The Emerald Necklace Conservancy announces a brand-new, mobile-friendly website, https://www.emeraldnecklace.org/, full of exciting tools to make the Emerald Necklace parks even more accessible. Explore the Necklace’s parks with our informative, interactive map; discover each park’s history and hidden treasures; and learn more about the Conservancy’s work in these extraordinary landscapes over the past three decades—and counting!
With this new website comes a new look and feel for our organization—including a new logo that bridges the Emerald Necklace’s rich history with its dynamic future.
This important update was made possible with generous support from our communities, alongside hundreds of comments and thoughtful feedback from neighbors, advocates, and park users like you.
Join Master Gardener Chris Ferrero at Berkshire Botanical Garden on Saturday, September 26 from 1 to 3 p.m., to explore how to maintain perennial borders, foundation plots and vegetable gardens that have been created and tended over the years. This course will teach participants how to reshape their garden design and how to choose appropriate types of plants that can improve the gardening process.
Chris Ferrero is a gardening speaker, writer and consultant. Chris is a Cornell Master Gardener from Dutchess County, N.Y., where in addition to speaking and teaching classes, she has led demonstration garden renovations, organized regional events and served on teams as a perennials specialist known for particular expertise in shade gardening, flowering shrubs, pollinator-approved planting designs, and native plants as alternatives to invasives. $30 for BBG members, $45 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/gardening-baby-boomers-10-ways-garden-smarter-we-get-older
The Garden Club of the Back Bay will hold its first meeting of 2026/2027 on Tuesday, September 22 at the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Boston Nature Center & Wildlife Sanctuary in Mattapan, followed by a picnic lunch. This is a members only event. The Sanctuary is an oasis not far from the center of the city that is home to over 150 species of birds, 40 species of butterflies, and more than 350 plant species. We’ll explore a young Miyawaki Method mini-forest, as well as learn about an exciting new initiative to de-channelize the canterbury brook with a full restoration of the brook and its wetlands.
Bring your lunch and enjoy an optional picnic with fellow GCBB members outside if the weather cooperates, or inside if it doesn’t. If you are not yet a member of the Club but wish to become one, visit https://gardenclubbackbay.org/join
Over 5,000 glowing jack-o’-lanterns transform the Roger Williams Park Zoo into New England’s premier fall experience. Tickets sold online only. https://www.rwpzoo.org/jols/.
Roger Williams Park Zoo’s Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular: The Great Pun-Kin Trail, presented by Citizens, returns October 1 through November 1 with an all-new trail of clever carvings guaranteed to make you smile, groan, and laugh out loud.
This year’s theme celebrates the art of the pun, with thousands of hand-carved pumpkins bringing witty wordplay to life through pop culture references, playful characters and pun-believable scenes. From clever one-liners to delightfully cheesy dad jokes, there’s something to make every guest grin as they stroll The Great Pun-Kin Trail, where over 5,000 glowing jack-o’-lanterns transform the Zoo into New England’s premier fall experience.
Enjoy the magic of autumn at Roger Williams Park Zoo. All tickets are timed, available online only, and must be purchased in advance. Don’t miss New England’s “must-see” family-friendly event of the Halloween season!
Free nightly parking is available on a first-come, first-served basis, with optional premium parking available. Please remember to bring along your patience – the magical experience inside is worth every moment!
Pumpkin trail is open nightly from 6:00 – 10:30 pm, last entry at 10:00 pm. The Spectacular is open rain or shine, all tickets are non-refundable and cannot be exchanged for a different date.
Charles River Watershed Association cordially invites you to our… Charles River Sunset Soirée at the Charles River Boat Company on Tuesday, September 22 from 6 – 8 PM
We look forward to celebrating YOU, the friends and supporters who make CRWA’s work to protect and preserve the Charles River Watershed possible. Mark your calendars for a beautiful evening on our beloved river aboard Charles Riverboat Company’s Charles I.
Take in the spectacular views of sunset over Boston while cruising up the river with friends, allies, and partners. Enjoy heavy hores d’oeuvre, an open bar, and community as we celebrate our lasting commitment to a clean, resilient Charles River and all that we’ve accomplished this year, together.
In the early 20th century, U.S. government scientists and their European colleagues went to great lengths to seek out and bring home from abroad new seeds and cultivars for farms, gardens, and orchards. But in many cases these “plant explorers,” though much vaunted in their day, wound up triggering what we now consider ecological disasters: Some of their discoveries are among the 21st century’s most detested invasive species, joining others that arrived via the pet trade or through the simple carelessness of an earlier era. How did Western attitudes toward imported plants and animals change so completely within a century? The answer is a story of evolving scientific understanding, shifting political winds, and changes in how humans think about nature and our place within it.
