Sister Jean Ihli
Judging by the photography inspired by the Monastery, the vibrant garden paths play a large part in how guests and community experience the campus.
It wasn't always so. Even at the turn of the new century, those garden beds were still covered with plastic and lava rock, visible only where overgrown junipers and arbor vitae didn't dominate. Albeit somewhat monochromatic, it was a style of landscape maintenance that was low-labor and effective when there wasn't a gardener around.
But in 2001 someone whose creativity is expressed through the selection and nurturing of colorful blooms arrived. Sister Jean Ihli entered the Monastery, took a look at those lava rocks and 20-year-old shrubs and recognized her calling.
With leadership's support, she immediately set to work on taking out the rocks and the old plants all the way down to the roots. She ripped out the plastic and could nearly hear the earth breathe a sigh of relief.
Any gardener knows this is tough work. "God gave me good strong shoulders and a good back," she says. "I was raised on a farm where I helped my dad do
the work."
She found that in many places new topsoil needed to be brought in. Although she intended the beds around the Blessed Mother statue to be exclusively a rose garden, her vision quickly expanded to include pink mallow, gloriosa daisies, petunias, marigolds, calendula and more. The other walkway beds now bloom with a diverse array of columbines, Siberian iris, monkshood, rhododendrons, azaleas and towering hollyhocks.
And as much as she loves late summer, when everything is at the height of color, Sister Jean says her favorite part of the year is much earlier: "Every spring, as soon as you can get out and work that soil, there is an excitement to get into it…to have the soil turn…that beautiful smell of the turned earth."
For the winter Sister Jean has moved the geraniums up to the Monastery attic, where they get lots of warmth and sun. To prepare her roses for the cold, Sister Jean covered the trimmed plants with autumn leaves and straw. To strengthen her columbines, she cuts them to the ground after their first-season blooms are spent. And her rhodies and azaleas thrive with the fertilization of coffee grounds from the kitchen. "I suspect the seeds and blooms are getting bigger every year," she beams.
Sister Jean experiences gardening as a contemplative practice. "Working with my hands frees my heart and mind for contemplation and prayer. It is an amazing wonder what God brings to bloom with time, sun, water…"