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Community Lutheran Church
Sterling, Virginia (near Washington, DC)
A Virginia Church and The Boy Scouts Transform Church Grounds to Become a Nature Reserve and Community Garden
By Hudson Dodd, Bellingham, WA
Dandelions Unlimited Volunteer
Creating A Nature Preserve and Garden Amongst Suburban Sprawl
In 1994, the congregation of the Community Lutheran Church of this outlying suburb of the nation's capitol took it upon themselves to transform their church grounds into a nature reserve and community garden.
What had been a vacant five-acre lot of degraded former farmland, pressed on all sides by urban sprawl, became a vibrant ecological community and an important source of fresh produce for poor families. The church's landscape committee coordinated with other community and national groups, including the National Wildlife Federation and the Boy Scouts of America, to create an interpretive nature trail and a vegetable garden—which is tended by inner city youth who get to keep the vegetables and herbs grown for their families.
One of The Last Open Spaces
The church grounds are now one of the last open spaces left in the rapidly growing county, serving as a place for family star-gazing outings, watershed education programs, and Sunday school classes. A sign along the Hedgerow Habitat Trail reads: "The Creeks, Streams, and Rivers that lead to the Chesapeake Bay Connect Us as Neighbors. Love Your Neighbor as Yourself. Matthew 22:39."
Congregation, Boy Scouts and Local Businesses Team Up
The church's landscape committee created a master plan for the property with the help of the National Wildlife Federation. They were able to get most of the native plants and other landscaping materials donated from local businesses (such donations are called “in-kind”). Much of the work was performed by congregation members, along with volunteer help from a local Boy Scout troop, members of which took on projects such as a benches and bridges along the nature trail and a butterfly hibernation box in the meditation garden. Once the congregation decided to add a container garden for vegetables, they reached out to the Urban Family Institute and connected with disadvantaged youth. Now youth from Washington, DC's inner city come to the Sterling Lutheran Community Church to help tend the garden and enjoy the wildlife sanctuary.
Purchasing the Materials
The Sterling Community Lutheran Church was able to get most of the supplies for the nature preserve and hedgerow trail donated by local businesses. Each spring the congregation members buy the seeds and “starts” (young plants ready to put in the ground) for their container gardens at local nurseries and grocery stores.
Tips on Making it Work
The church has had good success reclaiming their underutilized five-acre grounds. Suse Greenstone, the church's landscape committee chair, compiled their experiences and advice into a book published by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America entitled “Earthkeeping Ministries: A New Vision for Congregations.” In it are many other good sources of information on how to turn the grounds at your place of worship into a nature reserve, wildlife habitat, and/or a community garden.
Questions to Consider About Including a Garden or Nature Reserve at Your Place of Worship
1. What size is the property your place of worship owns or rents?
2. How much staff time and how much gas does it take to mow the property's grass?
3. How big of a community garden plot could the property support?
4. How much food could that garden plot produce to donate to the community?
5. How long of a nature trail could be built on the property?
6. How many native species could a restored nature preserve support? How many species of native plants, shrubs, and trees? How many species of native birds?
General Advice For Beginning Your Garden or Nature Preserve
1. When planning your nature reserve, start with what's already there. Is there a wetland, a hedgerow, a rock outcropping, or a stand of trees on the property? Such features are mini-ecosystems and provide habitat for wildlife, and can serve as anchors for your project.
2. When planning your garden, decide what makes the most sense for the congregation: a small vegetable plot tended by hand, a larger vegetable plot tended by tiller, or an assortment of veggie and herb garden containers (pots and planters that can sit on pavement).
3. Start small, so that you and the congregation don't get overwhelmed by the new project. It can be discouraging to plant a garden only to see the plants wilt and the weeds take over due to lack of attention. Get commitments from a few specific members of the congregation or other community groups, so that you know you'll have help once you get started.
What About Urban Places of Worship Without Big Lots?
There are options for gardening in just about any place. The most important thing is picking a place on the property that has good sunlight for most of the day and figuring out a way to get water to the plants (either by hose or by watering can). If there's no patch of ground on the property that gets good sunlight, consider containers set on the sidewalk or pavement. These can be large or small pots or planters that hold one plant each or many. In the springtime, you can try growing plants from seeds in a sunny room with windows inside the place of worship.
Resources
National Wildlife Federation's Schoolyard Habitats Program has lots of good suggestions for community resources for supplies and other groups to partner with to create a backyard nature preserve.
Healthy Families, Healthy Environment (an educational campaign of the Evangelical Environmental Network) has good suggestions on how to start organic gardening and composting.
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