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.

Varmints in the Garden

Bunnies and birds and ground hogs and deer and skunks – we’ve had them all.

Right now either the bunnies or the birds are munching on the dusty miller. I’ve tried putting pinwheels near them. That worked for a while. Now I’m sprinkling cayenne pepper on the leaves. That seems to be working for now. Soon the plants will be large and less tasty to the critters.

The ground hogs stand on their hind legs and feast on the cone flowers. I use cayenne pepper there too. It seems to work – unless the ground hogs are waiting for the tomatoes to ripen so they can make salsa.

Compost Tea

I’ve started making compost tea. It’s a simple process, really. I purchased an Aquatic Gardens Single Outlet Aquarium Air Pump Hi-tech 800 and 8 ft Clear Air Line Tubing for $11.64. I loosely tied a hex-nut to the end of the tubing to keep the hose at the bottom of the bucket. Then, I followed the recipe and instructions from Doug Green’s http://www.beginner-gardening.com/compost-tea.html

After filling the 5 gallon bucket, I ran the pump for 24 hours to remove the chlorine from the tap water. Then I put 3 or 4 handfuls of compost in a knee-hi ladies stocking and hung it over the side of the bucket. I added a little molasses and lemon juice and let the pump run for another 24 hours. I used a sprinkling can to water vegetables and flowering plants. It’s too early to tell if this process is worth the effort. I’ll be making compost tea all summer to see if I can notice a difference in areas where I’ve applied the compost tea. There are a lot of variables so I don't know if I'll be able to tell if the compost tea makes difference.

Anyway, it can’t hurt, right? Well, not according to some writers. See “The Great Compost Tea Debate” in Garden Rant blog by the Jeffs and comments – 6/21/07 http://www.gardenrant.com/ Jeff Gillman: Benefits? Maybe. Problems? Likely - and - Jeff Lowenfels: AACT (and only AACT) is the real deal

Watering and Trimming

With the weeds under control (which means there are now more plants that I want than weeds that I don’t want), my gardening attention has turned to watering and trimming. After a few weeks of hot, dry weather I’ve turned soakers on in each garden about once a week for about 20 minutes. Some of the potted plants need to be watered twice a day. We had a storm last night so I will have a watering-day off today, I hope.

I’ve also managed to trim the overgrowth from the garden paths this week - to reduce the chance of getting poked in the eye on my walks through the garden.

Another Ground Cover

Probably the most work-intensive ground cover in my garden is ivy. Again, I don’t know the name. The neighbor who gave it to me called it American Ivy. There are bunch of varieties at http://www.ivy.org/list.html .

We originally put it on our small bank in the front of the house to hold the hill and to eliminate the need to mow the lumpy little bank. It needs to be cut back about three times a year and gets an unattractive green-brown color in the winter. I think mice live in there, too. The colossal job of ripping it up and replacing it makes me put up with the work it takes to keep it somewhat neat.

On the plus side - The ivy provides some winter protection for Heather Erica x darleyensis ‘silberschmeize’ which blooms white from December to May.

Ground Cover

One of my favorite ground covers is this little sedum. It was another gift from a gardening friend so I don’t have it’s name. It looks similar to Sedum rupestre 'angelina' but I can't be sure.

The fast-growing stonecrop pictured here survives in the hot, dry pathway between our deck and garage. If it grows over the stepping stones, it’s easy to pull out – I scoop it up with my finger tips. Stepping on it is usually enough to keep it back. It spreads quickly and has a pretty little yellow flower in late spring. It helps keep the weeds to a minimum and moisture in the soil. It’s about as care free as it gets.

More Weeds

As I continued weeding this week, I realized some weeding tasks are more tedious than others. I have several places that I allow to reseed. Above, nicotiana and alyssum reseeded with weeds (top). In order to save the plants and get rid of the weeds, I had to pick out the weeds one by one. This time-consuming task is worth it to me for free plants. I sit in the shade with a cool drink and pull them out one by one.

Weeds

"Nothing satisfies like a neatly weeded bed; improvement in the garden is immediate, sometimes even dramatic. Gardeners who like it often describe weeding as 'therapeutic.'" HGTV website article “Weeds Aren’t All Bad” by Lindsay Bond Totten, Scripps Howard News.



After a steady rain, compliments of tropical storm Barry, the weeds are growing with a vengeance, the ground is soft and I’m off on a weeding frenzy.

Weeds are a fact of life in my garden. Even landscape fabric will not stop them. I know a home owner who used the fabric in the entire garden and thought he would never need to weed again. His weeds grew higher than the shrubs.

A layer of mulch keeps down the weeds or makes them easier to pull out. Years of compost and mulching keep most of my garden’s soil soft and loamy so the weeds come out easier. The pre-emergent Preen helps me keep some of the weeds out of the paths. (Although, now Preen comes with fertilizer. What’s up with that?)

