Boston Flora

Month: September 2012

  • Saturday, September 29, 8:30 am – 3:30 pm – At the Root: Understanding and Managing Healthy Soils

    Healthy soil is the basis of healthy plant communities – join the Ecological Landscaping Association and Garden in the Woods for this in-depth, full-day workshop on Saturday, September 29, from 8:30 – 3:30 (lunch included) with instructors Dawn Pettinelli, Manager of the Soil Nutrient Analysis Laboratory at the University of Connecticut and Peter Schmidt, Certified Arborist and Certified Soil Foodweb Advisor. This workshop will include microscope work and additional soil demonstrations in the gardens. Register at www.ecolandscaping.com, or at Eventville at https://www.eventville.com/catalog/eventregistration1.asp?eventid=1009610.

  • Wednesday, September 19, 6:00 pm – Artists in the Arboretum 2012: Looking Closely

    The Arnold Arboretum, in conjunction with Jamaica Plain Open Studios, will host a juried group exhibition devoted to art inspired by the plants, landscape, and collections of the Arnold Arboretum. The theme for this year’s show is “Looking Closely.”  Join the Arboretum staff on Wednesday, September 19th at 6 pm for a reception with the artists in the Hunnewell Building Lecture Hall at the Arboretum.  The show will run through November 18, 2012.

  • Saturday, September 22, 9:00 am – 3:45 pm – Take a Shot: A Digital Photography Symposium

    The Boston Center for Adult Education (BCAE) will hold its second annual Take a Shot: Digital Photography Symposium, an educational opportunity for all those with an interest in what goes on behind the camera, on Saturday, September 22 beginning at 9 am.

    Open to students of all levels, the symposium is designed to provide information and technique sharing through various interactive and intensive workshops taught by some of the most recognized photographers in New England including:

    Chris Padgett, Landscape and Event Photographer, Contributor to Stuff Magazine; Diallo Ferguson, Owner of Visual Affects Studios and Producer of A Passion 4 Fashion TV; Mitch Weiss, Artist; Jason Rich, Author of How To Do Everything Digital Photography; Conor Doherty, Photographer; and Joel Veak, Professional Lifestyle and Commercial Photographer, Contributor to Stuff Magazine.

    The day-long symposium, sponsored by Hunt’s Photo and Video, New England’s largest photography retailer, will offer workshops of varying concentrations including: How To Figure Out Your Digital Camera, Digital Photography 101, Picture Process: Photography As Fine Art, Eye Catching Vacation Photos, Professional Lighting Tips And Tricks and About Face: Perfect Portraits.

    Whether students have been shaping their photography skills for years or have just purchased their first camera, this symposium offers something beneficial and exciting for everyone.

    The cost of the symposium is a one-time fee of $125.00 and includes three unique classes, lunch and hand-outs and take-homes from the instructors.  The event will take place at 122 Arlington Street, and you may register online at www.bcae.org.

  • Thursday, September 13, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Planting an Autumn Container Garden

    Trish Wesley-Umbrell of Natick Community Organic Farm will speak at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street in Wellesley, on Thursday, September 13 beginning at 7 pm. The classes are priced at $12 for members and $15 for non-members unless otherwise indicated. There is no need to pre-register and you may pay at the class.  Trish will demonstrate the way to extend the season for your potted containers well into Thanksgiving.

  • Thursday, September 20, 10:00 am – Great Gardens of the Northeast

    The Garden Club of the Back Bay opens its 2012/2013 program year focused on Gardens of America on Thursday, September 20, beginning at 10 am at The College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue. Join Adriana O’Sullivan for a spectacular armchair garden tour from Washington, DC to Mount Desert Island in Maine. This one-hour presentation focuses on some of the finest gardens the Northeast has to offer. Dumbarton Oaks in Washington D.C., designed by Beatrix Farrand between 1921 and 1941, Wave Hill Botanic Garden in The Bronx, Kykuit, the Rockefeller estate in Sleepy Hollow, NY (pictured below), the magnificent gardens at Old Westbury on Long Island, Edith Wharton’s estate ‘The Mount’, and Naumkeag in the Berkshire hills. In New Hampshire we visit the home and studio of Augustus Saint Gaudens and on Mount Desert Island in Maine we will see the Thuya Gardens, the Asticou Azalea Garden and the famous Abby Aldridge Rockefeller Garden. All gardens are a feast for the eye and all are open to the public.  GC members will receive written notification.  The public is invited, with a requested $5 donation, and may rsvp at info@bostonflora.com.

