Suffice to say, there’s a distinct buzz about the place at Our Saviour Lutheran church on No. 4 Road, close to Granville Avenue.
But it’s not coming courtesy of any words of wisdom from its pastor, Christoph Reiners.
Nope, instead, the excitement is emanating from a brand new pollinator garden that has just been planted next to the church’s parking lot by the congregation.
“Even when we were planting, there was a giant bumble bee just dying to get in there,” said the church’s Bev Krisch about the garden they hope will attract thousands of bees and other pollinators.
“We are all very excited about it and we can’t wait to plant even more out there.”
After laying down around 10 yards of soil in the 1,000 feet or so garden last week, the volunteers planted lavender, calendula and perennial geraniums, along with shasta daisies, bee balm, a hazelnut tree, short sunflowers, purple cone flowers and milkweed to attract monarch butterflies.
“It started last year with me and my friend Eva Harris, as we were walking along Bath Slough,” added Krisch.
“I hadn’t been down there for a while and I was just amazed to see that a pollinator garden had been created there. The two of us were so excited.
“We thought, what could we do and we thought of our big garden out the back of the church. We thought we could absolutely do something for our neighbourhood.”
As well as the Bath Slough garden, Our Saviour’s offering to the bees was inspired by other similar gardens across the city.
“We hope to make a difference in our neighbourhood and the farms nearby,” said Krisch.
