Frustrating. Tedius. Futile. Inconvenient. Dirty. Inaccessible.

Are these the words that come to mind for you when you think about gardening?

What about: Whimsical? Frivolous? Inefficient? Chaotic?

Something that’s fun for the kids to do but there’s no way I have time for in my life?

Maybe you have a more positive perspective and the words you think of are: Nourishing. Invigorating. Exciting. Fascinating. Immersive. Life Giving. Soul Fueling. 

Wherever you land in the word association bubble when you think of gardening, you are correct. Much like Life, our relationship with nature can be challenging, and it encompasses all things, positive and negative. And, much like Life, when we try to do it all alone, it can be so much harder. 

Over the past few years, our Hamline Church has experimented with what the best strategy for maintaining our wonderful gardens and grounds should be. From paying maintenance personnel, to organizing volunteer days, to stalwart individuals taking it upon themselves to do what they can for the grounds. None of them have been perfect, yet the established plant life continues to flourish and cycle through the seasons regardless, thanks to one principle that proves itself to be true over and over again, that in spite of endless challenges, “Life, uh, finds a way.” 

This past summer (May-August 2026), we tried a new approach. Combining our creation care principles and intentional small group model, we planned and implemented bi-weekly gardening sessions to tend to and care for the church grounds and gardens, especially focusing on the east side lands, AKA the Greenway. Our goal, to more actively engage in relationship with the land and with each other. 

There is a constancy to life, the spiritual world, and the turning of the Earth. We can choose to ignore this higher power that continues on without deterrence, or we can choose to engage with it. We can decide whether or not to be in relationship with God. We can choose to engage with our inner world or to ignore it.  And we can choose whether we get to know our neighbors, the people in our community, and our family members, or whether we pretend they don’t exist, or even worse, mistreat them.

Maybe you’ve tried doing things one way or another. And if you’re reading this blog post, you’ve probably already figured out that approaching life with passivity, ignorance, and anger, doesn’t work. Or at least, it doesn’t grant you a life you can feel good about. 

Bringing all of this back to gardening, I bet you didn’t think that weeding could be a spiritual practice? Well, that’s exactly what we found it could be with our summer creation care small group. Every other week we gathered in the long shadows of the warm evenings, took some time to check in with each other over a pot luck meal, and then got to work on removing invasive plants, pruning back overgrown trees and shrubs, and dreaming about the future of the grounds.

As we worked, we shared stories, jokes, and tools, all while marveling at how “these thistles are everywhere!” We admired the plants that we loved, the cute and fuzzy bumblebees, and each other’s work ethic and strength. And I think it’s also important to mention that there were times during the group, where we did not talk! We just dove in, and gave our effort side by side. Sometimes the idea of sitting in a circle for small group discussions can sound intimidating to folks. But because we were actively engaged with a physical activity at these groups, it eased some of the social pressure one might feel in a typical small group setting. We got our hands dirty together and in showing up for the local ecosystem, we showed up for each other too. 

Because of the consistency of our work sessions, the Greenway and surrounding gardens looked better this summer than they have for years and the excitement about forming a consistent land stewardship crew and developing a more robust ecosystem on the grounds grew within our hearts.

By showing up for the land, we experienced first hand how much it already shows up for us. And by doing it together, we strengthened the bonds of community. 

In addition to all of this we learned a lot from each other! Some folks that participated in the group knew nothing about gardening, and some knew a bit more. Yet by the end of the summer, we all understood one thing; that just as challenges in our lives will always continue to pop up, weeds also just keep growing back. So when we make a commitment to support one another, or to repair and reconcile with past harms, we need to do it with consistency. We need to come back. We need to keep showing up.

Moving into the future, we know there is a path towards establishing a hyperlocal ecosystem on our grounds that is not only beautiful to observe, but nourishing to engage with, and will feed our community both literally and spiritually. We know we can get there, and we are taking the first steps. You -yes, YOU- are invited to come along!

As we discover what this creation-care-land-stewardship-garden-crew-thing will look like over the next year, we welcome you to engage in the process! You don’t need to know the first thing about gardening, and you don’t need to be good at socializing either. All you need to do is show up. You will never know what the life force of the land has to teach you until you take the time to listen. And you never know what connections you might make along the way unless you walk the path. 

Show up for the Earth. Show up for your community. Show up for yourself. 

Thanks for being here,

Stephanie Engebrecht

Volunteer member of the Hamline Church Earthkeepers, Sacred Reckonings, Children’s Ministry, and Garden Ministry Teams

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We announce garden ministry work days and opportunities periodically. We will have at least two more this October before the wintertime hits, and we plan to have a few get togethers over the winter for planning and seed sowing and sharing.  Next spring we welcome you to take part and join us in taking active steps towards building a healthier relationship with our lands and and wider community. <3