  • Thursday, September 27, 8:30 am – 3:30 pm – At the Root: Air Tools Workshop

    Join Rolf Briggs and Matt Foti at Garden in the Woods for this all-day Ecological Landscaping Association workshop on Thursday, September 27 from 8:30 – 3:30 (rain date Friday, September 28) in Framingham to explore how quickly and effectively you can use air tools to access the roots to identify and successfully address problems. The air tools demonstrations will feature:
    * Addressing soil compaction
    * Trenching for utility work, fencing, and more
    * Proper planting of ball & burlap and container nursery stock
    * Bare root tree transplanting
    * Locating roots to establish tree protection zones prior to construction

    For more information, visit www.ecolandcaping.org.  To register on line, go to https://www.eventville.com/catalog/eventregistration1.asp?eventid=1009609.

  • Saturday, September 22, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Fight the Frost!

    Northeast Organic Farming Association’s Cold Weather Gardening workshop will provide gardeners with practical tips and techniques to help their crops fare the cold New England winter. Our goal is to strategically extend our growing season by up to three months (Mar-Dec instead of Apr-Oct) or more if we’re lucky!

    Topics covered will include construction of cold frames and low tunnels; other row cover options; strategic warmth-adding techniques and more. We will briefly discuss which vegetables will fare best using this variety of season extension methods though, by the time of our workshop, gardeners should already have most of their cool/cold weather crops in the ground.  The class will take place Saturday, September 22 from 1 – 3 at Brookline High School, 115 Greenough Street in Brookline.  $15 for Brookline High School students and faculty, $25 for NOFA members, and $30 for everyone else.  Contact Drew Love at drew@nofamass.org with questions.  Sign up at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/265120.  Photo from www.waldeneffect.org.

  • Sunday, September 16, 1:00 pm – The Transcendental Landscape Art Panel and Discussion

    Host Dr. Michael Volmer, Curator, Fruitlands Museum, and Moderator Bill Turville, Artist and Personality Vivant, will speak on The Transcendental Landscape on Sunday, September 16 at Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, Massachusetts. The program will begin at 1pm with a reception to follow.

    Panelists will share images of their work and discuss the relationship between landscape and their visual vocabulary. Each of the panelist was invited because of their unique approach to responding to – or documenting – or transforming – a sense of place. Fruitlands Museum is an ideal location for such a panel discussion. The sacred vista, the collected art and artifacts, and the public will all contribute to the value of this discussion.

    How does a place contribute to the creative process?

    How can art contribute to a sense of belonging?

    How does art document a landscape?

    How does the natural experience change the artist and/or art studio practice?  For more information visit www.fruitlands.org.

  • Saturday, September 15, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Autumn Joy: Body Mechanics That Make Garden Cleanup Easy

    Take the stress and strain, aches and pains out of putting your garden to bed this fall. In this Sunday, September 15 participatory workshop explore proper body mechanics for raking, wheel barrowing, composting and mulching, along with joint protection techniques for bulb planting, pruning, digging and dividing. Determine how to choose the right ergonomic tool for the job and get nifty tips on winterizing them too! Learn to use a simple, effective and energizing stretching routine before the clean-up begins that will also keep you healthy all winter long and fit to garden next spring.

    Carrie Whitelaw is a registered horticultural therapist with the American Horticultural Therapy Association who has practiced and taught horticultural therapy since 1998. She currently coordinates programs at The Unlimited Garden, an enabling garden created by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Saratoga County, NY, and operates True Nature Garden Works, a consulting business devoted to using gardening to promote health and wellness, cultivate creativity, and reconnect individuals with their own true nature.  $22 for BBG members, $27 for non members.  Sign up at www.berkshirebotanical.org.

  • Wednesday, September 12, 7:00 pm – Moonbird

    In a stunning slide presentation on Wednesday, September 12 at 7 pm at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge, National Book Award-winning author Phillip Hoose takes us around the hemisphere with the world’s most celebrated shorebird, showing the obstacles rufa red knots face, introducing a worldwide team of scientists and conservationists trying to save them, and offering insights about what we can do to help shorebirds before it’s too late. With inspiring prose, thorough research, and stirring images, Hoose explores the tragedy of extinction through the triumph of a single bird.

    Hoose is the author of the National Book Award winner Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, which is also a Newbery Honor Book, a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book, a YALSA Finalist for Excellence in Young Adult Fiction, and an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, among other honors. His other books include The Race to Save the Lord God Bird, winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and We Were There, Too!, a National Book Award Finalist. Mr. Hoose lives in Portland, Maine.  For more information visit www.portersquarebooks.com.