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Bees help increase the productivity of the garden, so it pays to encourage them to enter your space. Sophie built a large bee "hotel" a few years ago, but she also added some smaller "B&Bs"-this is sometimes a better way to provide bee habitat, because it is unlikely to attract predatory bees insect.

There are more than 1,600 species of native bees in Australia, and there is no accommodation size suitable for everyone, so Sophie created three different styles of "boutique" bee-level hotels. 

Don't forget to plant a bee restaurant full of pollen-rich plants to attract bees to your garden first!

Resin bees, leaf-cutting bees, and carpenter bees all build nests on hollow, dead stems, branches, or trunks. In nature, this may be a spike of grass or a dragon fruit tree trunk, but you can replicate it by tying the hollow stems together. 

Leaf-cutting bees, resin bees, wasp mimetic bees, and masked bees may build nests in The Block, a wooden block with holes.

The blue ribbon bee is a brick and mortar type! They nest in clay-rich soil, and they will even nest among the broken mortar in your house. Sophie will make mud bricks for this species. 

Shot in Peramangk Country | Adelaide, South Australia

Josh visited a native bee expert to learn how to make it easier for our native garden friends to enter the garden

Sophie seeks the help of an insect expert to find out how most creepy reptiles become popular garden allies rather than scary things

Jerry Coleby-Williams explained what plants would attract pollinators and began to build a new garden bed that would bring more to his productive backyard

Emmaline explores the diverse world of insects to discover what we can do to nurture these key backyard pollinators

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