Gardening and Volunteer Grounds Workers

Our Parish maintenance staff is assisted by a very dedicated crew of volunteer gardeners who tend to the beautification of the Church property. Most Saturdays you can find them tending the roses and other flowers and plants that are in front of the Church and Parish Office and in our Centennial Garden. Other volunteers come during the week to do some weeding and watering to ensure that the grounds always look fresh and inviting.

The Parish has also benefited from several Boy Scout Eagle Projects. The small garden area on the west side of the Parish Hall was created in 2005 by Michael McClenathen. The wall at the corner of Hollister and St. Joseph Street which hides the plumbing pipes was erected by Glenn Axtell.

St. Raphael's Church has been a recipient of the Goleta Beautiful Award for the care put into the maintenance of its grounds.

The St. Raphael statue is adorned with beautiful colorful flowers each week by the Garden team members. (photo by Suzie Sichi)

Parish Landscaping-Gardening Crew
Produces Colorful Sea of Flowers, Plants

By Joe T. Kovach (Parishioner for past 45 years)

Some members of the Garden Crew are shown in this photo which appeared in the 1996 St. Raphael Centennial Yearbook: left to right - Luis Nungaray, Paul Coyne, Suzie Sichi, George Hopping, John Giordano, Teo Nungaray. Photo by Lorraine Taylor.

The faithful St. Raphael garden and landscape crew has been going strong for the past 20+ years with a number of parishioners performing exemplary work around the church and rectory. Led by Suzie Sichi, resident landscape artist and avid gardener, she has had a helping hand from volunteers Larry Torres, George Hopping, Paul Coyne, Matt Mayer, Pia Picotte, Mike and Mirtha Donovan, John Giordano, Andy Zeko, Joe Kovach and Teo and Luis Nungaray, parish staff workers. Putting their superb efforts together each week, the 'team volunteers' have 148-years of tender and loving care for the many colorful flowers, plants, shrubs dotting the grounds surrounding the church and rectory.

Suzie descriptively elaborated, "Each week is really a gift and a memory. Seeing the plants go through their cycles with the seasons is so very special -- from noticing when the yellow and purple Bearded Iris and Daffodils come back in the spring and the red Amaryllis at Christmas and the California Poppies with their warm orange all summer long, to the Alyssum with its generous carpet of white petals being scraped away when it gets too scruffy to bounce back in a matter of weeks with perky new seedlings. I think that we all are constantly thinking as we work of what might need to be done and all of us give input as to what should be done and when."

Suzie explained, "I was confirmed at St. Raphael's in 1988 at Easter Vigil after completing RCIA with Father Steve Downes. I had been raised Episcopalian but found myself drawn to Catholicism and had actually attended Mass at St. Raphael for several years before beginning RCIA. During those years I had thought it was a bit sad that there was this great big sunny piece of property around the church but the landscaping consisted of juniper bushes and white gravel with about six roses. As an artist and avid gardener at my home I saw the possibilities of a garden surrounding the church to really welcome parishioners -- a way for them to "change channels" by comtemplating some of God's beautiful gifts to us of color and flowers on their way from the car to the sanctuary. I also saw that Teo and Luis had their hands completely full with keeping up on the property as it was."

The full-time teacher at Anacapa School continued, "Right after my Confirmation I noticed an announcement in the Sunday Bulletin requesting volunteers to help clean up the gardens and so one Saturday I dropped my sons off at the beach and I went off to see what I could do with this group. Larry Torres was there with a few other men and we swept a lot and trimmed a little and over the next few weeks the place started looking neater. I told Larry about my vision and he bought me some California poppy seeds. That was the beginning and ever since then I have been working, gradually removing almost all of the junipers and replacing them with flowering plants."

