Daily Archives: November 10, 2011

Saturday, November 19, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – The Organic Home Orchard

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Join holistic orchardist Michael Phillips at the Berkshire Botanical Garden on Saturday, November 19, from 1 – 4,  for an intensive program on growing all kinds of fruit in the back yard. Successfully growing fruit for your family becomes straightforward when you narrow the big picture down to getting the basics right. Harvesting sunlight through smart pruning is what renews fruit buds. Fungal disease becomes manageable with wise variety choices and enhanced soil biology. Even major insect challenges can be resolved safely when you perceive who, what, and when. All sorts of fruits—from apples and pears to peaches and cherries and onward to berries—make for a diverse home orchard planting. Confidence to integrate tree fruits into your landscape begins with embracing biodiversity and knowing how to steward system health. This program will be useful for both backyard growers as well as small-market fruit growers with a focus on growing healthy organic fruit. Michael’s new book The Holistic Orchard, published by Chelsea Green Publishing, will be hot off the press and available for sale at the lecture.

Michael Phillips is known across the country for helping people grow healthy apples and understand the healing virtues of plant medicines. Information about the “community orchard movement” he helped found is available at www.GrowOrganicApples.com and provides a full immersion into the holistic approach to orcharding. His Lost Nation Orchard has two acres of trees and supplies local families with many varieties of organic apples. Michael was honored by Slow Food USA to receive the first Betsy Lydon Ark Award for his work promoting healthy ways to grow fruit.  The fee to attend is $45, and you may register online at www.berkshirebotanical.org.

Saturday, November 19, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Tiny Gardens: Build a Terrarium Garden

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Although not new to gardening, terrariums are enjoying renewed interest. In this Berkshire Botanical Garden class, to be held Saturday, November 19 from 10 – 12, learn about gardening under glass — a way to bring nature indoors year round. When enclosed in glass, plants thrive with almost no help from outside of their little world. This hands-on workshop will address the aesthetics and technical aspects of terrarium building including plants, soil preparation, planting, container selection, design and maintenance. Participants will build a tiny garden gem in glass using a unique selection of plants. Elisabeth Cary, who will conduct this session, is Director of Education at the Berkshire Botanical Garden and has been making terrariums for many years. She is a home gardener and specializes in woody plants, mixed borders and vegetable gardening. The fee is $50 for BBG members, $60 for non-members, plus a $15 materials fee paid to the instructor. You may register on line at www.berkshirebotanical.org.