Getting to the root of the matter -




My favorite tool for weeding is my good old dandelion digger. I feel great satisfaction getting the weed out roots and all. I am almost euphoric when I get a complete dandelion, wild garlic or a small thistle.

My new paving weeder is great for getting weeds that grow in the brick edging, between bricks and in tight places. The nicotiana coming up between the bricks is a weed in that spot. The thin blade will fit between the bricks and lift out the plant, roots and all. It’s also great for edging along sidewalks.

My least favorite weed at present is oxalis - the one with red stems & roots. The shallow horizontal roots are difficult to completely dig out. I use the dandelion digger or a small trowel to slide as many roots out as possible. I’ve been hot on the trail for years. I’ve resorted to Roundup where the weed is not too close other garden plants. I don’t seem to be winning the battle. But, the challenge keeps me going.

I attended a class at Lehigh County Extension “The Wicked World of Weeds” with Dick Pudliner, Master Gardener that was extremely informative. Call the Lehigh County Extension office if you want some expert help with your weeds.

Sweet Shrub

The Sweet Shrub is almost finished blooming. I believe it is Calycanthus floridus, although when it was given to me, the owner called it a strawberry bush. I guess the small blooms do resemble a strawberry.

This bush fills the air with a sweet, pungent odor for the month of May. The shrub is about 10’ tall and 6’ wide. I hack it back a couple of times during the summer to keep it within bounds. In the early spring, I dig up the runners so I won’t end up with 100 sweet shrubs. It doesn’t seem to be bothered by any diseases or bugs.

While the blooms aren’t much to look at, the fragrance is irresistibly alluring.

Shade Garden – Sun Garden

We arrived home after the Memorial Day weekend to be greeted by our thirty foot pussy willow on laying its side. A storm Sunday night knocked down the old friend. After three hours with a chain saw and lopping shears, we finished cleaning up the last branch by 8 pm. Now our shade garden is a full sun garden.

Annuals

Many years ago I started digging up the yard for gardens. Each year I bought spring blooming bulbs to plant in fall – tulips, hyacinths, daffodils. Since I couldn’t afford a ton of perennials, I bought annuals to mask the bulbs fading foliage. I continue to use annuals even though I have added many perennials.
If I had to pick my three favorite annuals -

The top of the list of would be coleus. Bright, cheerful and a Joseph’s coat of colors, they brighten shady spots. Some can take sun. They are all almost care free. They are also easy to propagate so I save a lot of money raising cuttings.






Second on the list is impatiens. The colors pop in the shade garden. The New Guinea impatiens is great for the sunnier areas.




There are some annuals that have a special meaning for me. Cosmos is planted for a special young lady whose birthday is in October. Cleome reminds me of my Grandmother’s garden. The tall, spectacular, ever-blooming habit looks great in large groups at the back of the garden.





Whoops, that’s four. I wouldn’t want to be without any of them as well as dusty miller, sweet alyssum, marigold, zinnia, petunia, wax begonia, snapdragon, sweet pea . . .

Dicentra - Bleeding Heart

There is a huge difference between ever-blooming ('luxuriant') and the May blooming (spectabilis) dicentra in my garden - in size, shape and bloom.



Dicentra 'luxuriant' blooms reliably all summer with the greatest blush in May. Planted in 1995 the plant is now 1 ½ feet tall by 2 ½ feet wide. This small plant with cut-leafed blue-green foliage blooms in the shade reliably all summer. The flowers are smaller and not quite as well defined as spectabilis.







The one I call the “old fashion bleeding heart”, Dicentra spectabilis 'pink', was planted in 2002 and has a lovely form and flower. The plant is about 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide and blooms in May. It grows in the shade of a dogwood and dies back in August. I cut it back as each stem or leaves begin to yellow, but it has come back reliably each year.




Both plants are easy to grow. The Dicentra ‘luxuriant’ needs no care at all and, if space is at a premium, will stay within bounds. The “old fashioned” bleeding heart is a large plant, but the attractive spring show of arching stems and definite, heart-shaped flowers is spectacular.

Perennials Divided and Seedlings

This spring I managed to divide, pot and give away some perennials - 2 Liriope, 3 mums (Chrysanthemum koreamun 'single Apricot' Garden Mum), 2 Coreopsis moonbeam, 4 brunnera, 3 creeping jenny, 2 pots of snow drops, and 11 pots of sweet woodruff. There is a sense of satisfaction in putting extra plants to good use. I have more that need division as time allows – or - there’s always next year.

Seedlings are popping up everywhere in the re-seeding garden. It’s like the great spring treasure hunt. There are varieties of cleome, sweet alyssum, nicotiana, lady slipper, rose campion, snow-on-the-mountain and snapdragon.

