Daily Archives: July 19, 2011

Wednesday, July 20, 7:00 pm – Sue Reed on Energy-wise Landscape Design

by

Tomorrow night, Wednesday, July 20, drive out to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s Elm Bank for an engrossing lecture on Energy-wise Landscape Design, beginning at 7 pm.  You spend thousands of dollars each year to heat and cool your home. You spend hundreds of hours maintaining (or thousands of dollars paying someone to maintain) your landscaping. It’s possible to lower both expenses through environmentally conscious landscaping.

Environmentally conscious landscaping is the use of the right trees and plants in the right places to ensure that your heating and cooling systems don’t have to work overtime to keep your home comfortable. It’s using rain water runoff intelligently to use less water while gardening. And it’s choosing plants that can get by on what Mother Nature provides.

Sue Reed, a landscape architect and author, will offer practical ways you can save money, time and effort while making your landscape more environmentally healthy and energy efficient. You’ll leave with a head full of ideas of how to make your landscape ‘green’ in a very different way. She’s an engaging speaker with an infectious manner.

All ‘Wednesday Evening at Elm Bank’ presentations begin at 7 p.m. and end when the last question is answered. The price for Mass Hort members is $10, the cost to non-members is $15. Refreshments are always served. Presentations are held in the Education Building. Reservations are not required.

Friday, August 12, 8:00 am – 12:00 noon, and Friday, August 19, 9:00 am – 1:00 pm – Organic Lawns and Landscapes Refresher Course

by

The Northeast Organic Farming Association will host an Organic Lawn and Landscapes Refresher Course with Instructor Chip Osborne on Friday, August 12, from 8 – 12 at UMass Amherst Campus Center, Rooms 904 – 908.  This course will be repeated on Friday, August 19 with Instructor Javier Gil, from 9 – 1, at the Parker River Wildlife Refuge in Newburyport, Massachusetts.  Practical skills and problem solving will be the themes of these refresher courses.  Additional topics will include soil testing, soil amendments, managing nutrition, grass types, and compost tea. Osborne and Gil will then delve into practical solutions for real-life landscape problems.  Case study examples will be explored in depth within small groups, with the goal of boosting students’ hands-on knowledge of organic lawns and landscaping and how to transition to organic management with success and cost-efficiency.  Re-accreditation credits available.  Workshop cost is $100 to the general public, $75 for NOFA members and AOLCPs.  To register, contact coordinator Kathy Litchfield at 413-773-3830, or email kathy@nofamass.org.

Friday, July 29 – Sunday, July 31, 9:30 am – 4:00 pm – Greenhouse Clearance Sale at Lyman Estate Greenhouses

by

It’s a great time to plant and get some deals on plants on Friday, July 29 – Sunday, July 31, from 9:30 – 4.  All the hosta, perennial, herb and annual plants at the greenhouses at Historic New England’s Lyman Estate are heavily discounted for this weekend sale.  The expert staff will help you choose plants for your garden conditions.  For those of you who await the Fall Clearance Sale, please not that this is the Fall Clearance Sale, moved up to July.  The Lyman Estate Greenhouses are located at 185 Lyman Street in Waltham, and there is free admission.  For more information, call 781-891-1985.