After almost forty years, St John’s Memorial Garden is a place of reflection on lives past, and joy in the present.
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The St Francis Gardening Guild, armed to the teeth, tend the Memorial Garden
You could attend St John’s for some time before discovering the Memorial Garden, a hidden gem of grass, plants and trees behind the sanctuary’s east window.
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About a hundred feet long and roughly triangular, bounded by shrubbery, decorated by flowers and enclosed by buildings on two sides, it has the tranquil, sequestered atmosphere of a churchyard.
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The Memorial Garden was founded in February 1987 as a sacred space for the burial of cremated human remains. Two brass plaques on the wall outside the slype record more than eighty burials since then, although several more predated the garden as it is now.
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To provide access from the church new double doors were installed in the slype, the ground built up to meet the new entrance, and paving put down.
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At the narrow entrance from the car park is a large stone that parishioners asked for to emphasise the sacred nature of the garden. Donated by Lombardi’s of Montville and engraved with a blessing, it was placed here in December 2020.​
Tending the garden is a labor of love, but a labor nonetheless. The St Francis Gardening Guild has relied on the work of volunteers since it was formed in 1988, and especially its chairwomen, Charlotte Greenwood, Judy Cook, Alexandra French and, currently, Bonnie Legg.
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Kathy Cooper
Bonnie Legg, heads the St Francis Gardening Guild
Thelma Dimattio
Christie Hayes
Margaret Howard
Marion Shilstone
Called in for heavy lifting: on the right, William Revis, Manager of the Sharp Training Program, with a member of the program.
Under their leadership the garden has changed significantly over the years. The first burial, of Dorothea Martha Murray in 1983, before the existing garden was laid out, was among the roots of a Norway spruce near the back door of the church buildings.
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The spruce grew so large, restricting sunlight over much of the garden, that it was removed in 2020. Since then the Guild has developed a shrubbery of red chokeberry, hostas and transplanted roses to screen the garden from the parking lot.
...and the space it left behind.
The Norway spruce, donated to the church in 1971, outgrowing its welcome...
The Guild creating a new screen at the entrance to the Memorial Garden
On the eastern border of the church, a row of arborvitae also outgrew their allotted space. They were removed in 2009 and the garden redesigned by Lee Kirklewski of New London. Although the plan she created has remained largely intact, planting has been a dynamic process. The Guild meets weekly, usually on Mondays, to plant, weed, fertilize and prune, but it’s not just about the work. Bonnie says, “We are a loving group of volunteers deeply committed to maintaining the Memorial Garden, respecting those parishioners buried there, and providing a serene space for families to pray and remember their loved ones."
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The emphasis has been on growing plants requiring reasonably low maintenance, but which offer seasonal color and together form an attractive structure of evergreens, flowers and grasses. They include a variety of lilies, knockout roses, inkberry, viburnam and hydrangea. There’s also a heather garden, with some of the plants blooming in the winter, some in the spring and summer.
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Bonnie Legg in the heather garden
Amanda Zawacki prunes roses against the east wall of the church
At the center of the garden is a granite altar at whose base stands the figure of St Francis. Although each burial lies in an unmarked spot, many of the first were between the altar and the wall of the church hall. They were overseen by Rev Steven Hulme, the former Rector of St John’s who helped bring the garden about.
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Continual change is inevitable: the crab apple trees along the north and west borders of the Memorial Garden will have to be replaced, and there are plans for new shrubs, hydrangeas and non-invasive grasses for empty spaces left by the removal of other plants.
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As with each part of church life that relies on the work and devotion of parishioners, the St Francis Guild needs volunteers to lighten the load. No gardening experience is necessary, and although the current Guild is made up entirely of women, men are equally welcome.
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“The Guild includes gardeners across a wide range of ability and knowledge” says Bonnie. “No-one is excluded”. All are welcome to help, so that, as St Francis might have put it, out of wilderness, let us bring beauty.
