Daily Archives: March 26, 2017

Friday, March 31 Deadline – Sponsor the Garden Club of the Back Bay’s 2017 Twilight Garden Party

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The Garden Club of the Back Bay’s Twilight Garden Party will be held Tuesday, June 6 at the “Sitting Grove” in the Prudential Center, catered by the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.  This is our 10th Anniversary Year and we hope you will help us celebrate by becoming a sponsor.  Sponsorships help us continue our mission to provide more care for our neighborhood trees.  Last year we planted sixteen Gingko trees along Clarendon Street with tree pit fences and ground cover, updated our alley tree survey, donated $26,000 in grants for pruning, planting, and fertilizing trees, donated $3,500 for scholarships for inner city children to attend Boston Nature Center’s summer camp, and spent an additional $20,000 on pruning street trees in the Back Bay.  This year we plan to launch a new website (this one will remain, fear not!) BackBayTrees.org, that will serve as a visual, online database of all the trees in the Back Bay, make it easier for us to revise our surveys as trees are removed or planted, and be a useful tool for the Parks Department and the Back Bay Architectural Commission as they make decisions that impact the neighborhood’s tree canopy.

Sponsorship levels and benefits may be found at http://www.gardenclubbackbay.org/twilight-garden-party/ and you may link from that page to our store (http://www.gardenclubbackbay.org/shop/)  to purchase sponsorships or tickets.  If you prefer, you may write a check made out to Garden Club of the Back Bay, Inc. and mail it to Jackie Blombach, PO Box 991017, Boston, MA 02199.

Sunday, April 9, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Growing Gourmet Shiitake Mushrooms

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Rachel Brinkman, Assistant Manager of Horticulture, has been growing mushrooms for several years at the Arnold Arboretum and in the past has worked with Cornell University’s Cooperative Extension, teaching woodlot owners how they can farm their own gourmet mushrooms. All that is needed is a bit of shade and some inoculated logs to construct a crib that can produce a variety of mushroom types. Rachel will share what she has learned and guide you through the process of drilling logs, inoculating them with spawn, and then sealing them with wax. She will discuss care for a bountiful crop. Each participant will go home with an Arboretum-grown shiitake log readied for mushroom production. The session will take place Sunday, April 9 from 10 – noon. Fee $45 Arboretum member; $58 nonmember. Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277. Image from www.superfoods-for-superhealth.com.