Boston Flora

Month: September 2009

  • Wednesdays, October 7 & 14, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Introduction to Home Orcharding

    With careful planning, home orcharding can be a low-maintenance means to grow lots of nutritious food in small and challenging spaces. This class would be useful to anyone who has a little space and wants to grow fruit, including pomes, stone fruits, berries and nuts. The class covers the process of planning, planting, and caring for a home orchard. The beginner home orchardist will receive a step-by-step guide to evaluating your space, selecting the right plant and nursery, developing a maintenance plan, and an introduction to reference materials.  The class will take place on two successive Wednesdays, October 7 and 14, from 6 pm to 9 pm at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive, Boylston, Massachusetts, and will be taught by Benjamin Crouch, proprietor of Land of Plenty Organic Landscaping.  Cost is $45 for Tower Hill members, $50 for non-members.  To register, log on to www.towerhillbg.org.  Last day of registration is September 30.

    http://www.bighorsecreekfarm.com/images/Red%20Astrachan.jpg

  • Sunday, October 4, 1:30 – 3:30 pm – Growing Green: Producing Natives with the Environment in Mind

    Join the New England Wild Flower Society on Sunday, October 4 from 1:30 – 3:30 at the Garden in the Woods in Framingham for a behind-the-scenes look at Nasami Farm, the New England Wild Flower Society’s native plant nursery in Whately, MA. How are they producing beautiful native plants for homeowners, land managers, garden designers and municipalities throughout New England while using sustainable propagation and production practices? Nursery Business Director Ron Wik shares the latest from Nasami, including everything from bio-degradable plant labels to a bicycle-powered plant cart for transporting trays of plants around the Farm. Find out how they share the land with a varietyof animal species including bluebirds, bobolinks, turtles, insects and more, all happy to enjoy the Nasami habitat. Ron is currently focused on increasing production efficiencies, expanding the selection of species of known provenance, improving the sustainability of production practices, and seeking out new and exciting plants to grow for the Society.  This program enhances The Garden Club of the Back Bay’s year long exploration of The Ethical Gardner, and you are encouraged to attend.  The program is free. For directions, log on to www.newfs.org, or call 508-877-7630.

    http://www.commonweeder.com//srv/htdocs/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/nasami-4-25.jpg

  • Saturday, September 26, 1 – 3 pm – Bring Nature into the Home: Build a Terrarium Garden

    Come to the Berkshire Botanical Garden in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts on Saturday, September 26, beginning at 1 pm, for this workshop, lecture and book signing with Tovah Martin. Learn about the whimsical yet practical world of gardening under glass – a way to bring nature indoors year round. When encased in glass, plants thrive with almost no help from out side their little enclosed world. This hands-on workshop will address the aesthetics and technical aspects of terrarium building. Plants, soil preparation, planting, container selection, design and maintenance will be covered. Participants will practice planting a glass terrarium with a selection of unique plants. A book signing of Tovah’s latest book The New Terrarium will follow the workshop. Tovah Martin is a horticulturist, writer and garden personality living in Northwest Ct. She writes for many horticultural publications and latest book is The New Terrarium published in 2009. She serves as editorial producer for the PBS television gardening series “Cultivating Life”.  Cost for BBG members is $45, non members $50, plus a materials fee of $25 paid to the instructor.  To register, or for more information, log on to www.berkshirebotanical.org.

    http://blog.craftzine.com/bookcover_thenewterrarium.jpg


  • Three Corn Maze Opportunities

    Have you ever walked through a corn maze?  This autumn, three fantastic opportunities await, one in Sterling, one in Sunderland, and one in Ipswich. The picture below, by the way, is not one of these featured mazes, but gives you an idea of what’s in store.  Pick a sunny day and commune with your inner child:

    Mega Maze Corn Maze — Sterling
    Now through November 15, 2009
    Every year brings a whole new puzzle, theme, and challenge.  Davis’ Mega Maze features more bridges than any other field maze in the world and the only double-decker bridge. There is more than one solution to the Mega Maze and there are several different levels of intensity at which the maze can be completed. All offer varying degrees of difficulty and a new maze experience. Location: Davis’ Mega Maze, 145 Redstone Hill. Time: August 6-Labor Day, open daily, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; September 8-10, closed; September 11-October 31, open weekends only, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; November 1-November 15. open weekends only, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Weather Decisions are made each day by 8 am. Cost: Adults, $16.95; seniors older than 60 and children age 5-12, $12.95. Information: 978-422-8888 or visit www.davisfarmland.com/megamaze.

