can finally say, I like how they're shaping up.  A lot.  First things first though...

This is NOT a house for HONEYBEES!

Honeybees look like teddybears dunked in honey

Nope!  The honeybees we're all so familiar with (Apis mellifera) originally come from Europe, and were introduced to North America in the early 1600s.  There are thousands of species of bees native to North America.  Some are bumblebees (Bombus sp.), which nest in social colonies in the ground.  But the majority are "solitary bees"...mason bees, leafcutters, sweat bees, carpenter bees, masked bees and so many more.  These wild bees don’t form hives, don’t make honey, and rarely, if ever, sting.  Having no hive to defend, no honey stash to protect, makes for a very docile little bee.

The females build nests in cavities (holes in the ground, in dead twigs, or hollow stems) and are important pollinators of native plants, fruit trees and early-season crops.

How does wild beekeeping work?

In spring and summer, females need to find sheltered cavities to nest in.  Different species like different types of cavities.  Some love to dig into the mud, others like a perfectly sized tube to crawl in.  Here they’ll deposit eggs, along with a little food (pollen) for the growing larva, in cells lined with mud or leaves. When the larvae hatch, they spin a cocoon and get to munching on that pollen stash.  The young bees will spend the winter nestled in these cells, and emerge in spring to mate and build their own nests.  This is a nesting cavity we found in the wild, in a hollow milkweed stem...

 Crawl in a tube, lay a little egg, stash a little bit of pollen, pack it with mud, repeat.  

As more and more wild places are replaced with houses and parking lots, native bees are having a harder time finding places to nest.  The Wild House of Bees provides a perfect bundle of nesting tubes that you can hang right in your backyard.  Every few years, you can remove the back mounting board of your bee house to clean out or replace the tubes.  This will help discourage parasites and other bee pests.  You can gather your own hollow-stemmed plants, or order a new bundle here.

What else do bees need to stay HEALTHY?

*Food:  Native bees like lots of flowering plants around to collect pollen and nectar from.  Bees are attracted to yellow or blue/purple flowers that are open like a blanketflower...

or have little tubes like a penstemon.

*Water:  A source of water is important in our dry climate.  Also make sure there is some mud around; many bees will use it to build their nest cells.

*Shelter:  Try to keep your bee house out of heavy rain and winds.  Hang it about 5 feet off the ground, facing south or east toward the warm sun.

The tubes of your Wild House of Bees are 6" deep, and come from a variety of hollow- or pithy-stemmed locally gathered plants.  I try to use invasive weeds like Fuller's teasel and Japanese knotweed when I can; it's pretty cool when I can tie weed eradication into pollinator conservation so nicely.  The holes range from 1/10 to 1/2" to encourage a variety of bee species to nest here, but most of them are exactly 3/8", the perfect size for mason bees (aka blue orchard bees, Osmia lignaria, the poster child for native bees).  You'll see the mud-capped tubes of mason bees forming in early spring.  Later in summer, other tubes will start to be capped with leaves.  These are the leafcutter bees, Megachile sp.  Who know what else will move in?!  I'm always hoping a solitary wasp will come along and fill the tube with paralyzed spiders.  Backyard ecology is so fun to watch.

So...why be a wild beekeeper?

*Conservation!  By wild beekeeping, you replace nesting sites lost due to habitat destruction, and help conserve our native biodiversity

Blue mason bees have the cutest buns...

*Pollination!  As honeybee populations decline, we rely more on wild bees for pollination.  That means more flowers, more food, and a healthier environment for everybody

*Observation!  Watching wild bees nest year after year is endlessly fascinating, and a great way to learn about local plant and insect ecology.

There's so much to learn about wild bees!  Click here for a handy collection of what I've found to be the most compelling, entertaining and useful resources for wild beekeepers.  To learn more about Wild House of Bees, visit my Frequently Asked Questions page.

Visit Flora montana on Etsy to order your own

Wild House of Bees!

~Happy Bees, Happy World~

Missoula Resources

Our little town has a ton of resources when it comes to wildlife gardening, pollinator conservation and nature education.  I thought it might be helpful to gather up a list, all here in one place, handy dandy.  For those of you in the Missoula area, this is for you.  There are, of course, MANY resources out there dedicated to a larger region or more general audience, but for now I'll try to stick to the ones close to home that I know and love so well...so, I present to you...

