Daily Archives: April 24, 2012

Friday, April 27 and Saturday, April 28, 8:30 am – 2:00 pm – Boston Shines and Alley Rally

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Join Mayor Thomas M. Menino for Boston Shines 2012, the 10th annual citywide neighborhood cleanup, on Friday, April 27 and Saturday, April 28 from 8:30 am – 2:00 pm.  To volunteer, or for more information, contact the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services at 617-635-3485.  For information after working hours, call 617-635-4500, or visit www.cityofboston.gov to register online.

In Back Bay specifically, The Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay sponsors Alley Rally 2012. Spring is definitely here, and Alley Rally 2012 will sweep through the neighborhood on Saturday, April 28, 2012, from 9:00 a.m. through noon. Coordinating with Mayor Menino’s Citywide Cleanup, come and join your neighbors, including groups from local fraternities and some of our Back Bay schools, in sweeping the alleys and side streets. Thanks to donations from our local businesses, we provide coffee, juice and doughnuts at the Clarendon Street Playground starting at 8:30 a.m. At 9:00 a.m., we will divide in groups and head off to clean. After we finish, there will be a picnic lunch (also donated by Back Bay businesses) for the volunteers at the playground. This is a great way to get to know your neighbors and spruce up the neighborhood at the same time. NABB has been conducting the Alley Rally since 1967! For further information, please contact Ellen Rooney at parnell3@verizon.net.

Thursday, May 3, 7:00 pm – Backyard Apples

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The visual experience of flowering fruit trees in the home landscape is surpassed only by the delicious variety of summer and fall fruits which they produce. Growing apples successfully can be a horticultural challenge, but it can be done! Dr. Wes Autio will present a program at Elm Bank on Thursday, May 3 beginning at 7 pm  on how to grow apples in the home landscape. Varieties, root stocks, young-tree care, nutrition, pruning, training, and pest control will be covered.

Wes Autio grew up in a rural/tourist part of western Maine and received his B.S. degree in Horticulture from Virginia Tech and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Pomology from UMass. In 1985, he joined the faculty at the University of Massachusetts. He currently serves as the UMass Fruit Program Leader and Coordinator of the Stockbridge School of Agriculture’s Fruit & Vegetable Crops Program. He regularly interacts with tree-fruit farmers and the many individuals interested in tree fruit in the landscape. His research focuses on apple and peach rootstocks and controlling growth of apple trees with mechanical and hormonal approaches.  Photo from Through a Glass, Darkly. Free, but registration recommended at www.masshort.org.