Through case studies, historical surveys, exploration of media coverage over the years, and conversations with both experts and the community members who serve as foot soldiers in the war on invasive species, journalist Amy Crawford explores how confronting anxieties about nature and the role of humans in a changing world can place unwanted plants and animals in a new light—and teach us all to be better stewards.
Crawford’s new book, Undesirable: Invasive Species, Humans, and Where We All Belong (Oxford University Press), is available separately for purchase on the registration page. Lecture: $20 Smithsonian Members, $30 nonmembers. https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/programs/invasive-species
The Charles River Watershed Association is sponsoring a City Streams Walk on Friday, September 11 from 10:30 – noon. It’s part of the Meet Your Watershed Event Series. Meet at Mass Audubon’s Boston Nature Center & Wildlife Sanctuary, 500 Walk Hill Street in Mattapan. Join CRWA and Mt. Hope Canterbury Neighborhood Association for a walking tour of Canterbury Brook. For more information visit https://www.crwa.org/events
In April 2027, Formaggio Kitchen’s owner, Julia Hallman, will join Anna Juhl and Jilly Sitch of Cheese Journeys, on a Downton Abbey-style Cheese Journey across Britain. Open to all travelers, this is a unique opportunity for cheese lovers to learn from England’s foremost cheese and wine expert, and author, Patrick McGuigan, as well as Britain’s most renowned artisan cheesemakers.
This one-of-a-kind experience commences with a meet-up in London for a private tour of Borough Market with the beloved guide and TV chef host Celia Brooks. Then, travelers will spend the afternoon with the team of experts at Neal’s Yard Dairy for an insider’s tour of their aging caves and an exclusive look into the world of British cheese.
The group will then travel west for a seven-day stay at the Downton Abbey-style manor North Cadbury Court, one of the finest historic properties in Somerset, England. Guests will enjoy chef-prepared meals, tour scenic farms, and witness Cheddar making firsthand. We’ll also be hosting a grand dinner party with 15 of Britain’s most renowned cheese producers at the Court.
During this trip, you’ll enjoy hands-on cooking demonstrations with your favorite British cheesemakers and French chefs, indulge in a unique golf game (from the roof of the manor house!), walk the historic grounds of Camelot and King Arthur, and explore the exciting city of Bath (home to Roman baths and Jane Austen)!
NOTE: There is only one single-occupancy and one double-occupancy opening left for this trip! To find out more and to register visit www.cheesejourneys.com
Join Miciah Stasis-Harding, Herring Pond Wampanoag, for one-hour guided tours of Awashonks’ Garden in Little Compton, Rhode Island on September 19 from 11 – noon. All ages welcome. Visit www.littlecompton.org for more information. The program will be repeated on October 3.
Free to Little Compton Historical Society Members. Free to Members of Native Communities. General Public-Included in the cost of LCHS Admission. $10 Reservations Highly Recommended. Call 401-635-4035, included in cost of admission.
Milk Street is heading to Parish Hill Creamery in Westminster West, Vermont to learn from the cheesemakers who teach cheesemakers – Peter Dixon and and Rachel Fritz Schaal. The three day course takes place March 1 – 3, 2027.
Peter and Rachel usually only teach professional cheesemakers, but they’ve amended their professional-level course for us, the home cheesemaker. We’re honored they are welcoming us to their dairy and sharing their expertise with us.
Parish Hill can only fit 8 students and we’re inviting you to grab your spot. You’ll make a wide range of cheeses using both raw and pasteurized milk, from fresh mozzarella to aged tomme, and learn the science and craft of natural cheesemaking.
During hands-on sessions, lectures, demos and tastings, Rachel and Peter will help you understand the nature and qualities of milk, the mechanisms and techniques necessary for transforming milk into curd and curd into cheese, and the nuances of cheesemaking. Rachel and Peter believe that a solid understanding of science is essential to the craft and each day will include in-depth science lectures to inform your practice on site and back home.
At each cheesemaking session, you’ll also talk about the style of cheese, where and how it developed and ways to adapt the specific techniques to your home kitchen. You’ll measure milk and cultures for each recipe, learning when and why to use raw milks and pasteurized ones. And you’ll heat, cut, stir, hoop and stretch curds to experience how the same ingredients become entirely different cheeses depending on the different techniques you use.
We’ll pause every day for a group lunch, cooked by Milk Street, that features local cheeses and ingredients. And throughout the sessions, we’ll taste a range of Parish Hill and other local Vermont cheeses to consider how cheesemaking choices provide sustenance as well as joy.
