The First Parish Church, 3 Church Street in Cambridge will host an Earth Dinner potluck on Saturday, February 6, from 5 – 9 pm, which will feature local foods, with a Slow Foods Boston representative, local farmers, and food producers discussing the local food movement. For more information, log on to www.slowfoodboston.com, or call the church at 617-876-7772.
The Garden Club of the Back Bay thanks its many volunteers at the annual winter Tea, this year to be held at The Mandarin Oriental Hotel on Boylston Street in Boston. Save Tuesday, February 9, from 3 – 5 pm. Details will be mailed to the membership soon.
Come to the University of Massachusetts Waltham Center, 240 Beaver Street in Waltham, on Tuesday, February 16, beginning at 9:30 am, for a fascinating demonstration of the art of ikebana, and to see a demonstration of furoshiki, which is Japanese Gift Wrapping with Cloth, by Minal Akkad. For more information, log on to www.ikebanaboston.org.
Take a short course on the principles and practice of making maple syrup, from identifying the maple tree to bottling the syrup. Practical advice on simple procedures and equipment for each step will prepare you for an enjoyable late winter outdoor experience and a sweet reward. You will go home with a bucket, lid, spile (you’ll find out), and hook – ready to jump into the upcoming season. This one session event takes place Saturday, February 6, from 10:00 am to 12:00 noon at the Natick Community Organic Farm, and is sponsored by the Boston Center for Adult Education. The cost is $40, and you may register on line at www.bcae.org.
Join Tower Hill Botanic Garden Executive Director John Trexler this Saturday, January 16, at 9:00 am, as he continues to improve the trails in the Asian Woods. Learn basic plant identification, as well as proper pruning techniques – not to mention good, healthy aerobic exercise. Bring gloves and pruning tools. Free. Meet in the Great Hall. For directions and more information, log on to www.towerhillbg.org.
Great scenery and exercise, who could want more? A brisk winter walk will help you stay healthy and connected to the Arnold Arboretum at a time when the landscape is pared down to its beautiful bones. The emphasis is on fitness, with a healthy dose of information on seasonal plants and points of interest.  Join an Arnold Arboretum docent for this free walk, starting at 1 pm on Sunday, January 24 and lasting approximately 45 minutes. Meet at the Hunnewell Visitor Center. No registration is necessary. After the tour, warm up with a cup of tea or hot chocolate in the Visitor Center. For more information or possible weather cancellations, please call 617-384-5209. For directions, log on to www.arboretum.harvard.edu.
Create your own fun and winter memories on Fruitlands Museum’s 200 acre wintery wonderland and catch snowy views of towering Tree Figures. Enjoy hot chocolate by the bonfire and snacks served by the skating rink. Enjoy the sled runs and groomed trails. Bring your own ice skates, sleds, cross country skis, and snowshoes. Members of Fruitlands Museum (in Harvard, Massachusetts) $5, non members $10 per carload and please bring a non-perishable donation to Loaves & Fishes, combating hunger in Massachusetts. Severe winter weather cancels the event, so if in doubt, call 978-456-3924. For directions to 102 Prospect Hill Road in Harvard, log on to www.fruitlands.org.
Dan Pearson is one of the most important and influential landscape designers working today. At the heart of all his gardens lies an unshakable theme – his reverence for the power and delicacy of nature. In this lecture on Tuesday, January 19, beginning at 7 pm at Trinity Church on Copley Square, Dan will demonstrate his design process, in which he extrapolates on the spirit of place as it emerges through geography, history, architecture, and native flora. Dan will explain how he believes landscapes—both wild and designed—speak to us, how human interventions in the landscape can animate and inform, and how they can serve to memorialize and to heal.
Fee $20 Arnold Arboretum member, $25 nonmember
Dan Pearson is a landscape designer with an international reputation for design and planting excellence. His key strengths are horticultural expertise, an informed and intuitive approach to the organization of space, and the practice of ecological and sustainable design principles. Dan trained at Wisley, a Royal Horticultural Society garden, and at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He is a weekly gardening columnist for The Observer, before which he was a columnist for The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times. He is co-author of The Essential Garden Book (with Sir Terence Conran) and author of The Garden: A Year at Home Farm. He has presented and appeared in several TV series and has designed five award-winning Chelsea Flower Show gardens. To register, log on to www.arboretum.harvard.edu.
Here is a two session course you’re really going to love. Kevin Bell, Director of Community and Cooperative Education at Norfolk County Agricultural High School, will speak on Tuesday, February 9 and Tuesday, February 23, from 6:30 – 8:30 at the Hunnewell Building at the Arnold Arboretum on a challenging topic for many of us. You’ve probably heard the phrase “math makes cents,â€and now you can put it to good use. This class will cover the basics of horticultural math with topics such as determining the amount of topsoil or mulch for an area, calculating fertilizer and lime applications, figuring how many plants to use in a garden bed or border, and using conversions in the industry. It makes no difference whether you are a hobby gardener or a landscape professional—this refresher math class will increase your productivity and accuracy in planning your gardens and lawns!
Fee $45 Arnold Arboretum member, $55 nonmember. To register, log on to www.arboretum.harvard.edu.
Come to the Berkshire Botanical Gardens on Saturday, January 23 from 10 am – 12 noon for an illustrated lecture by Karen Perkins, owner of Garden Vision Epimediums, a mail order nursery offering 160 species and varieties of epimediums along with other choice perennials. She lectures frequently at botanical gardens and for garden clubs throughout New England.
This lecture will explore a wide selection of epimediums and focus on some of the exciting new evergreen species from China. Known by some as the ultimate groundcover for dry shade, the new availability of the “perfect shade perennial” is just being discovered by most gardeners. Epimedium’s delicate beauty belies their tough, long-lasting nature. Learn about growth habit, cultivation requirements, propagation, sources, and pests and diseases. The instructor will also discuss the collecting trips that epimedium expert Darrell Probst, founder of Garden Vision, has made to China.
The cost to attend this event is $18 for BBG members and $24 for non-members. You may find more information, and directions, on the Berkshire Botanical Garden’s website, www.berkshirebotanical.org.