This little garden has good and bad points. On the bad side: not all the plants come up where I want them so some plants have to be moved, sometimes there is an overabundance of plants which necessitates culling of seedlings, some plants need to be given away or added to the compost pile. On the good side: it’s exciting to see what pops up where, the garden fills in like a spring meadow and - the price is right.

It may seem like bad outweighs good but I think the summer show is worth it.

Columbine, Lilacs and Cardinals

As the last of the tulips fade, the columbine, lilac, dogwood, azalea, lily of the valley, rhododendron, sweet shrub, dead nettle, iris, bridal wreath, sweet woodruff and silver dollar plant all come into boom filling the air with sweet aroma and bright colors. There are buds on the roses and dianthus.

Re-seeding cleome, snow-on-the-mountain, forget-me-not, cosmos, sweet alyssum, and snapdragon are beginning to pop out of the soil.

Weeding and planting continue. The top of the soil is dry which makes weeding difficult. I need more mulch. I would be happy for a soaking rain right now. The cucumber and pole beans have germinated in their pots. I’ve started to plant cuttings – only 70 more to go. I need to get the canna and tuberose in the ground. I need to shop for a few annuals. I finished fertilizing the bulbs with bone meal, tidied and fed the roses. All the soaker hoses are in place.

Blumenplatz planting has begun. (see April 21 post) The “Garden of Serenity” is in good shape with Saturday morning mulching completed by a happy and energetic group of volunteers. The Miller House Garden cleanup is almost complete. Planting is set for May 24.

There is an endless parade of stimulation and work in the May garden.

But, the most exciting occurrence this spring - three cardinal baby birds live in a holly bush outside our living room window. It’s a magnificent opportunity to watch them hatch, feed and grow.

Crape Myrtle

In last week's post on the Penn State Master Gardener blog http://blogs.mcall.com/master_gardeners/ogs.mcall.com/master_gardeners/ogs.mcall.com/master_gardeners/ Karen Bernhard writes, "Crapemyrtle is a really special shrub. That spectacular bloom after many other flowering plants are all through for the season is great! Unfortunately, crapemyrtles are not reliably hardy in Pennsylvania." Take a look at the blog (link above) for more detailed information.

I am very fortunate to have a hardy plant. Unfortunately, I don't know the variety since it was a gift from a neighbor's bush. (There are a few around the neighborhood from the same old bush.) The picture here, from August of last year, shows the great display of blooms.

This crepemyrtle is very slow to wake up in spring. It is just now beginning to leaf out. Hopefully, this year will be another year of spectacular, non-stop bloom from summer to fall.

Cow Pots

The cuttings were fine overnight and look bright and happy this morning.

Some of them are planted in “cow pots”. (See February 1, 2007 post). They are the square pots pictured in the last post.

I purchased them from Gardener’s Supply because I couldn’t find a local seller. The set of 15 three-and-one-half-inch pots was quite pricey. The results will have to be spectacular for me to buy them again – and only if I can find them locally. The shipping is a killer. I’ll try to post observations from time to time.

Coleus Cuttings

Out for good! After carrying cuttings in and out for several days to harden off – out in the morning, in at night - I’ve decided to put them out for good. There are 50 plants pictured above that will stay out. I’ll put them under a table in a sheltered place on the deck. Evening temperatures are supposed to stay in the 50’s so I think I’m safe.

I completely forgot the other 11 on the windowsill. They will go out today and into the garage overnight (maybe).

I also have 18 fuchsia and wax begonia cuttings that may have to go in and out for a few days. Enough of walking plants around! But it was a good crop this winter. I can’t wait to see the vibrant colors in the garden and in pots.

Dogwood and Red Bud

The Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) and Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis) are in bloom right now. I find the flowers on these spring blooming trees one of the beautiful treats from mother nature - especially on a clear, sunny, spring day.

Cornus florida may have some longevity problems but it's graceful shape makes it well worth it's sometimes shorter life. I've found that if planted in a suitable place it will last for many years. The kousa dogwood is less suseptible to insects and diseases but lacks the gracefulness of the native form.

The Eastern Redbud is another graceful tree. This tree may have problems with brittle branches breaking in a windy location but the short spring bloom time is awesome with tiny pink flowers crowded along the branches. It's worth the effort to find a suitable location for this one.

Species Tulip

The species tulips, Clusiana Lady Jane, picture above were purchased from John Scheepers, Inc. in October 2004.

Why species tulip? Here's a quote from "Iowa State Horticulture and Home Pest News".

"Are you tired of replacing your hybrid tulips every few years? Would you like a tulip that naturalizes well? The answer lies in the selection of species tulips."

Nuff said?

The same year I also purchased Tulip Majorletti, Clusiana Chry Tubergens Gem (left) red and Tangerine Beauty yellow/orange. I chose the tallest I could find and they come back beautifully every year.

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.