Boston Flora

Month: July 2011

  • Saturday, August 13, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm – Build a Stone Trough Planter

    Learn how to make planters that look like old stone troughs out of a mixture called “Hypertufa”. In Europe, plants are often grown in stone troughs-ancient vessels once used for watering livestock. The craggy look of the hewn stone perfectly complements herbs, flowers and most especially rock garden and drought tolerant plants. Planting in troughs also raises the height of plants in the garden and segregates them from their larger neighbors. Learn how to design and produce unique Hypertufa troughs for your garden. Students will be guided through the process and will take home several troughs of their own creation. Debra Pope is an artisan working with Hypertufa medium to construct artistic custom troughs. Her troughs are sold throughout the northeast including Tower Hill Botanic Garden, Berkshire Botanical Garden and Stonecrop. Her popular workshops are offered at botanical gardens and for garden clubs in New England.  The workshop will be held Saturday, August 13, from 10 – noon at the Berkshire Botanical Garden, 5 West Stockbridge Road in Stockbridge, and costs $45 for BBG members, $50 non-members, plus a $15 materials fee.  For more information, log on to www.berkshirebotanical.org. Molds for project below from www.delsmolds.com.

  • Tuesday, August 9, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Composting: Easy, Cheap, Nutrient Rich

    This NOFA workshop on Tuesday, August 9, from 6 – 8 at the Southwest Corridor Community Garden in Jamaica Plain, explores a variety of compost methods, including: efficient microbes, vermiculture, tumblers, barrels, and plain old piles. Presenter Allison Fastman will talk about what methods are best for different situations, what can and cannot be composted with each system, rat and pest control, nitrogen and carbon balance, and how to collect and use compost tea. Allison will also go over how to make a composter for each method, how to find excellent free materials, and how to use compost to enrich soils. $18 NOFA members/$20 Non-members. About the instructor: Allison Fastman has been gardening since she learned to walk under the tutelage of her parents and grandparents. She’s read and experimented extensively at home and in the classroom both as a student and teacher. To register for the workshop or for more information visit www.nofamass.org or contact Laura Eppstein at (617) 913-0538, or by email at laura@nofamass.org.  Image below from www.tinyfarmblog.com.

  • Tuesday, August 16 – Thursday, August 18, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Botanical Illustration with Colored Pencil

    This Berkshire Botanical Garden three day intensive workshop, from 10 – 4 on  Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, August 16, 17 and 18 will focus on colored pencil techniques for botanical illustration. Learn ways to create textured backgrounds with the brilliant hues of colored pencils. This versatile color medium can create colors smooth as glass and rough as sandpaper and by changing technique mimic an oil painting, pastel or watercolor. Discover which colors glow together and others that harmonize in a composition. Explore a full range of techniques for creating both bold and subtle effects that will bring a botanical drawing alive. Participants should bring a pear and other fruits or flowers to include in their illustrations.  Bring a bag lunch and enjoy your meal in and around the garden.

    Carol Ann Morley is an illustrator and dedicated teacher of botanical illustration working in Dover, NH. She founded the Botanical Art Illustration Certificate Program at the New York Botanical Garden and teaches illustration there and for other botanical gardens. This is Ms. Morley’s only workshop at the Berkshire Botanical Garden for 2011.  To register on line ($195 for BBG members, $225 for nonmembers) log on to www.berkshirebotanical.org, or call 413-298-3926.

     

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

    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

    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

    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.

  • Saturday, August 6, 10:00 am – Southeastern Massachusetts Food & Wine Tour

    Join Slow Food Boston on Saturday, August 10, beginning at 10 am,  for the opportunity to get out of the city and enjoy some of the beautiful farmland and vineyards of Southeastern Massachusetts.

    You will meet your guides at Bay End Farm in Buzzards Bay, which was founded in 1906 and has been providing produce to families, farmers markets and restaurants around Boston and Cape Cod for several years. At Bay End, we will partake in a farm tour and walk while learning about organic farming and CSA’s. Before you leave you will enjoy a lunch (a sandwich packed with plenty local goodness).

    After you depart Bay End, you head for Great Hill Dairy in Marion, known for their unique blue cheese, made by using traditional techniques.  You will hear from the cheese makers themselves as well as tour their facility. And of course, it wouldn’t be a Slow Food event without eating…so you will get the chance to sample some cheese!

    The Grand Finale of the tour is a visit to Westport Rivers Vineyard which is owned and operated by the Russell family. They are known for their sparkling wines and white varietals. Here you will partake in a wine tasting.

    Upon registration, driving directions will be sent to you. They encourage people to carpool and therefore, if you wish to be connected with other participants with whom to share a ride, let Slow Food know!  The cost is a modest $25, and you may reserve online at www.slowfoodboston.com.

  • Saturday, July 23, 12:00 noon – 4:00 pm – Daylily Exhibition

    Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, Massachusetts will host a Daylily Exhibition on Saturday, July 23 from 12 – 4.  This American Hemerocallis Society Accredited Show is sponsored by the New England Daylily Society.  From noon to one o’clock, enjoy a powerpoint presentation entitled Extending the Northern Daylily Bloom Season.  Learn how to extend the bloom season using Early, Late, Northern Rebloomers, and Bud Builder daylilies.  With careful selection, daylilies will be in bloom June to frost.  The presenter will distribute an article More is Beautiful, Extending the Northern Bloom Season, Parts I and II, to the audience.  There will be free raffles from 1 – 1:30, an American Hemerocallis Society Membership table with discounts and bonus gifts for joining, an exhibition, and of course, a sale.  Free with admission to Tower Hill.  For more information log on to www.towerhillbg.org.

  • Thursday, August 4, 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm – Forest Hills: An Early American Garden Cemetery

    Anthony Mitchell Sammarco, author of Forest Hills Cemetery: 1848 – 2008, discusses the history of the cemetery and explores the rural cemetery movement of the nineteenth century on Thursday, August 4, from 5:30 – 7:30 at Historic New England’s Otis House in Boston.  The reception, co-sponsored with The Victorian Society in America, NE Chapter, begins at 5:30, with the talk commencing at 6:30.  $10 for HNE and Victorian Society members, $12 non-members.  Registration is recommended – call 617-994-5934, or visit www.historicnewengland.org.

  • Wednesday, July 27, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm – A Picnic in the Park

    The Friends of Hayes Park invite you to A Picnic in the Park on Wednesday, July 27, from 6 – 9 (rain date, Thursday, July 28.)  There will be live music with Wayne Potash and his Music Fun Band (below).  Hayes Park is located at the corner of West Canton Street and Warren Avenue in the South End.  The picnic will take place from 6 – 7:30.  Hot dogs and hamburgers will be provided.  Please bring dishes to share.  For more information, visit www.HayesPark.org.