Krider World's Fair Garden

 Since we have not taken a vacation away from home since last January/February, my husband decided we should drive to Middlebury, Indiana and eat lunch at Das Essenhaus restaurant. We found the food rather mediocre for the price charged. The best thing to eat there is a piece of pie. We probably won't go for lunch again, but we would stop by for a piece of pie. It is very busy during the lunch time, however. 

Not far from Das Dutchman Essenhaus is the Krider World's Fair Garden. This is now part of the Middlebury park system. Running along-side the park is the Pumpkinvine Trail, a biking and hiking paved trail that combined with two other connected trails runs from Shipshewana to Goshen (about 25 miles). Besides Krider there are several parks with restrooms and parking so you do not have to do the whole trail, but you can select segments.

Krider World's Fair Garden has an interesting history. Krider Nurseries set up a display at the 1934 Chicago World's Fair. This display was an actual garden where people could rest and enjoy the outdoors. The nursery had a guestbook to sign. About 250,000 names and addresses were recorded. Krider used this list to mail out catalogs of its plant offerings. The company became one of the biggest mail-order nurseries in the United States.

The current park is in the location of the nursery (which shut down in 1990). The park fell into disuse, but it was restored as a city park in 1995. Part of the restoration was to include replicas of features that were used in Chicago in 1934. I believe some of these 1934 features were part of the Middlebury park across the street from the nursery when Mr. Krider first established the park. A brochure will help you see the layout of the garden and its features.

This detail of the Gather sculpture interested me because the tail is made of screws.

This sculpture was added in 2022.

The garden is peaceful and shady; there was a family picnicking and a few people ambling through or sitting and enjoying the outstanding day we had yesterday.

A replica of the waterwheel in Chicago keeps the water circulating down a waterfall and into a lily pond.

A fountain constructed in 1935 still works.

Across the street is the Middlebury Historical Museum (blue awning) which we did not visit.

I was surprised to see this container of succulents. Certainly not winter-hardy.

Other artwork included Hebe (the goddess of Youth), an insect, and a Stewart Johnson figure because it turns out Krider garden has a quilt garden.

I was disappointed in the quilt garden. It is the worst one we have seen this summer. Title: Fireworks

Near the parking lot was a windmill that replicates what was used in Chicago.

I didn't get a good shot because to photograph the front meant facing directly into the sun.

We saw lots of Amish buggies, one Amish wagon, several Amish on bicycles, and one farm implement being hauled by a team of horses on a city road (supposedly to a field?). Driving lots of country roads was a slower pace, but we were not in a hurry. Next time we want to enjoy a shady park and a delicious piece of pie we will know where to go in Middlebury.

Elkhart County Quilt Gardens

 Our days are heating up with a fair amount of humidity. Today we drove to some of the Elkhart County quilt gardens. Sonya Nash who works for the Convention and Visitors Bureau spoke at the Winona Literary Club; she told us how the bureau provides the plants/flowers to the sites once they have decided which pattern they will be displaying. Through several years of experience she now knows how to calculate the exact amount for each pattern. This year there are 17 sites with quilt gardens using almost 1 million blooms. We visited 6 quilt gardens today.

I think the "quilt" at Wellfield Botanic Gardens had the lushest flowers and because they provided an elevated platform it provided the best photo opportunity.

Along with the flowers, this year sculptures by Seward Johnson are part of the displays. The city of Warsaw, Indiana had some of his sculptures several years ago.

We started at the Elkhart County Courthouse in Goshen.

The "quilt" was named Joseph's Coat.

We drive by this courthouse fairly often when visiting Goshen.

Our second stop was completely new to us: Elkhart Environmental Center. Apparently, this site is used to teach school classes and I guess other groups about conservation, etc.

Pattern is Sunflower by Twilight.

The Seward Johnson figure even has a band aid on his arm.

We walked a short trail through the wetlands. Every so often I would hear a non-human noise in the brush (besides the birds) or hear a plop as something went into the water. I did end up with two mosquito bites. If we were to return I would wear repellant. 

The parking lot had wildflowers/native vegetation.

Next we visited Elkhart Central Park near the Saint Joseph River. This spot has a plaque so I think it has participated in the quilt gardens a long time.

Pattern name: Double Tulips.

Seward Johnson figure:

Not far from Wellfield gardens is Ruthmere built in 1908.

The mansion has tours but was closed on Mondays. I took a photo of a garden plot near the open back gate where a man was mowing, but I don't think it was the official quilt garden.

Our last stop was Linton's Enchanted Gardens a retail store and plant store. We had been here several years back, and there was a quilt garden at that time though that was not why we visited. This year's "quilt" was Kaleidoscope Blooms.

Here we encountered Marilyn Monroe.

We bought two small tables for our front porch. The existing one had mosaic tiles and was crumbling apart.

These are made to look like mosaics but are not individual tiles, just glass with a grid overlaid.

I had originally thought we might go to Das Essenhaus in Middlebury to see the quilt garden and to eat lunch. My husband reminded me to check hours/days open last night as he thought it was closed on Mondays. Yes, it is. So we had a sandwich at Linton's and then headed for home. 

We have been wanting to go to Nappanee to see some new stores; we will probably do that when it is cooler. Nappanee also has a quilt garden.