Take a stroll through the new Desert Canyon Habitat garden by the labyrinth. The first of 4-5 habitats on our grounds, this provides refugia for our native species, and provides a place for us to develop and nurture a deep a spiritual connection to the interconnected web of life. This garden replicates the habitat of a typical desert canyon, even more specifically a typical low-elevation Santa Rosa Mountain canyon.
The boulders and plantings will provide shelter and food for numerous critters, pollinators, birds and lizards. Five ironwood trees will gradually provide shade in the coming years. Our hope is that, in addition to providing habitat for native species, this garden demonstrates that native gardens can be beautiful and will encourage homeowners to convert their yards and thereby learn more about our native species, learn to love our desert, and want to protect it.
Sacred Grounds Recent Posts
Sacred Grounds Update: November 2023
Celebration Garden
Huge progress! Our stunning Celebration Garden is really taking shape. The walkway is embossed with designs inspired by native plants and lizards, a ring of Encelia (brittlebush) circles the metal sculpture, and a new bladderpod hedge to screen off the parking lot is in place.
Desert Canyon Habitat
On October 23 we started planting the Desert Canyon Habitat with over a hundred native plants!
Sacred Grounds Update: August 2023
Wow, this has been a busy month. We've finalized the landscape design for the Desert Canyon Garden, defined the paths, got the plant material list ready to order and even got 25 tons of boulders delivered! The Celebration Garden is taking shape too - the stamps for...
Sacred Grounds Update July 2023
A lot has been happening with Sacred Grounds -- take a peek! Sacred Grounds Update: July 2023
Sacred Grounds Update June 2023
Greetings from Sacred Grounds! A lot has been happening so let’s catch you up. We are hard at work and eager for you to join in the creation of the Celebration Garden and several Native Plant Community Gardens. Sacred Grounds Update: June 2023 Spoiler: October...
Sacred Grounds Weed Pull, March 2023
Dear Friends of Sacred Grounds and Fellow Weed Pullers, The rain this winter has produced a new crop of schismus grass, and we need to remove this pesky invader soon. Schismus grass is easy to remove! No need to get on your hands and knees. You can stand and scrape it...
Sacred Grounds Update January 2023
Here’s an update on progress since the November Sacred Grounds meeting, at which various sub-teams were formed. There are many opportunities for you to get involved, matching your interests and skills. Read about the Native Plants sub-team, the upcoming Weed Pull Party, landscaping, design ideas for the sidewalks and more!
Fall Kickoff!
Sacred Grounds relaunches! Seventeen people met after the November 13th service to introduce Sacred Grounds to newcomers, rekindle excitement, and get moving on Phase 1 projects. Enthusiasm was high!
Volunteers jumped in to start planting native species, join the Love the Land work parties on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday, staff the patio info tables and communications, and select the material for the paths. As we complete visible projects we should gain more visibility and more volunteers and be able to move forward on the other parts of the Phase 1 projects.
Earth Day Worship Service
First, a huge thank you to Katie Barrows. The Barrows family of Katie, Cameron, and Colin is the undisputed First Family of our local natural lands. The family business has been protecting our native lands, being stewards, listening to and understanding interconnection of the other species, and inspiring more stewards. Please let’s acknowledge our gratitude to Katie and her family.
Our beautiful area is hurting. The eastern valley
Sacred Grounds Update
Remember the Sacred Grounds Initiative? After a long Covid hiatus, the Initiative will be starting back up.
History
Oh, didn’t Covid change everything? By March 2020 a large group of congregants had formed the Sacred Grounds Initiative, a vision for our amazing grounds that included support for the native plants and critters, plus nourishing human souls with places for meditation, connection and reflection. The minister spoke from the pulpit, a couple of congregation-wide meetings were held, and a Love-the-Land work party
Our Lovely Desert Iguanas
With the warming temperatures, our three pairs of Desert Iguanas should soon be making an appearance on our Sacred Grounds. First will be the youngsters who hatched last fall and should come out of their burrows for the first time this next week or so. Soon after, as the sand becomes reliably warm, the adults will appear. The Desert Iguanas are one of the last lizards to emerge because they are unable to digest their