Join naturalists Lula Field and Christine Beckert Long in exploring the Tully Brook Conservation Area, aka “The Pines.†Meet on Saturday, October 13 at 9 am for carpooling at the Millers River Environmental Center, 100 Main Street in Athol. Bring water, camera, field guides. Heavy rain cancels. Info: Chris Long, 978-249-0246. Part of ABNC’s celebration of Athol 2012. Photo of Tully Brook from davidwrunyan.blogspot.com.
The Boston Nature Center and the Arborway Coalition will sponsor a free Fancy Fall Foliage program on Sunday, October 21 from 2 – 3:30. Spring is known for its colorful flowers, but fall also has an amazing variety of color. Join us for a leisurely stroll through the meadows, forest, and wetlands to behold the vibrant red of the red maple or the bright yellow of the aspen. The program will include exploration, hands-on activities, and an art project. Preregistration is encouraged but walk-ins are welcome. The Boston Nature Center is located at 500 Walk Hill Street, Mattapan, and you may register at www.massaudubon.org.
What makes a landscape design sustainable? The New England Wild Flower Society will hold a two-part seminar for people interested in learning how to design landscapes that follow an ecological paradigm, and that enhance a site’s beauty and utility. Landscape Architect and LEED accredited professional Tom Benjamin will define and discuss principles of sustainable landscape design, techniques to improve the ecological and human functions of existing landscapes, and how to approach sites with a variety of challenges. Discussion will include sustainable measures to improve your own projects, as well as a short trip to a nearby site that was designed for sustainability. Bring a bag lunch. The classes will take place Thursday and Friday, October 18 and 19, from 9 – 4 at Garden in the Woods in Framingham. $216 for NEWFS and ELA members, $254 for non-members. Co-sponsored by the Ecological Landscaping Association. Register on line at www.newfs.org.
The Friends of the Public Garden invites you to a Members Reception Wednesday, October 10, at 6 pm, at the Union Club, 8 Park Street in Boston. This is a time to socialize and to hear David Dearinger, member of the Friends Sculpture Committee, talk about the unlikely transience of large public sculptures in Boston, including some of the ones that do (or did) grace Boston’s Public Garden and Commonwealth Avenue Mall. David is the Susan Morse Hilles Curator of Paintings & Sculpture at the Boston Athenaeum, and a specialist in nineteenth-century American sculpture. The event is free but please rsvp as space is limited. Email no later than Friday, October 5 at info@friendsofthepublicgarden.org. Call 617-723-8144 for information. Your membership can be renewed at this event. Motor Mart Garage is the reception sponsor – thank you.
Were Thomas Jefferson to walk the grounds of Monticello today, he would no doubt feel fully at home in the 1,000 foot terraced vegetable garden where the very vegetables and herbs he favored are thriving, Extensively and painstakingly restored under Peter J. Hatch’s brilliant direction, Jefferson’s unique vegetable garden now boasts the same medley of plants he enthusiastically cultivated in the early nineteenth century. Peter reveals the Monticello garden’s bounty and legacy and its continuing impact on the culinary, garden, and landscape history of the United States. A Rich Spot of Earth will be available for purchase and signing at this lecture, taking place Thursday, October 18 at the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston. Free parking. Co-sponsored by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens, The Garden Conservancy, and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc. Fee to attend for a member of any of the participating sponsors is $20, non-members $25. To register, call Wellesley at 781-283-3094, or you may visit www.arboretum.harvard.edu.
Join the Board of The Gibson House Museum for afternoon tea at the College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue, on Monday, October 15, from 3 – 5. Enjoy traditional English fare of mini sandwiches, scones, cookies, breads, assorted teas, and coffee. Sit back and relax with friends while Etiquetteer Robert Dimmick entertains us with a talk about Failures in Brahmin Entertaining. Even Rosamond didn’t get it right every time. Cost per person is $45. Seating is limited and reservations are required. RSVP: 617.267.6338 or email: lauragresh@thegibsonhouse.org.
Celebrate the arrival of fall at Cogswell’s Grant, 60 Spring Street in Essex, on Saturday, October 13 from 11 to 4. Take a hay wagon ride through the fields to choose a jack-o’-lantern from our pumpkin patch. Decorate and carve pumpkins, compete in a pumpkin pie-eating contest, do craft activities and play games, have your face painted, and try cider pressing. Enjoy hot mulled apple cider and pumpkin pie. Tour the house and see one of the most celebrated collections of American antiques and folk art.
Please call 978-768-3632 for more information. Purchase tickets now (free for HNE members, $6 non members, $4 children ages 3 – 12) at www.historicnewengland.org. Photo from www.havechildrenwilltravel.com.
Join The Arnold Arboretum for a captivating journey into the lives of plants—from the colors they see to the schedules they keep—with renowned biologist Daniel Chamovitz. Director, Manna Center for Plant Biosciences, Department of Molecular Biology and Ecology of Plants at Tel Aviv University. Highlighting the latest research in plant science, he will take us into the lives of different types of plants, and draw parallels with the human senses to reveal that we have much more in common with sunflowers and oak trees than we may realize. Covering touch, sound, smell, sight, and even memory, Chamovitz considers whether it’s too much to ask if plants are aware. His book, What a Plant Knows, is a true field guide to the senses for science buffs and green thumbs, and for anyone who seeks a greater understanding of our place in nature. Books will be available for purchase and signing. Fee $5 member, $20 nonmember. Register on line at www.arboretum.harvard.edu.
