The Miller’s House Garden is an 1870’s Victorian-inspired design that honors the history of the Colonial Industrial Quarter.
This award-winning, community garden is located in the Colonial Industrial Quarter of Historic Bethlehem near Monocracy Creek. The garden has received many awards: The Preservation of Beauty Award from the Garden Club Federation of PA, was featured in an article in Herb Quarterly Magazine, was presented with the Golden Trowel Award by Garden Design Magazine, is a multiple Blue Ribbon recipient of the PA Horticulture Society's ‘Community Greening Award’, the ‘Kellogg Civic Achievement Award’ Certificate of Commendation from the National Garden Clubs, and a First Place ‘Civic Achievement Award’ from the Garden Club Federation of PA. The Miller's House Garden is designated a Certified Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.
Dedicated in 1989, the garden has been planned, planted, and continues to be tended by volunteer members of the Bethlehem Garden Club.
The Victorian Era garden features four rectangular raised beds comprising the Kitchen Garden with heirloom tomatoes, leeks, beans, peppers, and other vegetables; the Herb Garden containing both culinary and medicinal herbs; the Scented Garden with aromatic plants such as bee balm, phlox, and lilies; and the Cutting Garden featuring everlasting flowers including baby’s breath, globe thistle, and gomphrena. These beds surround a central circle planted with boxwood and geraniums. Among the highlights of the garden are the antique roses, traditionally planted close to the house for their beauty and fragrance. Lavender floats above the lower retaining wall with thymes carpeting the ground at their feet. In the Memorial Bed, at the garden’s entrance, sharing space with the flowers, trees, and shrubs are old fashioned fruits, including gooseberry and currents. In the West Entry Succulent Bed, you’ll find a delightful array of sedum, enhanced with peony and iris. Don’t miss the Hillside Gardens with coneflowers and black-eyed Susan peeking through the billowing ornamental grasses. Take a short stroll over to the Shed Garden and you’ll find our specimen trees which include a weeping mulberry, a purple-leaved plum, a Serviceberry, a Kousa dogwood, and a Magnolia.
The garden is open to the public at all times. There are no organized tours but there is a brochure/plant list available to visitors in the on-site ‘mailbox’.
The Bethlehem Garden Club welcomes visitors to travel back in time and walk its paths, relax on its benches, and enjoy the serenity of the Miller’s House Garden!