Summer Garden

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I’m taking a break from the garden this week to attend Musikfest.

Arts Quests’ music extravaganza began July 31 and continues through August 9. It’s a party all over downtown Bethlehem with a variety of music, street performers, craftspeople and food. (Picture above coleus at Blumenplatz next to Americaplatz.)

But I have had time to enjoy my own garden.

The reseeding area makes an instant cottage garden. Cosmos, snapdragons, snow-on-the-mountain, cleome, sweet alyssum with the double orange day lilies crowd together. This area is slightly different every year depending what re-seeds. This year the cosmos has pretty much taken over.

The new Casablanca lily’s pretty, scented blooms look good in their first year.

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I like the look of liatris and coneflowers together. The liatris seems to be extra tall this year.

Super Elfin Bright Orange Impatiens and coleus light up a dark spot under the redbud tree.

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Musikfest

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(Picture above: Lyre of Wax Begonias at Blumenplatz)

Musikfest starts Friday and activity is poppin’ at the Downtown Bethlehem sites. http://www.musikfest.org/ The second week of set up is hectic, to say the least. There is activity everywhere as this amazing event comes together.

Finishing touches on the summer-long job of planting and maintaining Blumenplatz (behind Bethlehem Public Library) started last night. The final trimming, deadheading, mulching, watering, got underway. The next step adds lights to the display for an attractive nighttime show next to Americaplatz.

Americaplatz setup is moving along as vendors begin to stock the booths.

The recycling bins are stacked near Plaza Tropical and ready for distribution around the fest.

The Plaza Tropical tent is up and tables and chairs are being set up as are all the other tents.

Blumenplatz Committee workers finish the mum-filled MUSIKFEST sign near Spring Street.

It’s a hive of activity. Everything will be ready on Friday at 5 PM for the 25th year. Volunteers, workers and vendors are laboring their hearts out. I can’t wait for the music to begin.

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Jim Brand

In memory of Jim Brand, Chairman Musikfest Flower Committee.

Leader, jokester, inspiration, and friend.

We will miss you Einstein.

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Blumenplatz

It’s time to clean out Musikfest’s Blumenplatz. (see June 30, 2007 post) In the next week or two, we will be removing all the plants and taking them to the Bethlehem Compost Center.

It’s been a year with the usual ups and downs. Most plants thrived. Some areas looked anemic and had to be enhanced with plants from the Butterfly (plant holding) Garden in the Colonial Industrial Quarter. The chairman kept everything on track and tirelessly tended the garden. Many of the lights during the festival gave him fits. The dry summer never gave a break to watering. A lot of help at planting time came in the form of Art’s Quest interns. Dan Schatz Greenhouse again provided massive amounts of annuals. Deadheading. trimming and weeding continued all summer. The design was beautiful as usual.

It’s time to put the garden to bed. We’ll meet again next April to plan the garden in the city center. We hope it will be even better than this year. The best garden is always next year’s, isn’t it?

Community Gardens

Bethlehem’s community gardens

The Garden of Serenity maintained by the Bethlehem Garden Club was a 2006 recipient of the Suburban Greening Award by the Philadelphia Horticultural Society. (see April 21, 2007 post) It is a peaceful oasis in the city with a place to sit and enjoy the garden.

Miller House Garden is also maintained by the Bethlehem Garden Club. (see April 21, 2007 post) Full of 18th century plants, this garden offers a view of what might have grown in a colonial garden. The plants, from roses to lavender to tomatoes and thyme, fill a walk through this little plot with delightful nostalgia.

Musikfest’s Blumenplatz, is planned, planted and cared for by members of the Blumenplatz committee. Starting in May until the middle of August, the garden illustrates the dazzling fun of Musikfest. This colorful garden was also a 2006 recipient of the Suburban Greening Award by the Philadelphia Horticultural Society.

As you stroll around Musikfest (August 3-12, 2007) stop to look at the community gardens in Bethlehem. Blumenplatz and The Garden of Serenity are located near Americaplatz in Bethlehem’s City Center near the Public Library. The Miller House Garden is located behind Volksplatz in the Colonial Industrial Quarter.

Spring

Spring really started in earnest this weekend. Mild temperatures allowed me to continue garden clean up. There are still leaves and other winter debris in all corners. I'm trying to work one section at a time - and not go into a total frenzy. I finished about 1/4 of the garden cleanup and about 1/2 of the mulching so far. I haven't even begun to divide or move plants.

Volunteers are ready to rock & roll in the community gardens. Blumenplatz is Bethlehem's Musikfest garden located behind the public library. (The Star of Bethlehem represented in dusty miller is pictured here after initial planting in 2005.) Work on the garden began this week with fence scraping and primer paint. The new color will be hunter green.

Bethlehm's sister city is Tondabayashi, Japan. Bethlehem Garden Club is responsible for maintenance of the "Garden of Serenity" (located next to the library). Mr. and Mrs. Fenninger and Yoshinaga Sakon, one of Japan's outstanding landscape architects, created a tea house and garden in 1971. Spring maintenance begins this week.

Bethlehem Garden Club is also responsible for The Miller's House Garden located in the Industrial Quarter of Historic Bethlehem. This Colonial to Victorian age garden includes old time roses and kitchen garden herbs and vegetables as well as other period flowering plants and shrubs.

Happy Spring! Get out the liniment.