Boston Flora

Month: June 2017

  • Sunday, July 16, 10:00 am – 3:00 pm – Provincetown Secret Garden Tour

    Sunday, July 16, 10:00 am – 3:00 pm – Provincetown Secret Garden Tour

    The Provincetown Art Association and Museum hopes you’ll join them for the 20th annual Secret Garden Tour, a self-guided journey through private residences with stunning gardens. PAAM volunteers shuttle guests between the parking lot, the gardens, and the Museum, to which ticket-holders receive free admission that day. The tour this year will be on Sunday, July 16 from 10 – 3, and tickets are $40 each. For more information on where to buy tickets, telephone 508-487-1750, or email info@paam.org.  Image from www.ptownevents.com.

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  • Tuesdays and Thursdays, July 18 – August 8, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Permaculture Design

    In this seven-session tutorial course to be held in the Cheney Room of the Education Building at Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street in Wellesley, Marie Stella, instructor, permaculturist and landscape designer, will introduce you to the principles and application of permaculture —a natural, ecological, and organic approach to land management and landscape design. This class is being offered through the Stockbridge School at UMass, and can be taken for 1 credit. MUST PRE-REGISTER.

    Classes will be held Tuesdays and Thursdays, July 18-August 8.

    For Credit, register at www.umassulearn.net.
    $482/in-state
    $691/out-of-state

    Audit this UMass Class through Massachusetts Horticultural Society. By registering here, you will be registering at a reduced rate, and will receive NO COLLEGE CREDIT. Sign up for the audit at www.masshort.org.  Mass Hort Member Cost: $150; Non Member Cost $200.

  • Tuesday, July 11, 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm – The First Honey Harvest

    Spring’s flowers produce a unique, light honey in New England, yet we are only just beginning to learn which flowers are the true sources for this liquid gold. On Tuesday, July 11 beginning at 1:30 pm, engage with harvesting tools and techniques to collect honey and beeswax together with The Best Bees Company team of bee experts, led by Noah Wilson-Rich, Ph.D. The event will take place at The Gardens at Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street in Wellesley.

    Noah Wilson-Rich, Ph.D. is a biologist, professor, NYTimes & LATimes contributor, two-time TEDx speaker, beekeeper, and author of The Bee: A Natural History published by Princeton University Press. Noah’s research focuses on bee immunology. Noah is the Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of The Best Bees Company, a beekeeping service that delivers, installs, and manages beehives for residential and commercial properties nation-wide. Proceeds from The Best Bees Company go toward research to improve bee health. This research is based out of the Urban Beekeeping Laboratory and Bee Sanctuary, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in Boston’s South End. More information at bestbees.com and beesanctuary.org.

    Mass Hort member price $12, nonmembers $20. Register online at www.masshort.org or call 617-933-4973.  Image from www.brooklynhomesteader.com.

  • Thursday, July 13, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Art & Spirit in the Garden: Incorporating Sculpture

    Karin Stanley gathers inspiration from her love of poetry, art, and sculpture and from her travels and musings in Ancient Ireland, Scotland and other countries. She creates meditative spaces, areas for serenity, healing, reflection, dynamic impact, drama, humor or allegory. Her background as an artist/sculptor and garden designer and a graduate of the Radcliffe landscape design and history program enables her to share some of her process and practical ideas and advice on how to use sculpture and artistic enhancements in your own garden, community or public project. This Thursday, July 13 Massachusetts Horticultural Society lecture will take place at Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street in Wellesley, beginning at 7 pm, and is $12 for Mass Hort members, $20 for nonmembers. Register online at www.masshort.org or call 617-933-4973. Image from vbgardendesign.co.uk.

     

  • Tuesday, July 11, 12:00 noon – 5:00 pm, and Wednesday & Thursday, July 12 & 13, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm – Endless Summer

    The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts Southeastern District presents Endless Summer, a NGC Standard Flower Show celebrating hydrangeas, at the Heritage Museums and Gardens, 67 Grove Street in Sandwich, on July 11 – 13.  Free with Museum Admission.  Hours are noon – 5 on Tuesday, July 11, and 10 – 5 on Wednesday and Thursday.

  • Wednesday, July 12, 9:00 am – 10:30 am – Extending the Flowering Season

    Adding new plants to the collections at Mount Auburn Cemetery which flower in late spring or summer is not just about adding color to the landscape. This initiative is also a response to climate change and the general trend of plants flowering earlier and earlier each year. Join Dennis Collins, Horticultural Curator, on Wednesday, July 12 at 9 am on this walking tour to learn about this important horticultural initiative. Free for Friends of Mt. Auburn, $12 for nonmembers. Register online at http://mountauburn.org/2017/extending-the-flowering-season-2/ Funding for programs has been provided in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Image from www.tclf.org.

