Editor’s Note: There will be Plant Sales in Bedford on two consecutive weekends. The Garden Club sale is tomorrow (May 9) and the 62nd annual First Parish Plant and Craft Fair begins at 10 am on Saturday, May 16. Lucky Bedford gardeners!
Submitted by the First Parish Plant & Craft Fair
With just a week to go before the 62nd annual First Parish Plant and Craft Fair, the plant that will be on offer are beginning to accumulate in gardens around Bedford. The fair will begin on Bedford Common on Saturday, May 16, when jazz musician and parishioner Bob Tyler and his saxophone serenade the customers waiting in line for the clock in the tower to strike 10 am.
What will you find at the Fair? Hearty annuals, heritage perennials, succulent herbs and Grocery Garden veggies along with a few surprise specialty plants.
Organizer Jean Balfour and nurseryman Marty Schaefer of Carlisle’s Joe Pye Weed nursery have been involved with the fair for most of their lives: Their late mothers, Betty Balfour and Eva Schaefer, organized the first fair in the mid-1950s.
The fair has grown in scope since its inception, with more than 40 crafters expected to participate this year, along with Chip-in Farm’s 4-H club’s petting zoo, and a hint of the return of First Parish’s populars Haunted House. There will be live music throughout the day, courtesy of Ellen and Dean Groves who grew up in First Parish.
For up-to-the-minute details between now and May 16, visit the Fair’s website or Facebook page.