VOLUNTEERS ENSURE ANOTHER YEAR OF COLORFUL SUMMER BLOOMS

By Dave Person david.r.person@gmail.com

Volunteers are needed to create a more colorful Kalamazoo and picturesque Portage.

But first they must be ready and willing to get their hands dirty.

Kalamazoo in Bloom, observing its 39th anniversary this year, is planning to hit the ground digging come the second week of May. That’s when the planting of 20,000 annual flowers will signal another beautiful summer ahead for Kalamazoo County’s two largest cities.

“Anybody can show up (to volunteer on any planting day),” says Monika Trahe, executive director of Kalamazoo in Bloom. “You don’t have to have planting experience. We’ll help you.”

Trahe is the only year-round employee of Kalamazoo in Bloom. She is joined each March by CJ Drenth, a seasonal gardener/educator who does the ordering, design and garden preparation for Kalamazoo through November.

In May they will be adding two seasonal gardeners who will work in Portage through September.

Beyond those four, it’s up to volunteers, who are starting to come back after Covid diminished their ranks.

Before Covid, Trahe says, planting was done in halfday shifts. Groups of students from local high schools and one middle school were among the 60 to 200 volunteers who would show up each planting day.

But in 2020, when the pandemic closed schools in the spring, those groups and other organizations that participated were unable to take part, and they have been slow in returning to the garden beds.

In the last couple of years, Trahe has gotten anywhere from three to 38 volunteers on each of the dozen or so planting days.

“We have a greater need for volunteers because we don’t have as many groups to pull from,” she says. Fortunately, the numbers appear to be slowly increasing, and last year Loy Norrix High School students got involved again, Trahe says.

Volunteers’ responsibilities include not only digging holes, planting and mulching, but also helping with check-in of other volunteers, distributing snacks and filling other supportive roles.

“What we focus on is the annual flowers,” Trahe says. “Annuals leave this full color and beautiful blooms.” This year the first planting days, which will consist of filling Bronson Park’s two peacock topiary structures with dirt, will be on Friday, May 12, and Saturday, May 13.

Then on Monday and Tuesday, May 15 and 16, the planting of those two structures, known as Mike the Peacock and Mike Jr., will take place.

Wednesday through Saturday, May 17 through 20, planting will be done around Portage’s City Center, Library Lane and at the Portage Bicentennial Park trailhead. While the peacocks are the pride of Kalamazoo, butterfly and canoe topiaries welcome visitors to Portage.

Back in Kalamazoo on Monday, May 22, planting will be done at Arcadia Creek Festival Place in the morning and the Transportation Center in the afternoon. Tuesday, May 23, will be devoted to installing topiaries at Bronson Park, followed by three days, May 24-26, of planting at the park, Kalamazoo City Hall and the Kalamazoo County Courthouse.

“We try to have everything done before Memorial Day Weekend,” Trahe says.

Then, after the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Fair in Bronson Park on the first weekend in June, large pots of flowers will be added to the mix in the park as well as City Hall and the County Courthouse.

Volunteers range from first-timers to longtime volunteers like Linda Whitlock, who has been volunteering with Kalamazoo in Bloom for 25 years and has been on its board of directors since 2006, currently serving as vice president.

Before she retired in 2019, she was a horticulturist and coordinator of the master gardener program for Michigan State University Extension.

Retirement has freed her up to spend even more time planting, adopting a flowerbed to care for throughout the summer — another responsibility for which volunteers are needed — and helping main- tain other volunteers with their adopted flowerbeds. “I keep my fingernails dirty and my knees complaining,” she says.

Kalamazoo In Bloom has its roots in Kalamazoo County Flowerfest, an annual three-day festival that started in 1984, the brainchild of Gale Arent, its first president, who was MSU Extension director for the county.

“This was kind of his vision,” Whitlock says. Kalamazoo County Flowerfest gave way to Kalamazoo in Bloom in 2003.

Much of Kalamazoo in Bloom’s success is attributed to the area’s bedding-plant industry.

Napps Greenhouses provides the flowerbed flowers in Kalamazoo and Corstange Greenhouses does the same in Portage. The large pots of flowers come from River Street Flowerland.

“We support local; we buy local,” Trahe says. And that has proved to be a successful business model.

Over the years, Kalamazoo in Bloom and its predecessor Kalamazoo County Flowerfest have been recipients of the Governor’s Tourism Award in 1991, received recognition from America in Bloom in 200205, including a first place Community Involvement Award that first year, and received the 2015 President’s Award from Keep America Beautiful.

Celebrates the many benefits and joys of bicycling in the community. The 12th Annual KBW is May 13-20 plus, May is National Bike Month

KBW includes many local events including:

Vicksburg Bike Check Up

Saturday, May 13, 9am-10am

Location: Vicksburg Historical Museum

Sponsor :Vicksburg Historical Society

Free - Bike Check up and adjustments. Fee for any required parts.

Primary Contact Leah Richards 269-64917433

Bronson Park Cycle Show

Saturday, May 13, 10am-3pm

Location: Bronson Park

Sponsor: City of Kalamazoo Community Planning and Economic Development

Free to the public. Primary Contact: Nolan Bergstrom 269-337-8045

Bike Rodeo

Wednesday, May 17, 5pm-7pm

Location: Mayors Riverfront Park Sponsor: Kzoo Parks

This event will teach bike safety and skills. There will also be a bike and helmet fitting. Youth will receive a passport for each station completed. At the end of the course each child will receive a certificate of completion. There will also be giveaways and refreshments during the event.

For a complete list of events, sponsor, supporters and much more, go to Kalamazoobikeweek.org

Here’s a few selling points: You’ll help to preserve nature by creating biodiversity at home. In addition to saving money on your grocery bill, gardening is a form of exercise, and it’s good for your mental health as well. If time or space is a factor, remember you can start small with just a few herbs. Kalamazoo Nature Center’s Farm Director Kirsten Clemente says, “If you have a small area, but you want to feel like you’ve planted something for a meaningful contribution to your daily cooking, then plant a nice little herb garden in the ground or in a pot.”

Some suggested herbs include thyme, parsley, dill, oregano. It all depends on your preference and what you add to your dishes. Clemente added, “you’ll be snipping at that little garden throughout the summer and into the fall, and you won’t be spending outrageous prices for a few tiny sprigs at the supermarket.”

If you do put your veggies/flowers in the ground, however, keep in mind the best time to plant. Mid-May is what’s known as the frost-free date for