The Sunnyvale Sun

News

Church garden adds beauty to neighborhood

By Cody Kraatz

St. Luke Lutheran Church, set in the midst of a residential neighborhood on Sunnyvale's south side, was known as "The Church in the Weeds."

Then came Ron Ketelsen, master gardener. When he moved to the Bay Area five years ago and joined the church, he rolled up his sleeves, dug in and sowed the seeds of neighborhood beautification, giving area residents a vibrantly colorful garden with benches and gurgling fountains perfect for meditation.

A human resources consultant for a technology company, Ketelsen drew on his family home in Iowa, where his grandparents had a big garden with ponds and waterfalls that became a garden tour destination.

"When I moved here, I moved into a townhouse and didn't have any place to do anything," said Ketelsen, who lives in San Jose. He talked with the church leaders about doing some work on the church grounds. "They asked me what I would like to do with it. I said, 'Well, I have a few ideas.' It's been a labor of love."

Populated by roses, petunias, hydrangeas, cannas and sunflowers and shaded by several weeping birch trees and small weeping cherries, the garden has a meandering path and fine bark mulch throughout. A swinging metal bench faces a gurgling waterfall.

Ketelsen brought in a white garden shed and scattered fountains and statues throughout, wrapping the whole patch in white picket fences and white arched entryways.

He wanted the plants to be colorful and doesn't mind the work replacing annuals, which bloom for an entire season but will not return the next year. The project cost about $35,000, most of which came from Ketelsen's donations.

The Rev. Bob McKee, the church's pastor, said he recently saw a marriage proposal in the garden. Sunnyvale public safety officers come by to take a quiet break. Church members come to the garden to meditate on pieces of scripture during Wednesday night services.

"This is an area where people feel a lot of pressure-- time pressure, pressure to perform in jobs--so we feel this is a good place where people can feel no pressure, just kind of slow down," said McKee.

And of course the neighbors love it. It wasn't so much that the yard was atrociously blighted, just that it had so much potential, they said.

"I really do appreciate the fact that they cleaned up their lot a lot," said Vivian Euzent, who lives across the street from the garden and has offered to separate her overgrowing agapanthus and bird of paradise and donate some for the garden. "I really want to support that."

Gerry Moore has lived in the neighborhood 35 years and walks by every evening. She came down to an Aug. 12 ice cream social the church held to welcome neighbors to lavish her praise.

"I know what it looked like before, and oh my goodness," she said, with a look suggesting the yard's previous condition should go unmentioned.

Neighbors in the past have taken issue with noise from the church's preschool, traffic and overgrowing weeds. The garden is part of the church's efforts to be a good neighbor, said McKee. Neighbors said the church does a lot of community outreach.

"They always come around and invite everybody," said Jeanne Given, a neighbor who attends a different church.

Kathleen Peters, a church member and nearby neighbor, came with her husband Mark, daughter Erin, 3, and son Ryan, 6 months, to the ice cream social.

"We like to take a stroll in the evening with the kids after dinner. My daughter loves the flowers. She always said she wants to go to the flower garden," said Peters, who also played harp in the garden.

The church has hired part-time groundskeeper Steve Helig to keep up with the garden, but Ketelsen will put in many more hours.

"I can't do it all, and there's a lot to be done," he said. "A gardener's work is never done."

St. Luke Lutheran Church is at 1025 The Dalles Ave. in Sunnyvale near S. Mary Avenue and Homestead Road. Visit www.stlukechurch.org or call 408.736.9216 for more information.