The Sierra Club's Southwind Group will meet at the gardens at First Unitarian Universalist Church of Wichita in September. These gardens are maintained by a group of gardening volunteers who navigate a surprising number of demands and constraints while keeping the gardens as beautiful as possible.
The gardens are part of the public facing view of the church. They have to be presentable and attractive, not neglected, overgrown, or dead. Part of the gardens known as "Betty's Place" is used by the children's group on Sunday mornings. It features landscaping that encourages children to interact with nature, e.g. walk barefoot along a path that features different textures for their feet to experience, listen to wind-chimes, play on a stage, or grow tomatoes, herbs, or squash to learn where food comes from. The gardens are pollinator friendly and are designated as a monarch migration waystation.
Unitarian Universalists uphold some of the same ideals as Sierra Club members. That includes an awareness of the harm done by many commercial pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides. Gardening at First UU does not use any of these.
Last year the gardening group was watering parts of the garden during the hottest part of the summer. This ensured a beautiful look and enables a connection to nature that is cherished not just by the children in Betty's Place but also by members of the Pagan group within First UU as well as many others. But this year there are watering restrictions in effect due to the drought Wichita experienced the first five months this year. Although Cheney reservoir is essentially full after the rains the Wichita area experienced in June, the city wisely did not lift the watering restrictions.
It has always been a good idea to plant native plants, plants that are resistant to the possibility of drought, plants that represent the native land that we are on. However, sometimes this conflicts with the desire to have plants that feed pollinators early in the year, during summer, and into the fall. What are the options? What plants will thrive? How much care do they require? Surely some of the wisdom of the First UU gardeners will be of interest to some of us Sierra Club members. In September we will have an opportunity to talk about all the nitty gritty of planning a garden and then maintaining it, about the different constraints that impact what is feasible, and about what wildlife has been observed buzzing around the flowers.
~by Southwind Group ExCom member Holger Meyer
As always, we will start with a Zero Waste potluck at 6:30 pm. Bring your favorite dish to share and enjoy conversation with fellow Sierrans.
Also check out other Food & Drink events in Wichita.