    Mike’s Corn Maze at Warner Farm – Sunderland
    Now through October 31, 2009
    The 2009 Maze celebrates the 173rd anniversary of the conclusion of the voyage of The HMS Beagle. The maze features the famed British naturalist Charles Darwin with his penetrating gaze chiseled out of solid corn. Darwin is pictured with an assortment of the Galapagos finches whose habitats were isolated volcanic islands. Put on your farm appropriate footwear and come for a nature walk along miles of corn-lined trails. No pets. Location: Warner Farm, 25 South Main Street. Time: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Cost: Adults over age 13, $9; students and seniors over age 60, $8; children age 4-12, $6. Information: 413-665-8331 or visit www.mikesmaze.com.

    Marini Farm Corn Maze – Ipswich
    Now through October 31, 2009
    Experience one of the largest and most challenging corn mazes in the New England region. Travel ear to ear in 8 acres of interactive learning and adventure. Maize Quest is great fun for families, scouts, youth groups, and birthday parties. Location: 259 Linebrook Road. Time: Thursday and Friday, 3-6 p.m.; weekends, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Cost: Adults, $9.50; children younger than 12, $7.50. Information: 978-356-0430 or visit www.marinifarm.com.

  • Sunday, October 4, 10 – 5 – NRT Harvest & Crafts Fair

    The Natural Resources Trust of Easton (NRT) is a member-supported, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to educate about significant natural and cultural resources and to acquire and preserve land of special character for the benefit of the public. The NRT promotes a land ethic in the community through educational programming. The NRT provides leadership, cooperation and networking to others with a similar mission.  The Easton Garden Club (www.eastongardenclub.org) participates each year in the Annual NRT Harvest & Crafts Fair.  The Fair draws thousands of people from around New England who come to shop the many juried crafts booths.

    The Easton Garden Club’s civic role in the Harvest Fair is one of education, providing informational handouts on topics such as composting, attracting butterflies to your garden, and tips on native plants and trees.  There are many club members, knowledgeable about gardening, at its booth available to answer questions from the public throughout the day.  Club members harvest flowers from their gardens and pick (non-endangered!) native flowers, grasses, and vines growing along the roadsides.  They start in the late spring and continue through the fall.  The flowers are dried and stored until the week before the fair when many of the club members gather together to make wreaths, dried arrangements, and bouquets of flowers to sell. On Fair day they have ongoing demonstrations on subjects such as grapevine wreath making and flower arranging.  For directions to the Fair, log on to www.nrtofeaston.org.

  • Saturday, October 3, 9:00 am – 12 noon – The World’s Flora: Home in New England

    Embedded in the New England landscape and filling the catalogues of our nurseries are many plants that have achieved a sort of “resident” status here. Some of them may be among the earliest plants introduced to America from distant parts of the world; others arrived here more recently. This program, to be held at Tower Hill Botanic Garden on Saturday, October 3, from 9 – 12,  combines an indoor slide presentation with an outdoor walkabout to observe some of these plants growing in the on the grounds of Tower Hill.

    We will look at imports from a variety of habitats that were well suited for our conditions, including those that were altogether too well suited and now are designated “invasive species.” Whether you are a gardener tempted to try exotic plants, a geography buff who wants to learn more about the habitats of certain plants, or someone who is merely intrigued by the way in which plants can adapt to different environments, come join us for this brief sampling of international flora.

    Instructor Dennis Collins is a plant taxonomist on the staff of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass. He has degrees in arboriculture and park management, urban forestry and landscape management, and biodiversity and taxonomy of plants. He has worked at the Stockbridge School of Agriculture in Amherst, Mass., and the University of Edinburgh and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, in Scotland, and has taught many courses on horticultural subjects at Mount Auburn and the Arnold Arboretum. Once, long ago, he led a group of intrepid Garden Club of the Back Bay members on a walking tour of Mt. Auburn, which is still talked about as a highlight of our many wonderful programs. To register, log on to www.towerhillbg.org. The fee is $15 for Tower Hill members and $18 for non-members.

    http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/images/wsci_03_img0417.jpg

  • Wednesday, October 7, 7pm – The Universe in a Garden with Charles Jencks

    Charles Jencks, architectural theorist, landscape architect, and designer, has become a leading figure in British landscape architecture. His landscape work is inspired by fractals, genetics, chaos theory, waves and solitons. These themes are expressed in his award-winning design, the Landform Ueda at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, Scotland, and expanded in his own private landscape, the Garden of Cosmic Speculation, at Portrack House, near Dumfries.  Also a furniture designer and sculptor, Jencks completed the DNA Sculpture in London’s Kew Gardens in 2003. Jencks will speak about his design process as it applies to landscapes.  See photo below of his “Life Mounds” at Jupiter Artland.

