The “before” picture features a gray casement window, garden hose and former entrance sandwiched two sides of a building. The “after” pictures show an attractive sitting area with a cross, potted plants, in ground plants, a large flowering dogwood and a and a columbarium with niches for ashes.
Among the reasons that the Kern Road Mennonite Church, South Bend, Ind., installed a memorial garden was a desire to show financial and ecological stewardship. Their brochure about the garden says, “Cremation is more sustainable than traditional burial because it does not use land resources, require concrete vaults or harmful embalming chemicals to enter the environment.”
Don Yoder, a member of the congregation who is a landscape architect, designed the area.