Project Description
Church Ground and Spaces
Note: The following lists are by no mean exhaustive. They are instead the starting points to stimulate thinking for possibility and feasibility in your church settings. Any link external to A Rocha Canada and its sister organizations does not represent our endorsement to the particular organizations, their agendas, programs or materials.
General Ideas
Supporting Canadian faith communities in being environmental stewards within their local communities, connecting them with opportunities and resources
Green Churches Network Canada – Action on Grounds
Tips ranging from ground keeping, gardening, roof and walls, exterior lighting, parking, to natural habitats
A Rocha UKβs Eco Church Resources – Land
Anglican Diocese of Auckland, New Zealand
This fantastic booklet, Flourishing Life on Church LandsΒ lays out a proactive approach and encourages churches to explore ways in which land under their stewardship could be used to enhance native biodiversity. While the information around ecology within this booklet relates specifically to the regions within the diocese β Northland, Auckland and Coromandel, the guide and principles are applicable to the Canadian context. This guide offers a range of suggestions and ideas for the way we manage our grounds and gardens to encourage biodiversity and connection. There are case studies of ministry units to illustrate some of what is already happening in this area and the potential for further action.
Canadian churches can certainly draw from the experience and inspiration from the New Zealanders.
What is a Laudato Si’ Garden?
Flowing from the Laudato Siβ Action Platform and grounded in Catholic Tradition and in biblical teaching, gardens are both spiritual and tangible expressions of our desire to join with nature and God. Creating gardens is an act of atonement that can heal our past sins of overconsumption, environmental injustice and racism, and can bring us closer to the vision of integral ecology in Laudato Siβ.
A Laudato Si’ Garden strives to create and renew green spaces that:
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- Create space for prayer, wonder and celebration of Creation, bringing people together to express our love for God and our neighbors
- Enhance local biodiversity with native plants and pollinator gardens to promote integral ecology
- Grow food gardens to provide fresh produce for those in need, connect people to their culture and root them in community
Living Chapel –Β Laudato Si’ Gardens – A Global Movement
The Archdiocese of Chicago – Laudato Si’ Gardens – General Introduction and Guide
The Parish of Aberystwyth, Walse – βLaudato Siβ garden project
Community Gardens
The Plot Thickens – This is a training manual from a training series, by A Rocha Canada, on how to start a community garden in your church land
Food for the Hungry Canada – Gardening guide
Based in Bristol, UK, the Hazelnut Community is an initiative inspiring and empowering churches to use their land to βdeepen worship, welcome their community, and combat climate breakdownβ with planting gardens. The platform provides resources, training, regular support, and special events for churches to establish their church-based gardens
Membership is required.
Composting doβs and donβts (David Suzuki Foundation)
Composting (Eco Church NZ, A Rocha Aotearoa New Zealand) – Tips for churches to make composting as a great way to deal with food scraps and also green waste. While the examples mentioned are for New Zealand, the principles are applicable to Canadian context.
Pollinator Gardens
Pollinator Partnership Canada –Β Planting Guides – Selecting Plants for Pollinators – for all eco-regions in Canada
Bee City Canada –Β Plant a Pollinator GardenΒ
Toronto Zoo –Β Pollinator Plant GuideΒ
David Suzuki Foundation –Β What native plants attract pollinators in Ontario?Β
David Suzuki Foundation – What native plants attract pollinators in British Columbia?
City of Calgary – Backyard Gardening for Pollinators
Pollinator Partnership Canada
Upper Thames River Conservation Authority – Gardening with Native Plants
Rain Gardens
Toronto and Region Conservation Authority
A Complete Guide to Building and maintaining a rain garden – A rain garden is a landscaped feature that replaces an area of your lawn in order to collect the stormwater (rain and melted snow) that runs off your grass, roof and driveway. This shallow depression has loose, deep soil that absorbs and naturally filters the runoff, preventing it from entering the storm drain system and, eventually, our waterways.
National Environmental Treasure
After a rainfall, water is often absorbed by soil where it hydrates plants or trickles into underground aquifers. But itβs a different story in urban areas. Large parts of the planet are covered in concrete, asphalt and other impervious surfaces (aka, materials that donβt absorb liquid). With very little exposed soil, water that runs off roads, parking lots, sidewalks and roofs called stormwater, can damage city infrastructure and flood neighbourhoods.
Whatβs more, as water rushes towards storm drains, it picks up various urban pollutants like oil, pesticides and other contaminants, which pollute waterways and cause ecological degradation in aquatic ecosystems. Agriculture also strains the earthβs natural systems. Converting forests and grasslands to farmland causes erosion since many different crop types cannot hold topsoil in place as effectively as native vegetation. As a result, stormwater can carry away fertile and vital topsoil. But solutions inspired by nature can help mitigate the negative effects of stormwater runoff while also supporting local biodiversity.
One such solution is rain gardens. Considered a nature-based solution (also called natural climate solutions), this blue-green infrastructure functions in much the same way as a forest ecosystem. As sunken spaces made up of native plants, rocks and specialized soil containing organics, sand and mulch, rain gardens are designed to mimic the systems taking place in nature. As water runs off nearby parking lots and roads, rain gardens slow and absorb water flow. With the help of plants, they even filter out pollutants. Theyβre essentially traps that reuse and optimize rainwater.
Green Communities Canada
Rain Garden Master Class and Tour – Rain gardens are a beautiful landscape feature and a form of green infrastructure design that offer a low cost and nature-based solution to manage stormwater runoff in urban areas. Traditional stormwater infrastructure (pipes and drains) directs stormwater runoff into our rivers and lakes, causing harm to aquatic ecosystems and leading to poor water quality. Rain gardens capture water that runs off of hard surfaces, such as driveways and rooftops, and allows it to infiltrate back into the soil where the deep root systems of native wildflowers can then filter and remove pollutants.
Green Communities Canada has supported individuals, organisations, businesses, and municipalities in adopting and building their own rain gardens since 2016.