Guide to Pollinator Insects

Created with Dr Manu Saunders, this is a glovebox guide to some of the common pollinator insects for our area. We appreciate the support of the Slopes to Summit partnership and Murray Local Land Services that enabled the first version of this publication and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Environment in Victoria, with North East and Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authorities, who enabled the production of this second edition.

You might also like to visit the Wild Pollinator Count website for more news and information about Australia's many pollinator insects. And you can join in, by counting insects at your place!

Bee hotel fact sheet

‘Bee hotels' are artificial nesting sites for native bees and other visitors. This fact sheet shows you how to create a bee hotel and some of the factors to consider when doing so. 

You might also like to check out the various posts about what goes on at our bee hotels.

Make native bee blocks

Created as part of a kit for making native bee blocks during covid.

Some tips here for making and placing your mud bee block. Blue banded bees (and others) use these blocks at my place, and I enjoy watching their antics.

Wicking beds

Wicking beds are essentially self watering pots - often on a larger scale.  At last count, we had about 20 square metres of growing space at our place across a bunch of different wicking vessels. While by no means the 'best' option in all situations, we've found them valuable for enabling food production (and keeping plants alive!) through our hot summers, overcoming the need to water daily during hot spells and offering a solution to some issues such as contaminated soil and root invasion.

Here you can grab a compilation of some fact sheets I've created on wicking beds.
Or skip over to the Seed Savers Albury-Wodonga site to read more about:

• some community wicking projects; and/or

• watch a time lapse of wicking bed construction.