POULSBO — For most parishes, groundskeeping involves keeping the lawn mowed and tending to a few flower beds. For the parishioners of St. Olaf in Poulsbo, the job is much bigger.

Encompassing 18 acres of land, the parish grounds include woodlands, meadows, a creek, flower gardens, lawns and a cutting garden, according to pastoral assistant for administration Joy Erickson.

“It’s important to care for the grounds because that’s the foundation,” Erickson said. “That’s where it all began, with Adam and Eve in the garden.”

“We want to make sure it’s around for everyone to enjoy and be safe,” Erickson added. “It’s a great place to be.”

Erickson said the grounds offer a variety of ways for parishioners to interact with nature. Priests have used the gazebo to offer confessions outside. The scout troop has a firepit. A new bridge offers a safe passage over the creek. There are benches scattered in various places for people to sit and meditate.

A gazebo on the grounds of St. Olaf provides a peaceful place to pray. Members of the Legion of Mary provide hanging flower baskets to adorn the gazebo in the spring and summer. (Photo: Mary Dore-Cockerham)

Parishioner Christine Lord, who helps provide hanging baskets for the gazebo, appreciates having so many places on campus to pray.

“There is so much beauty,” Lord said. “This is part of what we have in our lives that God has brought to us.”

Not only do parishioners get to enjoy the serene setting, but also members of the surrounding community can use the woodland trails on the property through an agreement with Kitsap County. Erickson said the parish leases five acres of woods to the county for free, and the county maintains the trails, which the public can access.

“People walk their dogs through there all the time,” Erickson said.

In addition to being popular with its domestic neighbors, the property also serves as a home to wild animals.

Parishioner Patricia Leurquin, who describes herself as a “nut for nature,” said she routinely encounters wildlife. “We can see deer, snakes and rabbits galore.”

Coyotes and a bear have also been spotted on the property, Erickson said.

In recent years, efforts to care for the grounds stem from the vision of Father David Young, who served as pastor from 2013 to 2024, explained garden volunteer Mary Dore-Cockerham.

“Father David had a vision for native vegetation restoration and creating a habitat for the wildlife who live in the woods,” Dore-Cockerham said. 

When Dore-Cockerham started volunteering more than 10 years ago, she noticed the gardens needed some attention and saw it as a way to contribute. Although she liked to garden, she wasn’t confident in her abilities. She said Father Young told her, “Just weed.”

St. Olaf parishioner Dean Fujii volunteers with the garden ministry each Thursday during the growing season. (Photo: Mary Dore-Cockerham)

But her work on the parish grounds inspired her to seek master garden certification from Washington State University in 2016. Since then, Dore-Cockerham said, she has helped plant and design gardens with an emphasis on native vegetation, including flowering currant, evergreen huckleberry and woodland strawberries.

“During our drought, the native plants like heather do really well under the conditions and don’t need a lot of pruning,” she said.

According to Dore-Cockerham, the garden ministry has two objectives. The first, she said, is to “maintain and landscape and church grounds with organic methods that will honor our Lord’s creation.”

During the pandemic, she said volunteers also tried to bring back to health many of the plants and shrubs that had been planted when the church was built in 1968. Since the budget was tight, she optimized the time by transplanting plants that weren’t thriving to better locations on the property.

“We want to put the right plant in the right place,” Dore-Cockerham said.

Leurquin has also contributed to the vision of native plant restoration. As a member of the Arbor Day Foundation for 26 years, she planted eight trees along the creek and 10 additional native trees in the backwoods.  

“All but one has thrived,” Leurquin said. “Taking care of God’s creation is so rewarding.”

The second objective for the gardeners is to grow flowers, shrubs and plants for church arrangements and to share with others. In 2019, Erickson and her husband built a cutting garden behind the sacristy for the church to use for natural decorations.

Fresh flower arrangements are made weekly by garden volunteer Mary Dore-Cockerham with hydrangeas, dahlias and daisies grown in the St. Olaf flower gardens. (Photo: Mary Dore-Cockerham)

The parish now grows enough flowers to provide arrangements for the altar, ambo, Joseph and Mary statues and for parish events, Dore-Cockerham said.

“Putting flowers together for the altar is a very special job,” she said, “especially since they are placed so close to the Eucharist.”

She has also been making smaller arrangements for the homebound ministers to take to parishioners who can’t make it to Mass.

Not only do the garden volunteers bring joy to others, but their work also helps nourish their own faith.  

“Just walking around campus and pruning is meditative and healing,” Dore-Cockerham said. “It’s so good for my spirit and my soul.”