Written by Kathy McNamara 2024 Upstream Unsung Caretaker

Kathy McNamara from New Prague organizes and manages a large group of volunteers to care for the extensive gardens of her hometown parish church.

She began working with her fourth-grade class on a drainage and retaining wall project in 2000 because the question was asked, “What are we going to do about this mess?” A few years later, Kathy joined the PAC building committee followed by the Parking Lot Committee where she advocated for rain gardens over detention ponds. As a fourth-grade teacher, she initiated school gardening activities, including adopting plants and educating about perennials, annuals, native and non-native species, and rain gardens. Garden clean-up became their Marathon Service Project. Currently, Kathy is involved in the campus’ 18 gardens (three of which are rain gardens) and various special initiatives and manages a group of over 30 volunteers. She is motivated to continue educating fourth graders so that they will learn something about the world they inhabit and grow to care for it. She is inspired by her sister who was a horticulturist and helped McNamara on her growing journey.

Kathy McNamara began working with her fourth-grade class on a drainage and retaining wall project in 2000 because the question was asked, “What are we going to do about this mess?” A few years later, Kathy joined the PAC building committee followed by the Parking Lot Committee where she advocated for rain gardens over detention ponds. As a fourth-grade teacher, she initiated school gardening activities, including adopting plants and educating about perennials, annuals, native and non-native species, and rain gardens. Garden clean-up became their Marathon Service Project. Currently, Kathy is involved in the campus’ 18 gardens (three of which are rain gardens) and various special initiatives and manages a group of over 30 volunteers. She is motivated to continue educating fourth graders so that they will learn something about the world they inhabit and grow to care for it. She is inspired by her sister who was a horticulturist and helped McNamara on her growing journey.

“Life is a garden, dig it.” To me, this statement is more than just a message on my refrigerator magnet. In my career as an elementary teacher at St. Wenceslaus School, every science curriculum included studying aspects of our natural world- plants, animals, water, air, and soil. It meant getting the fourth graders outside to experience those elements of nature to enhance their classroom learning. It also included the hands-on experiences of literally digging in the gardens.

This became easier to accomplish with the addition of many new gardens to the campus. In 2000, after the completion of a comprehensive drainage project, I worked with dozens of volunteers to help local landscaper, Dave Sticha, create new perennial and annual pollinator gardens that surround the school buildings. This is considered the start of what we now call the parish Green Team. A few years later, another committee planned a major building addition, dealt with cleanup and water issues, and constructed more large pollinator gardens. With the creation of so many new gardens, fourth graders had the opportunity to be part of the Green Team. They became involved with planting annuals in the spring and bulb planting and garden cleanup service projects in the fall. As they spent time in the gardens, they got hands-on experiences enhancing what they learned in the classroom about nature and the social teaching of care for creation. Not only were they learning, but engaging and interacting with nature was a fun, sensory activity. (Worms were very popular!)

In addition to the garden experiences, my teaching partner and myself explored other ways to help kids learn more about their natural world including workshops at nearby nature centers, field trips, and bringing in a local beekeeper. We broadened our worldview by participating in a Monarch butterfly project with students in Mexico and compared the Amazon rainforest with forests in Minnesota.

All who come to our campus parking area are welcomed with our Laudato si sign. The 2015 Pope Francis encyclical titled Laudato si asked everyone to work to protect the Earth as our common home. That was perfect timing for the huge 2015-16 parking lot reconstruction that brought big changes to the campus. Again, I was a part of the committee that worked hard to be mindful of the impact of so much construction and hard surface area. Many new very different gardens were created. Four of the large gardens contain close to 50 varieties of native plants and trees that provide food for many creatures and help collect and clean water. Three of the native gardens are rain gardens. Rain gardens collect and clean storm runoff, recharge groundwater and provide habitat for plants and wildlife.They are also teaching gardens. Plants are labeled with their common and Latin names. Fourth graders experience these gardens in a number of ways. They record observations and questions of a particular plant as well as experiencing the sights, smells and feel of many of the plants as they immerse themselves into the gardens. They also learn about the work done by the native plants and the rain gardens. These gardens are also places of learning for adults including small group or individual tours, the recent New Prague Historical Society Garden tour, and informational church bulletin articles.

With our location on Main Street in New Prague, my hope is that the whole community will continue to use our variety of gardens as wonderful “classrooms” as well as admire them as creations of great beauty.

I have been retired from teaching for several years, but I still continue to work with fourth graders in the gardens, introduce third graders to our many gardens, and encourage all grade levels to make use of our gardens for study, work, inspiration, more awareness of the world and how to care for it, or just pure enjoyment. With over 18 very large gardens to manage, the Green Team is still going strong with volunteers (We could always use more!) who adopt gardens, take care of flower pots, sign up for weekly garden care, or work on special projects with continuous support from the custodial staff. After working in the parish gardens, I go home to my own rain garden and collection of native plants. I also have four rain barrels to collect and store runoff from my roof to water during those hot, summer dry spells.

I am hopeful that preserving and even expanding more natural areas and resources will be looked at as the wonderful investments they are for the future all over our state. I have learned a lot in the last 25 years. My sister, Jean Mahowald, majored and worked in horticulture for many years and has been a tremendous source of information, help, and advice. I can’t say enough about Dave Sticha. Every garden on the parish campus or at my home was created with his design skills, hard work, love of everything in nature, and dedication to making this world a better place with every job he did and with all his own conservation projects on his own land. We just lost Dave to cancer, but his legacy and inspiration for stewardship live on in his family and with so many others he influenced. With dedicated mentors like these, others are sure to be inspired.

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