Since the inception of our Care of Creation team in 2019 at Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Stillwater, Minn., one of our major goals has been to install a rain or pollinator garden on our grounds.  Our parking lots have considerable runoff, which led us to an initial focus on a rain garden. In early 2020, we began a conversation with our Property and Grounds Committee. While they expressed limited capacity to take on an additional responsibility, they were nonetheless supportive of our proceeding.

Planned reconstruction by the City of Stillwater of the street and the addition of a walkway adjacent to our property needed to be considered.  Delays by the City as well as the impact of the COVID pandemic slowed our progress. In addition, a new senior residential facility was being constructed adjacent to church property.  A partnership between that facility and our church had impacts for this section of our property. Nevertheless, by January of 2021, we made a firm commitment to develop a rain garden or pollinator garden.

In early 2022 we began conversations with the city of Stillwater regarding the street reconstruction adjacent to the property. An initial concept design became available later that summer. After several changes in the design concept and further delays in the actual construction we decided we needed to wait for the city to complete the project before proceeding. 

In January of 2023 it became clear to us that the city was unable/or unwilling to do any of the construction and landscaping necessary for our rain garden design. And our church was not in a position to pay for the extensive landscaping and grading necessary for a functioning rain garden. Consequently, we made the decision to go with a pollinator garden and selected a 1500 square foot section of lawn adjacent to the parking lot.  Previous plans made with the County Watershed District for a rain garden were redrawn for the pollinator garden.  The County Watershed District was a most valuable resource for the design layout, plant selection and a $750 matching grant.  This grant requires us to maintain the garden for ten years.

Finally in October of 2023 we staked off the garden section and laid down a paver border. We attempted to lay down cardboard as a weed suppressor but found we were unable to adequately secure the cardboard panels. Our Plan B was to wait until spring to do further soil preparation.  In the meantime, we made the decision to select 2-inch potted plants rather than seed the garden plot. This decision was based on a desire to cluster certain plants together rather than to have a random pattern. Recognizing that this was a much more costly direction we knew we had to engage in additional fundraising. We became aware that one of the priorities of the Rotary District 5960, made-up of clubs in eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin, is to support pollinators. A request for assistance to Stillwater Sunrise Rotary resulted in a generous $1000 donation. In conjunction with our April Earth Week celebration, we requested our team members and our congregation to contribute $20 to purchase plants, topsoil, or mulch and successfully realized an additional $1,400 needed for the project.

This April we covered our plot with newspaper followed by three inches of garden topsoil. An earlier soil analysis by the University of Minnesota made it clear that some soil enhancement was necessary. Organic weed treatment and hoeing took place for the next six weeks. On June 7th & 8th, over 1100 native flowers and grasses were purchased and planted followed by the application of woodchip mulch.

Since planting, God has taken care of the weekly watering. Several sections of the garden have already displayed colorful blossoms. Our garden was officially blessed by our congregation after each of our services on July 28th. The seeds of creation care have been sown and conversations have already begun for additional projects to reduce the amount of lawn turf surrounding our church. While it was a five-year-long winding road for this garden, we are confident our future efforts will happen more quickly.