When the Meetinghouse was first being planned, members designed and created this rain garden as an expression of the Quaker Testimony of Stewardship. These are designed to capture run off from roofs, sidewalks and streets. By planting perennial flowers and native plants, a short term excess of water is used by the garden, rather than running into drains and adding to the flood waters in the Cannon River and further downstream.
An added advantage is its beauty. CVFM’s rain garden also features a wren house which is busy in the spring and a Peace Pole, which was installed during Peace Camp in the summer of 2017. Passersby are invited to settle in on the bench enjoy the garden’s delights.
As part of the Quaker Testimony of Stewardship, Friends are called to walk gently on the Earth. We try to adopt practices which have the least negative impact on the world’s limited natural resources. It is particularly important in these times of extravagant and wasteful use of water, especially by more technologically developed nations, that we do all we can to conserve freshwater rivers, lakes, and streams.
The City of Northfield currently encourages residents to install rain gardens through their Rain Garden Cost Share Program. For more information on installing a rain garden in Northfield and available financial incentives, please see the following page on the City of Northfield’s website: http://www.ci.northfield.mn.us/index.aspx?NID=338.
Wren sings and scolds
until her brood fledges,
So ordered, bound
to earth we walk away.
–Poem by Sam Johnson
Cannon Valley Friends Meeting 