A resident of Santa Barbara since 1967, Suzie recollected, "At the beginning after a year or two of just cleaning and sometimes planting a few border plants, George Hopping got some men to completely tear out the ivy that was in one planter and asked me to figure out what to plant there. I was like a kid in a candy store! I chose yellow flowered ground cover and yellow roses to be complemented in color by purple Mexican Sage and False Heather, the colors of Pope John Paul II and it was so very pretty when it was done."

Her recollection continued, "Then when the parish was going to celebrate its Centennial celebrations, they took out most of the juniper and put in the pretty gathering area patio on the side of St. Joseph's Street. Sam Alfano and George told me to get some plants and there was a certain amount of rush to finish. Unfortunately, I had a problem with my back then but I bought the plants and then my teenage son Cielo and George did all the digging and planting -- I really felt like the boss then! But the best part was not right after it was planted, but Mother's Day that year because the area had filled in to be this bounty of color, as beautiful as any garden magazine photo you ever saw. After Mass I noticed that people were drawn to the area, pausing and sitting and just immersing themselves in the wonder of it, just like the vision I had imagined before I converted."

Another of Suzie's vivid reminders, "I think that just how the garden has been so generous in so many ways is something that really stands out for me. When we did the Centennial Garden was the first time that I planted any Shasta Daisies. I bought two pony packs, 12 little plants and they have flourished beyond belief, in fact, the hundreds of them we have now are all related to the originals! We move them wherever we want to have bright, white sparkles (the artist Monet was emphatic on the importance of some white in the garden) and they are so hardy and consistently blooming that they have become, after the fantastic roses, probably the signature flower of the gardens. And whenever someone comes by when we are working and says that they like a particular plant, we almost always have been able to give them either the seeds, or a cutting, or dig up a clump for them to take away with them, so in a way the garden boundaries reach way beyond our streets."

Another memory that is very poignant, she added, "Is that after Matt Mayer died on August 30, 2006, his widow Virginia brought us a red rose called 'Love's Desire' which we planted in one of the sunniest spots. We scattered Cosmos seeds all around it (which were one of Matt's favorite flowers) and now it is like he is still making us smile in the garden, even though we don't get to hear his jokes."

Paul Coyne is the rosarian and has been for the past 17-years. He lavishes the TLC of over 75 roses on the church grounds which he prunes once a year and once a month he fertilizes them, gratis. With the gopher problems he now uses a gopher cage when he plants a new rose. These are circled around the base, a foot down, so that protects the roots.

Suzie's chronological record denotes, "In the early years it was Larry, John, George and me, and of course, Teo and Luis. Larry had to devote more time to his business, then John and George had some health issues. Paul started taking care of the roses and it is all due to his work that the gardens have so many beautiful roses. Matt began to work and Mike as well and then came Pia Picotte, who has been an incredibly hard worker and with a wonderful eye and talent for creating fantastic gardens. Her touches and skills are everywhere in the garden today. When Mike married Mirtha, she happily joined in. Andy and Joe have been doing the middle of the week watering for the past eight years. Also Father Hipp Goossens, C.J., contributed his help while serving as Associate Pastor. Others have helped for a short time and their work was appreciated."

Responding to what kind of work the volunteers do each week, Suzie explained, "We weed, dig, trim, prune, sweep, water, plan and plant. We pick some flowers and arrange the bouquet for the St. Raphael statue in front. We also talk a lot. There is a great camaraderie that has been built over the years, working regularly with people who are so kind and generous and don't mind getting their hands dirty. We rarely need to plant new flowers these days (except in the pots) because we have used mostly perennials and plants that reseed themselves."

Suzie acknowledged, "One other person that I would really like to gratefully remember as inspirational to our success is Msgr. Steve Downes, who was so, so supportive and appreciative of our efforts all of the years he was here. He complimented and thanked us for our efforts any time he saw us and made sure we were acknowledged at the volunteer dinner each year. It 's not that we needed thanks -- we were never doing it for that -- it just really made us feel good to hear how much he enjoyed the beauty that we had been working so hard on each week."

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