At Woodland, we often talk about how God’s first mandate was for us to care for the earth and the animal kingdom. So this summer, as part of our commitment to creation care, we’re replacing ash trees on our property, and spiffing up the north end with a rain garden—the largest in Maplewood!
Paul Eddy, our Teaching and Theological Resource Pastor, says, “What we know is rain runoff from parking lots like ours picks up pollutants that end up in our local waterways, which is not good for the environment. We’re going to take a big part of our north end parking lot, which we don’t use much, and create a rain garden there. This allows runoff water to hit the garden area where the soil acts as a filter and keeps a lot of pollutants out of local waters.”
Not only is this good for the environment, but it will also enhance our tiny home display. For the past five years, we’ve used the homes in our parking lot as a model to invite churches, community members and city officials to catch a vision of what a Sacred Settlement can look like.
Janice Rohling, our Executive Pastor, explains, “With the rain garden wrapped around the settlement, our hope is that we can create even more awareness. By modeling how to care for creation, and wrapping it around these tiny homes that model how to care for people, we’re hoping to create momentum and new ideas.”
Keep an eye out as the parking lot transforms!
Omg, I absolutely love this idea
Responsibility is definitely something I’d like the church to be known for 💙💙💙
I love this idea! I’ve been wishing WH would have a pollinator friendly area somewhere on all that acreage. Finally there will be something like this! Please consider planting swamp milkweed to support monarch butterflies, which rely exclusively on milkweed plants for survival.
Yes to the swamp milkweed! I would also recommend this, as well as connecting with someone who has awareness about native plants that work well in rain gardens so we are supporting our native species as much as possible. There are some really beautiful options! Where the elevation is higher around the rain garden, is it possible to grow a community vegetable garden in the spring/summer/fall?
Hey Aimee,
As far as vegetable gardens, we’re consulting with designers from watershed district and a top priority is low maintenance, so we are not planning a vegetable garden to begin with. Thanks for your enthusiasm!
—Emily from the Communications Team
SO EXCITED for this! I really hope there will be volunteer opportunities in the future for maintaining the plants, weeding, etc!
I do like the idea of a rain garden. We are hoping to add a small one at my house as well. I also like the idea of trying to filter some of the pollutants from our parking lot, like Paul Eddy said, “What we know is rain runoff from parking lots like ours picks up pollutants that end up in our local waterways, which is not good for the environment”. Unfortunately, most of our parking lots slope away from the north end of the building. If we ever re-do our parking lots, maybe we could consider additional rain gardens along the west side of the property. 🙂