My name is Leah Grunzke, and I am a plant geek.
My enthusiasm for the green and growing world of Montana has led me down many a twisting backroad, from the river's bottom to the mountain ridges, and eventually right here to this page. After receiving a degree in Horticultural Science from Montana State University, I spent the following decade studying native plants of the Rocky Mountains, working with nonprofit organizations on conservation outreach, developing plant-based curriculum for schools and informal science education programs, and exploring the dynamics and patterns of the natural world. Over the years, as my understand of plant ecology grew, I developed an unshakable fascination with plant-insect relationships. Of this, my love of bees was born.
I started making wild bee houses to accompany workshops on backyard pollinator conservation, to spread the word about the hundreds of species of native bees that live in every corner of the globe. These docile wild bees play a huge role in pollinating our fruit and vegetable crops and preserving our native plant biodiversity. Helping provide habitat for these hard little workers is easy and endlessly fascinating.
I build my wild bee houses out of salvaged bits of lumber, tapping together otherwise unusable odds and ends into unique and whimsical frames, and fill them with locally harvested, hollow-stemmed plant materials. The bees love them. I hope you do to.
If you're interested in checking out some of my Montana backroad adventures, please visit my photography page... http://floramontana.artistwebsites.com
Thanks, and all the best,
~Leah