As the 2023 growing season winds down, Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Outing is celebrating the first successful season of its pollinator garden.

The plot is located next to the church on the west side of State Highway 6, north of Outing. The area has been designated for a raised pollinator garden by the church council based on the recommendation of the Creation Care Committee. Technicians from the Crow Wing County regional Soil & Water District. surveyed the site, gave a detailed cost estimate, & provided the committee with a list of recommended plantings . The OSLC congregation raised over $1,700 dollars from congregation member donations and were matched by the regional Land & Waters Board of the regional SWD. Cass County Construction, a local construction company, donated black dirt for the pollinator garden.

In late May, members of the Creation Care Committee, as well as volunteers from the congregation, put together the garden perimeter frame, planted 25 different grasses and flowering. Four and a half cubic yards of low maintenance landscaping mulch was filled around the plantings to impede weeds and give the plantings a bit of pop.

The forces of nature did not stop the growth of weeds, however. The summer was spent by CC Committee members diligently, and delicately extracting weeds in the plot. Our efforts involved a learning curve to differentiate what were our native plantings, and were actual weeds ‘resembling’ our intended plantings.

Watering was another priority, of special concern with the dry conditions throughout the summer of 2023. Committee members took their turns at garden watering, but ultimately realized the mulch was doing its job as well! We also learned that the plants and grasses are drought hearty, and once set in place and established their root systems, watering was not as critical an issue. We were advised by others who have travelled the path of planting a pollinator garden, that we should be patient; the garden will take time to develop. Candidly, we are thrilled with what we have seen in our first year!

To place a proverbial jewel in the crown of the garden, we have installed a bench in the shadow of the Our Savior’s Church sign. For about a year and a half, the local Lions Club organization has partnered with the Trex Company, an eco-friendly maker of composite decks. The lions Club has placed deposit boxes in locations around Emily, Outing, and Fifty Lakes communities. Residents can recycle plastic film that’s used for shopping bags, produce bags, product over wrapping. The Trex Company gathers the recycled materials, rather than sending it to the landfills, and creates its decking materials. In the 18 months that the program has operated in our area, the Lions Club in working up on its 15th bench, amounting to over 7,000 pounds of plastic!

Our Savior’s will celebrate Creation Care Sunday on October 8, with hymns readings and a message regarding care of our North Woods home. Following the service, attendees will process to the pollinator garden for a service of blessing.