Garden Details
Garden Details
The original design of the St. Francis garden on the North side of the church was to provide bulbs, perennial and annual cutting flowers for church flower decorations. In 2018 a rose garden was added on the South side of the church. This rose garden was recognized by the Portland Rose Society in 2019 winning First Place in Division 11 (Churches, Hospitals, and Schools). The St. Joseph garden was added in 2021, (a church 5 foot statue of St. Joseph) was dedicated and blessed with Stations of the Cross surrounding. This became a meditation garden for prayer and reflection. Flower arrangements from the gardens are used for the church, for events, for small arrangements taken to parishioners in their homes or at Assumption Village, a living assisted care center.
Garden Practices
Garden Practices
We are blessed by parish volunteers who, over the years, have built a memorial bed, 8 raised beds and brick lined borders. A bequest and fund raising campaign provided for a marble pedestal for the statue of St. Joseph and allowed us to create this meditation garden.
Our grounds committee volunteers have dedicated years of work to planting, weeding, pruning and maintaining the gardens. In the beginning of the St. Francis garden, parishioners donated bulbs, perennials and shrubs. In the last few years, the parish has been able to hold plant sales of propagated plants. No chemicals or pesticides are used on the grounds, organic fertilizers only- Holy Cross Catholic schoolchildren are not exposed to any harmful materials.
Extensive plantings of spring bulbs, the original donation of white calla lilies from one of our grounds volunteers have spread to several clumps which are used with love each Easter. Trees: Dogwood, Lilac, Japanese Maples, shrubs: azalea, abelia ,beauty berry, choisya, daphne, hydrangea, kerria, lonicera, nandina, ninebark, Perennials: acanthus, aruncus, astilbe, echinacea, brunnera, clematis, crocosmia, fatsia japonica, foxglove, glads, hellebore, hosta, heuchera, japanese anemone, lavender, liatris, lillies, peonies, perovskia, sarcococca, sedum, solidago, solomon seal, wisteria. Grasses: black mondo grass, japanese forest grass. One of our volunteers plants our zinnia annuals from seed he collects. We have a sunflower garden as a memorial to one of our former parishioners.
Formal rose garden - mix of hybrid and florabunda. One of our volunteers is a rose expert.
We are blessed to have 9 volunteer gardners and 4 ad hoc members who advise and have provided funds for drip irrigation in the raised beds and a section of the garden beds. When we have held bake sales or plant sales, our parishioners have always been extremely supportive and generous.
In another part of campus raised beds were built and vegetables were grown to supplement the food pantry at our St. Vincent de Paul conference.
Additional Information
Additional Information
We volunteers are aging and we are seeking new grounds members. Also, our parish held a fund raising campaign these past few years and a new community center has been built. The building permits required extensive new grounds be planted so new volunteers to maintain those grounds will be needed.
We are always hoping to attract new volunteer gardeners
While 2018 was a special year with the Rose Garden recognized by the Portland Rose Society, the real "success" of the garden beds is the beauty that has been created through the generosity and support of our parish. Our parish gardens are an outreach to our neighbors and part of the work of evangelization. As volunteers, we often have neighbors and visitors compliment the shrubs and flowers and we say to them, with God's help, we try to grow the outside of the church to be as beautiful as the inside, come and see, join us for Mass.
