Building a Dream: Community Crossroads memorial garden

Kelly Ware looks out over the bare, sandy soil behind Crossroads Christian Church and sees a vision of a lovely garden of fruit and berry trees.

It will be a place of remembrance for God’s gifts, and will help memorialize loved ones.

Right now, though, there’s just some bare ground and some logs thrown about, marking where Ware’s idea for a garden will be.

The Memorial Prayer Garden at Crossroads Christian Church is actually a “permaculture food forest” that will be planted with trees on top of mounds of organic matter.

Ware is just starting to get the project going and has laid the groundwork for the garden with logs and flagging. There’s much to be done. She’s asking people to drop off clean yard waste like tree clippings, manure, leaves and brush — anything organic that will help build the four- to eight-feet-tall permaculture mounds. She asks that the clippings not be treated with chemicals. She is having a work party on May 5 and Memorial Day to get the clippings and debris spread around. People can drop off their yard waste any time, though, in the location behind Crossroads Church one mile north of Bigfork.

The permaculture forest will be a mix of native plants along with what Ware calls “proven exotics” that will create a self-sustaining food forest. It will take more than 10 years for the project to begin feeding people in earnest, but in the meantime she hopes it will fill peoples’ spirits by memorializing loved ones with a planted tree.

Ware recently looked out over the snow-covered Swan Mountains behind a newly tilled farm nearby. “How can you not see God’s work out here, with these mountains?” she said. The garden will complement the spiritual offerings taking place indoors at Crossroads  Church. “We need to be able to step outside into the garden to be close to God’s creation,” she said.

Permaculture gardening is meant to be sustainable, by reducing the amount of water or fertilizers needed to grow food. Each component of a permaculture garden is meant to help another, by providing nitrogen, pollen, mulch, nutrients, and food.

“This helps honor the Christian ethic of stewardship,” she said, “but it’s more than just agriculture. I want this to become a place where people can come visit a living thing, and pray for people whose names are here, on the trees. It’s a commitment to loving and serving your community.”

For more information contact Ware at 837-1111.