Helpful People, Places and Organizations for the Wildlife Gardeners, Nature Lovers and Lifelong Learners of Western Montana 

Native Plants and Garden Supplies

Native Ideals Seeds

Tear up that turfgrass!  The flora of western Montana is incredibly diverse and perfectly suited to grow in our temperamental climate.  Plants native to this region are lower maintenance, will save you on your water and fertilizer bills, and provide food, shelter and nesting sites for backyard wildlife and pollinators.  Most are easy to grow, and will add colorful cheer to your landscape all year long.  Marchie's on South 3rd carries a selection of native plants, as does Caras Nursery.  If you're looking for a place that specializes in natives try:
Blackfoot Native Plants-Kathy Settevendemie's nursery is up in the Potomac, and well worth the trip.  Good blog too.
Native Ideals Seed Farm-Bryce and Rebecca's beautiful farm in the Jocko Valley.  You can find their seeds in retail stores and markets all over Missoula; you'll know them by Courtney Blazon's awesome artwork.
Getting out of town a bit, Southwest Montana Native Landscapes is Catherine Cain's absolutely delightful nursery near Dillon.  I've also heard of Nature's Enhancement in Stevensville, and Windflower Native Plants in West Glacier, but haven't had a chance to visit yet.
Also visit the Naturalist's Mercantile in downtown Missoula.  This new and much-needed shop offers all kinds of goods for nature watching and wildlife study, including a great selection of birding supplies.

Building Materials
So you've got your plants, your seeds are ready to go, and now it's time to do some hardscaping.  Build a winding little path around some raised beds.  Or a birdhouse.  Or a greenhouse.  Your first stop should be Home Resource, the building materials re-use center, where you can usually find anything you need for your projects, and a million things you didn't know you needed besides.  I also like to support Mark VanderMeer's Bad Goat Forest Products, which is dedicated to sustainable forestry practices, and just a great crew to work with.  Pacific Steel & Recycling is a good place to get scrap metal to play with, and they support a whole slew of charitable organizations in the community too.  Of course, you can also go to Ace, Murdoch's, Home Depot or Lowe's as well.  And check out Boyce Lumber if you're looking for something special.  They were the only place in town that carried the cedar shakes I was looking for.  The only place, can you believe it?

Markets

So many markets!  All year long!  Whether you're looking for plants and seeds, garden art, or like-minded folks to spin yarns with, the market is always a good bet.  The mainstay is the downtown Missoula Farmers Market, which runs Saturdays and Tuesdays in the summer.  Right next door is the Missoula Saturday Market of arts and crafts, more popularly known as the People's Market, where you can soak in all the creativity and inspiration western Montana has to offer.  Also on summer Saturday mornings is the Clark Fork River Market at Caras Park, which has the usual fruits-and-veggies farmers market fair, plus local meats, lots of prepared foods, baked goods, some crafts, live music...and mini donuts.  Nom nom nom nom nom.  Caras Park also hosts the Carousal Sunday Market, which is smaller, runs a little later, and is and waaaay less crowded (which suits me just perfect).  If you don't want to come all the way downtown, the Orchard Homes Farmers Market (Thursdays) and Target Range Farmers Market (Sundays) serve the west side of town.  And don't let winter scare you!  The Missoula Winter Market at Mullan & Broadway runs Fri-Sun, October to April, and the Heirloom Winter Market is held Saturdays at the Fairgrounds.  There's also the Missoula MADE Fair, held once each summer and again around Christmas.  The MADE Fair is masterfully put together by Carol Lynn Lapotka of REcreate Designs, and features hundreds of artisans...the best of what Western Montana has to offer.

Organizations
"Missoula has more non-profits per capita than anywhere else in the country," goes the saying.  While I'm not sure that that's exactly true, I do know that we have a TON of incredible organizations that work their asses off to make this community a healthier, happier and safer place.  A few that might help you out on your wildlife gardening adventure:
Montana Native Plant Society-Missoula is in the Clark Fork Chapter.  They have lots of field trips and learning opportunities and really knowledgeable folks who just love botany.  What more could you want? 

Montana Natural History Center-Dedicated to nature education, MNHC offers workshops, naturalist courses, field trips, a cool exhibit room, kids summer camps, and more.  They also do a lot of work with the schools, training the next generation of nature rompers.  A great place to volunteer...help out on a field trip, or a discovery day, or a bird count, and learn something while you give back.  It'll make you feel awesome.
Five Valleys Audubon has a bunch of cool volunteer and learning opportunities.  It's a great way to take part in citizen science, monitoring nest sites or counting migratory birds.  They lead field trips all summer long.
Missoula Urban Demonstration Project (MUD) is the sustainable living organization that's been around forever.  They have a great demonstration site on the Northside where you can take workshops on anything from brewing beer to strawbale construction to car maintenance.  Another excellent place to volunteer.  Members get access to the Truck Share program and the Tool Library, where you can borrow pretty much any tool you can think of.  Sweet deal. 
Missoula Butterfly House is a relatively new insectarium, and has been making a really great impression so far.  They're all about community education, and a great place to learn about pollinators, insect ecology and the endlessly fascinating world of bugs.
Missoula Children & Nature Network is dedicated to building lifelong connections with nature for kids who, with their jam-packed schedules and computers and whatnot, are all-too-often cut off from the natural world.  This is a good place for families to learn about nature exploration opportunities in the community.

