What do you do when you have squatters living on your property?
They moved in without me noticing, at least not until they were well settled in.
Donna didn’t notice, either. She didn’t even know they were there until I discovered them and told her about it.
That was late in the spring, and they must have been there for some time before that.
And Sam and Pippin – fine watch dogs that they are – never made a sound, not when they first moved in, and not a peep since.
They can take vocal umbrage when folks walk by the house on the wrong side (our side) of the street, but apparently weren’t the slightest bit interested when the squatters took up residence in a building out back.
Okay, it’s not really a building per se. It’s more like a compost bin.
Okay, it’s exactly like a compost bin.
It’s a compost bin.
An entire family of bumblebees (did you know they used to be called dumbledores, just like the headmaster at Hogwarts?) moved into one of the compost bins behind the garden.
The thing is, it was full of compost at the time – still is, in fact – and I’d like it back.
I didn’t spend an entire fall and winter nurturing an entire bin of compost to nutritious perfection to have it locked up by a bumblebee nest.
But on the other hand, I can’t say I got a lousy bargain out of it: one of my compost bins in exchange for a nest full of hardworking bees busily buzzing throughout my garden, pollinating everything from pumpkins to pole beans.
There has been a modest resurgence of the honeybee population here over the past few years, although the numbers still are nothing like they were a couple of decades ago.
And my efforts to cultivate a welcome atmosphere for mason bees, leafcutters, hoverflies, and their pollinating ilk have been paying off. But s’truth, the word “modest” still applies.
So you can’t imagine my delight when I stuck my shovel into a pile of compost and discovered that I’d tickled the outside edge of a very substantial nest of bumblebees.
But now, as fall approaches, I’m back to my opening question: what do you do when you have squatters living on your property?
How do I convince them to take up permanent residence?