    Fee: $20 Arnold Arboretum member, $25 nonmember. Presented by the Arnold Arboretum and Trinity Church in Boston. For more information, or to register, log on to www.arboretum.harvard.edu, or call 617-384-5277.

    "Life Mounds" by Charles Jencks by oosp.

  • Sunday, September 27, 11 am – 3 pm – Hop Brook Floodplain Walk

    The secluded Tyringham Valley is one of the most scenic areas in the southern Berkshires.  This field trip will take us through a variety of natural and pastoral landscapes, climaxing with a panoramic view of the surrounding countryside from the top of the Tyringham Cobble, a natural area owned by the Trustees of Reservations.  We will look closely at the flora of the Hop Brook floodplain, a calcareous wetland community with a remarkable variety of grasses, sedges, and wildflowers, including several rare species.  As we hike towards Tyringham Cobble, we will explore successional old fields and mixed hardwoods-hemlock slopes.  Songbirds and butterflies, as well as wildflowers, grace the meadows of this special area.  The hike is about 4 miles long and moderately strenuous.  Wear suitable foot gear (feet may get wet in the floodplain) and bring a lunch.  The walk on Sunday, September 27, will begin at 11 a.m., will be led by Ted Elliman, is limited to 15 participants, and is co-sponsored by The Trustees of Reservations. $40 fee for members of NEWFS and The Trustees of Reservations, $45 for non-members.  To register, log on to www.newfs.org, or call 508-877-7630.

    http://www.newfs.org/visit/picture-gallery/Fall/Fall%20Foliage%20GITW%20S.Ziglar%2010.14.08%20011.jpg/image_preview

  • Friday, October 2, 5 – 8 pm – The 2009 Great Glass Pumpkin Preview Party

    Visit the Kresge Oval on Friday evening to preview the complete installation of 1,000 handblown glass pumpkins, created by artists from the MIT Glass Lab. Pumpkin sales are Saturday, October 3 only, from 10 am to 3 pm, with a rain date on Sunday, October 4. Up-to-date rain date information will be posted on http://web.mit/glasslab/sales_pumpkin.html.

    Proceeds from this event benefit The MIT Glass Lab, where the MIT community can learn and practice the art of glassblowing.

    The Great Glass Pumpkin Patch came to MIT in 2001 after a residency in the Glass Lab by 14 members of the Bay Area Glass Institute (BAGI). The Bay Area Glass Institute (a non-profit corporation located in San Jose, CA), was founded in 1995 by San Jose State graduate Bobby Bowes and MIT alumnus Mike Binnard.

    Every week or so, beginning, intermediate, and advanced students work together for a few hours in teams of six or seven to produce pumpkins for the sale. Production for the October event continues steadily throughout the year in order to achieve their goal of 1000-1200 pumpkins.

    The Great Glass Pumpkin Patch @ MIT

  • Thursdays, October 1 & 8, 5:45 – 7:45 pm – Habitat Gardening

    The Cambridge Center for Adult Education will offer a two session course led by Kim DeAndrade and Ellen Sousa on Habitat Gardening. You don’t need to get in the car and drive somewhere to enjoy nature. By learning to create a backyard habitat, you can create a sanctuary for songbirds, butterflies, and people, right in your own backyard. In this two-session course, for beginners or experienced gardeners, you will learn how and what to plant to attract various kinds of wildlife; how birds, dragonflies, bats, and beneficial insects all provide free pest control; plus other ecological gardening techniques. They will walk you through the process of providing the four elements that wildlife need: food, water, cover, and places to rear their young. They will explain how your property, large or small, can become a National Wildlife Federation-certified backyard wildlife habitat. Beautiful photos of New England habitat gardens will inspire you and wash away any remaining post-winter doldrums. Help create habitat, one yard at a time! Limited to 16.
    Sec. 01: 2 Thursdays, 5:45-7:45 pm. Oct. 1 & 8, 56 Brattle St. | $75
    Course Code: HABG–1
    To register, log on to www.ccae.org.
    Ends on: October 08, 2009
    Price:75.00