Education
With millions of online resources to choose, sometimes the problem is not a lack of information, but rather so much coming at you that it's impossible to wade through.  As far as wildlife gardening and nature study in western Montana, these are the places I find myself coming back to:
Plant Identification:  Missoula's own Peter Lesica wrote the book on the botany of western Montana.  Literally.  He really is the premier authority on the flora of this region, and his Manual of Montana Vascular Plants is dense and thick with taxonomical gold.  But for the casual floraphile, it might be a little heavy. Montana Plant Life is my go-to for plant ID online.  I wish I could figure out who's behind it.  Easy to search, good pictures, good taxonomical info, as well as edibles and medicinals, poisonous plants, weeds, etc.  The list isn't super extensive, but it's a good starting place.  I have a feeling they don't keep the "proper" currently accepted latin names up to date, but you know what?  Neither do I.
I also use the Montana Field Guide, although I find their photos pretty lacking.  When I want to REALLY get to know a plant, I look at the USDA Forest Service species profile.  It's concentrated on wildfire effects, but includes pages and pages of pretty much every single natural history detail you could ever want to know about the species in question.  Fascinating stuff.  The Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center out of Austin is another go-to for wildflower gardening, although it doesn't focus solely on Montana plants.  Also check out this handy Pollinator-friendly Plant List made for Montana gardeners.  And of course, learning about plants means learning about weeds, and the Montana Weed ID page is a good place to start.  Also pick up a copy of Weeds of the West; it's an excellent reference book with helpful pictures.
The Northern Rockies Natural History Guide is a fun online field guide to the plants and animals of this region.  If you want a hard copy field guide, Lone Pine makes the best ones (at least for plants.  Sibley is the one for birds, and Kaufman for insects, in my opinion.  But everyone has their favorites!  Seriously, though.  Lone Pine.)
And speaking of birds, I'm addicted to this WhatBird site.  Find a bird you want to identify, and they help you narrow it down until you've got it.  So easy, so fun.

If you want to learn about our fungal community, check out Montana Mushrooms and the Western Montana Mycological Association.
If you want to learn about our wild bees, go to the MSU Extension Native Bee Guide or the Montana Bee Identification Guide.  Or check out my post on Resources for the Wild Beekeeper, of course!
And while this relates more to growing veggies than native plant gardening, I have to mention the Bokashi Composting that Mike Dalton is doing up in Great Falls.  It's...just...I can't even tell you how cool this stuff is.  Go to his "Gardens from Garbage" page and you'll be hooked.
And finally, if you want an all-around excellent overview of wildlife gardening in Missoula, I cannot recommend David Schmetterling's Montana Wildlife Gardener blog highly enough.  David and his wife, my friend and mentor Marilyn Marler, have created an urban jungle in their small residential yard, teeming with native plants and wildlife.  David's blog is funny, super smart, and chock full of projects that will delight and inspire you.  David and Marilyn also do personal garden consultation through Butterfly Properties Garden Coaching, providing professional advice and expertise focused on creating sustainable landscaping that supports local biodiversity and water conservation.  They're a dream team, and come highly recommended.

So there you have it!  Compiling these resources in one handy spot is an ongoing process, so please, if you have any favorites that I left out, let me know!  We're lucky to live in such a vibrant, energetic community, and with all the awesome stuff people are doing out there, I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg.  

~Oddjob~

~Missoula's Official Ambassador~

HAPPY GARDENING!

Photography for Purchase

Nearly all the photos you see on Flora montana are taken by me, Leah Grunzke, as I saunter and ramble around western Montana. Prints of these and many more are available for purchase.

Western Montana native flora...

 ...and insects...

...and birds...

 ...and wildlife...

...and landscapes...

...and so on, and so forth.
Native plant photography is labeled with date taken, location, genus and species wherever possible.  Looking for a particular species?  Let me know!  Chances are I've bumped into it along the way...hopefully, camera in hand.

High resolution, archival-grade prints are priced as follows, plus S&H:
*5x7" -       $8.00
*8x10" -     $12.00
*11x14" -   $25.00
*20x24" -   $65.00

Any of these prints is also available in a custom wood-block mount.

8x10" block mounts are priced at $40 plus S&H.
To see the full selection of available photos, click the slideshow on the righthand side of the screen.  For details on ordering, just email me at info@floramontana.org