Humans aren't the only creatures who use hotels (7 photos)

Visitors to Mill Market will now notice a new garden planted outside the building's main entrance.

Saturday marked the official launch of the Northern Community Pollinator Garden, a joint project between Mill Market, Entomica and the Canal District Community Garden, helped out with a $3,000 contribution from World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Canada.

The garden includes various types of plants which depend on pollinators, such as bees, for fertilization.

Most of the world's plants depend on pollinators to survive.

"It's a demonstration garden for people to learn about the importance of pollinators such as bees, then imitate it in their own gardens at home," said Selina Hunt, Mill Market program development coordinator.  

Jordan Wettlaufer, Canal District Community Garden events coordinator, was on hand to display different types of 'bee hotels' for people to build in their gardens.

As many of us know, bees have been dying off in alarming numbers in recent years, due to certain pesticides and a variety of other factors, such as pollution given off by heavy industry, as well as mites and fungi.

"They (the bee hotels) give a habitat for solitary bees, a place for them to hibernate and lay eggs," Wettlaufer said.

"We're grateful to Clean North for donating their Christmas tree mulch and bring it to the market for our project, and we had a huge amount of volunteer activity with the garden, which is really amazing," Wettlaufer said.

Signage (for the garden's plants) was made by Paramount Saddlery's Christian Lowe.

"It's been a really collaborative project," Hunt said.

Art Gallery of Algoma (AGA) staff were also on hand at the Pollinator Garden booth Saturday with arts and crafts available and fun activities for children.