The Golden Rectangle can be particularly helpful in establishing the most pleasing dimensions for flowerbeds, lawns, and arbors.  The rectangle that you see in the Southwest Literature Garden, and in the image below, has the property that each time a square is removed, another golden rectangle of the same proportion remains.  A Golden rectangle is a rectangle whose length to width ratio is equal to the golden ratio of approximately 1.618.(1)

What Are Mason Bees?

Mason bee refers to a species of solitary bee in the genus Osmia. They do not live in colonies. They are commonly called masons because of their nesting habits, in which they use mud and other materials associated with masonry to build their homes.  They do not produce honey.

Mason bees are known to be one of the most important and effective polinators and have very different foraging techniques compared to non-native European honeybees.  Mason bees are chaotic and crash into flowers while rubbing their abdomen all over the blooms covering the scopa hairs either on the leg or on the underside of the abdomen.  Mason bees fly closer to home, usually little more than one hundred meters. Because of this, they do not need pollen baskets and can afford to lose a few grains of pollen on the flight back to the nest. The advantage of having scopa hairs that can readily pick up and brush off pollen grains combined with the mason bee’s erratic method of jumping from flower to flower is the perfect combination for superior cross-pollination.