Plants for the soul

TAGESSPIEGEL, June 8, 2012 

Berliners open their private gardens to the public. 

There! A crasher! And a dangerous one too. Martina Breyer’s voice sounds a little shrill as she identifies it: “ a lily beetle!” It’s now a matter of life and death. She picks the bright red insect from the leaf of a lily which still has no blossoms-and crushes it with her fingers: “They look so nice but you have to kill them or they’ll eat up the lilies.” After all they are Martina Breyer’s favorite flower. “They are so majestic and have wonderful colors.” The colors of her flowers inspire her art work made from felt and paper, which she exhibits at international art festivals.

The 55 year old artist stands in the garden in front of her studio, an old stable at the end of the third rear courtyard at 19 Acker Street in Mitte.

For two years she has tended 120 different plants here. This Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm one can visit her plants and felt artwork: she is one of 89 garden owners in Berlin and Brandenburg who participate in “Open Gardens 2012”. At 32 Bolteweg in Spandau, for example, one can find a garden full of butterflies and herbs. At 30 Muskauer Street in Kreuzberg ferns and a small pond in addition to flowers. Or at 38-40 Ruwersteig in Marzahn a fruit garden with objets d’art.

Martina Breyer can even claim one superlative: “Mine is probably the smallest garden in the program” she says proudly. And it is in sharp contrast to its rocky surroundings with little greenery in Mitte: “ Here on Acker Street there are really no trees or cultivated balconies” says Breyer. Just then a woman walks along the cobblestone path from the second courtyard, introduces herself as a new neighbor, and marvels: “You have an oasis here.” Breyer immediately invites her to the weekend. Later she will serve her guests coffee and homemade cakes in the small sitting area in the red and white plot. The beds of her garden are arranged by colors and months-from April to October. Where the plants grow is fully thought out. In the June bed the blossoms are blue and yellow: delphinium, bellflowers, and Jerusalem sage. Horseheal hasn’t bloomed yet. These plants were dug up near Lake Müritz (90 miles northwest of Berlin) and brought to Mitte: “They grow so quickly that I sometimes have to cut them back.” Not the only plant she has to crack down on: pink flowers need to be worried too: “I don’t like this or other pastel colors.” Unfortunately, the hydrangeas in the blue-yellow June bed suddenly bloomed pink instead of blue: “That’s because of the soil. I have even sprinkled them with alum salt to prevent that but it didn’t work.” She has read much about plants and experimented just as much.

The word that the artist’s courtyard garden is something special has gotten out: Last year she was honored by the group “Green League”, she relates. And a film crew from Japan made a half hour documentary about the garden, the artist, and her art. “I was hoping for a big exhibit in Japan” she says and laughs. Instead, only a group of thirty Japanese textile artists showed up in her garden and studio. So a particularly pretty garden even brings many visitors to the out of the way courtyard-next weekend (June 16-17 during the “Long Night of City Nature”) one can also see Breyer’s little oasis. “Love of plants came easily; now I can’t imagine living without them: a garden is good for the soul.”