  • Wednesdays, July 5, 12 and 19, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm – Introduction to Plant Families

    To really know a plant, you must understand its family. In this New England Wild Flower Society three part class to be held at Garden in the Woods on Wednesdays, July 5, 12, and 19 from 10 – 2, we will use both microscopic and field investigation to decipher the clues to familial relationships and classifications of New England’s wild plants. You will learn from instructor Carol Govan the basic formulas for plant structure and practice applying them to various families. Bring a bag lunch and a hand lens. $185 for NEWFS members, $218 for nonmembers. Register online at http://www.newfs.org/learn/our-programs/introduction-to-plant-families. Photo courtesy of Go Botany! of Brassica rapa by Frank Bramley, copyright 2017.

     

  • Thursdays, July 13, 20, and 27, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm – Floral Greetings

    Join Ellen Duarte in the greenhouses at the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens on three successive Thursdays, July 13, 20, and 27, from 9:30 am – 12:30 pm, to draw your favorite flowers, then explore ways to have your creations reproduced as notecards and other items. Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens: $115, nonmembers: $140. Register at www.wellesley.edu/wcbg/learn.

  • Tuesday, July 11, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Eco-Tour: Irrigation Tools and Techniques at The Greenway and Seaport Parks

    Landscapes and recreational facilities are the green space that provide ecosystem services and aesthetics that enhance our quality of life in urban settings. With the growing variability of weather, maintaining these landscapes relies on well-designed irrigation systems to conserve water and the energy to deliver it.

    Join The Ecological Landscape Alliance on Tuesday, July 11 at 10 am for a tour to two urban sites in downtown Boston that demonstrate a variety of irrigation types and practices to help save water.

    First stop on the tour is the Rose Kennedy Greenway, to learn about the Conservancy’s approach to sustainable and frugal water management practices. The Conservancy takes advantage of Boston’s natural rainfall and supplements it with automated irrigation as needed. Appropriate irrigation system elements in conjunction with weather and plant monitoring inform the Conservancy adjustments to irrigation run times and frequency. The irrigation controllers have rain sensors which stop scheduled irrigation after a preset amount of rainfall has occurred. The Conservancy also employs hand watering for containers and newly planted materials. To further reduce the Greenway’s water consumption, the Conservancy regularly conducts audits of the irrigation system functionality and water usage to allow for quick detection and repair of leaks and malfunctions.

    The second stop on the tour is the Seaport District parks, to explore ways to irrigate urban street scapes and small pocket parks. Brian Vinchesi will be discussing the sustainability features of drip irrigation and tree irrigation for a diverse group of landscapes. He will also explain irrigation infrastructure, the smart controllers necessary to manage the system.

    The tour will review the irrigation technologies, design, and operational strategies being used to help save water while managing healthy landscapes. Brian will also explain how older systems might be improved to be more sustainable.

    Brian Vinchesi, who holds a degree in agricultural (irrigation) engineering, is President of Irrigation Consulting, a national irrigation design and consulting firm. Irrigation Consulting performs irrigation consulting services throughout the United States and overseas. Vinchesi has 34 years of irrigation design experience in the turf, landscape and golf sectors. He is responsible for field evaluation, construction administration and project management. He is a past president of the Irrigation Association and the American Society of Irrigation Consultants. He serves on many Irrigation Association committees including being chair or the Smart Water Applications Technology initiative as well as the IA Standards and Codes Committee. He is a LEED-AP, the 2015 Irrigation Association Industry Achievement Award Winner and the 2009 EPA WaterSense Irrigation Partner of the Year.

    $23 for ELA members, $33 for nonmembers. Register and see more at: http://www.ecolandscaping.org/event/eco-tour-irrigation-tools-techniques-greenway-seaport-parks/#sthash.Z1AWE4QF.dpuf

  • Sunday, July 9, 10:30 am – 12:00 noon – Strawberry Bed Rejuvenation

    Old strawberry bed not so productive as you’d like? Always wanted a strawberry bed but don’t know where to begin?

    Visit Hannah Traggis at The Gardens at Elm Bank’s Seed to Table Garden, 900 Washington Street in Wellesley on Sunday, July 9 beginning at 10:30 am to learn how create new or rejuvenate old strawberry beds, and a simple technique to propagate new plants from old ones. Basic strawberry plant health and care will be discussed and you will get to practice your new technique and take a few plants home for your own garden.

    Hannah Traggis manages Mass Hort’s edible gardens throughout The Gardens at Elm Bank. She oversees the Seed to Table vegetable garden which produces more than 4,000 pounds of produce each year to support our educational mission and local food pantries. Mass Hort Members: $20; General Admission: $30 . Register online at www.masshort.org or call 617-933-4973.