Project Bug Hotel - March 2025

I absolutely love to see and feel the seasons changing, it's getting lighter earlier, and dark later, it's still cold but the promise of life is everywhere, the Snowdrops, the Daffodils, the buds on every tree you look at, and the sunshine is inspiring.

For our March shared Earth there was a clear plan; sort out an over grown patch of wild Raspberry's, create a spot for our wormery, and build a Bug Hotel! Conveniently, all 3 of these tasks were in the same spot, just outside our poly tunnels, so we were able to divide our efforts, while still working as a close team, which enabled us to chat and laugh together, and be productive at the same time, which was wonderful.

We always start our Shared Earth (On colder days) with freshly ground coffee and some kind of home made snack in the poly tunnel around 9:30am. Followed by a welcome chat, tool box talk and aims for the day. Kristy and I are always up early, baking those snacks (which today was Tahini cookies) preparing flasks of hot drinks, setting up and ensuring we have all the required materials and tools ready. When I first got out in the morning, there was a frost on the ground and where ever the morning sun touched, it sparkled beautifully. We were a small team this month, with two of our 'regulars' who both completely get what we are about and how we like to work, so it was easy to get into the flow, and quickly see exciting results.

The wild raspberry's were one of the first things we planted when we moved here, but over the years, and through a touch of neglect on our part, the area had become overgrown in grasses and bramble. So, it was time for a complete clear and rejuvenating of the area. Right next to raspberry patch, was the area we had picked out to site our wormery, and bug hotel. We've attempted a wormery in the passed, but for whatever reason, not had great success, so we were determined to get it right this time. And a bug hotel is something I'd been wanting to build somewhere on the land for ages, so it was fantastic to get my teeth into that.

We always have a supply of pallets around the place. We love up-cycling pallets, as they are so versatile. You can either use them as they come or break them up for the timber to build many different things. (Watch this space for Project: Mud Kitchen, coming soon) I had done a bit of research into bug hotels, from books and the internet so had a design in mind. I'd also been collecting materials for a few weeks. A lot of these materials, I was able to source from the land, such as fallen leaves, wood chip mulch, twigs, sticks and logs. Punky rotten chunks of wood, stones and rocks. But other stuff I wanted to incorporate included, old roof and flooring tiles, broken old terracotta pots, brown packing paper and toilet roll inner tubes! I was excited, and keen to get cracking. I planned to 'Stack & Stuff' the pallets as I went along with all the materials I had to hand, and I managed to find a few lovely sticks that were covered in sphagnum moss and fungus's such as turkey tail and scarlet elfcup, these added a wonderful array of colours into the mix.

I wanted our bug hotel, to also attract other wildlife, so I left space clear in the base pallet to install a hedgehog box at a later date and I was also able to install into a higher level, and old birds nest I'd found and saved while at work the previous year, I placed it inside one of the pallets, and packed around it with insulating materials, keeping it accessible to birds, while still hidden and protected from wind and rain. Fingers crossed a robin or some other species of small bird find and use it.

Finally, I wanted our bug hotel to have a green roof, so I made sure the top pallet did not have gaps between the panels, built a surround for it, and filled it with soil, and just for the hell of it, planted a few strawberry plants we had kicking around in pots!

Meanwhile, Kristy had been clearing an area next to and around the bug hotel to create a path, and install the wormery. This, she lined with stones and then layed wood chip to line the path. All at the same time as cooking a wonderful dinner for everyone and taking countless photos of everyone else busy.

As we finished up for the day we could feel the temperature dropping quickly and were all very satisfied and looking forward to a wholesome hot dinner.