St. Michael’s church is situated on high ground at the center of a residential city block. On two sides our property borders residential gardens and on the other two sides the borders are formed by streets (Bellefonte Road and Libby Lane). Hedges keep the streets invisible from the building and despite its high location our property feels secluded.
There are over 80 ornamental trees on our property. Some were planted recently, but most date to the early 1990s when the current sanctuary was built. These are now entering the stage of their maturity, and we have reason to be grateful for the foresight of those parishioners and church leaders who, during the planning and construction of our sanctuary almost 20 years ago, allocated significant funds to landscaping.
Every spring, our church grounds come alive with the blossoms of 5 Dogwoods, 4 Redbuds, 2 Serviceberries, a Flowering Cherry and a Crabapple tree. A significant number of Hemlocks, Junipers and Pines provide year-round screening. Three Tulip Poplars will grow into very stately trees over time. Five lovely clumps of Riverbirches line the driveway from Libby Lane into our main parking lot. Ten Red Maples at the front of our building and along our sidewalks put out spectacular color late in fall, and their show gets better every year as the tree canopies expand. Since almost all our trees are still young, they will be a great asset to our congregation into the distant future, and for that reason they deserve our care and protection.
From April to October every year, our four flower gardens attract attention. The courtyard, located between the church building and the parish house, is a quiet enclosed space where beds of perennial flowers and shrubs surround a brick pavement. Benches and chairs invite parishioners and visitors to sit for a moment of quiet reflection or for conversation. A fountain adds its sound to the peaceful atmosphere, and a small statue of St. Francis keeps watch over the garden.
Our most challenging landscape site is a long island in the main parking lot planted with trees, shrubs, grasses and flowers. Due to the heat-producing effect of the surrounding asphalt, only drought tolerant plants will survive here, and even they need an occasional boost of extra water during our hot dry summers. The plants in the island are diverse and are designed to complement each other in shape, texture and color. Ornamental grasses and shrubs, which retain their structures above ground during winter, protect the bed from being stepped on by those who hurry from their car to the church door.
From the back door of our church building, located on the south side, a path leads through another perennial flower bed down a slope to a second parking lot off Libby Lane. In this bed a succession of bloom, beginning with Tulips in spring and ending with purple Asters in fall, provides an ever changing vista for those who enter or leave the church through this door. At the bottom of the slope a bed of tall native flowers, most of them in the gold and purple range, leans against a wall. This bed is spectacular from mid summer to early fall.
In addition to these four perennial flower beds, we maintain a small cutting bed for altar flowers, and in the spring of 2008 we began to plant the detention basin in front of our church with native grasses, flowers and shrubs to create a rain garden. This latter project has been a huge undertaking, and more work needs be done on it in 2009. Currently we are relandscaping both the grassy slopes on the front side and the back side of the sanctuary to break up the large uninterrupted areas of turf with clumps of trees and shrubs.
Our gardens and grounds are under the care of the Buildings and Grounds Committee. Maintaining our large property requires a great deal of work -- weeding, mulching, planting, pruning and mowing – most of it done by parish volunteers.
