(upbeat rhythmic music) >>As I enjoy this beautiful day in the garden, I can't help but think about our native bees and insects.

The insect population is on the decline, and we all know that they play an important role in our ecosystem; that includes our gardens.

Yes, our gardens are manmade ecosystems and it's up to us to help.

So, the first thing I want to do on my list is to put up a mason bee habitat.

This is a purchased habitat for mason bees who like to find tubular structures to lay their eggs.

So I've chosen a spot where I can hang this.

You gotta think either south or east-facing.

So I'm choosing an east-facing direction.

I've already pre-drilled the holes, so this will make this easy and you don't need a lot of tools to do this.

Anybody can do this.

Our mason bees are actually very good pollinators.

In fact, they are more efficient pollinators than the European honeybee.

Now I've got a spot for when the mason bees are looking to lay their eggs.

Hopefully, somebody will find it and I will have a new crop of bees next season.

Now that I have this up, I'm gonna move on to another project.

And this project should not cost you anything.

Most gardeners have all the materials on hand.

In this section of the garden, I do not frequent very often.

So it would be a great area to put in a insect habitat.

Just walk around and you can gather branches.

And we're gonna just start laying them in, creating little pockets for different insects to maneuver around.

And you can also use leaves, stems from your cut perennials in your garden beds.

And we can just break this down and just stack this in.

Now, doing this, this will give not only shelter, but it also will provide food and places for these insects to lay their eggs to carry on their life cycles.

And with it being in a section of the garden that I don't do a lot of work in, it is great that these insects will have a spot that they're not disturbed.

So, simply just stack these areas.

(branches rustling) (birds chirping) And it's simple enough.

And I hope everyone will take advantage of a small area in their garden to provide a habitat for insects.

It doesn't have to take a lot of space, and you more than likely have the materials on hand.

So we can all do our part to help the insect population and just take up a little space in our garden and provide a habitat for them.