Daily Archives: December 1, 2018

Tuesday, December 4, 1:00 pm 0 3:00 pm – Infusing Your Life with Herbs for the Holidays

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There exists a quantity of pleasures to be encountered by using herbs in your everyday life. The aroma, taste, and visual delight of herbs can elevate your cuisine; help in cleaning your home; and bottle up a little bit of summer to help brighten a winter day. Using fresh herbs ensures that you not only enjoy the product of your labors, but a sensory experience as you create them.

In this December 4 Massachusetts Horticulture class, from 1 – 3 in the Education Building at 900 Washington Street in Wellesley, Karen O’Brien will demonstrate how to make three items that will keep you in the holiday spirit. Make an honey-herb butter for holiday meals, craft a scented cinnamon stick tree, and put together a lavender/lemon salt scrub. Perfect for you or for gift-giving! Learn how to take simple household staples, such as butters, sugars, vinegars, and more and transform them into something special with the addition of fresh herbs, infusing your world with the scents and colors of summer. These products will enliven your household throughout the year, and will start your own herbal adventure.

Karen O’Brien’s herbal business The Green Woman’s Garden is located in the southwestern town of Richmond, NH. She has unusual herb plants, including medicinals and native herbs for sale, runs workshops on various herbal adventures, and occasionally participates at farmers markets and fairs. Karen lectures and presents workshops on all aspects of herbs and gardening. She is the Botany and Horticulture Chair of The Herb Society of America, is past Chair of The New England Unit of H.S.A., is Secretary of the International Herb Association, and is Past President of the Greenleaf Garden Club of Milford. She is the editor and contributing author to several Herb of the Year™ books, including Capsicum, Savory, Artemisia, and Elderberry, produced by the IHA. Her gardens are a little like her – eclectic, a little bit wild, but well-intentioned.

$35/Mass Hort member; $50/general admission. Register at www.masshort.org or call 617-933-4973.

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Tuesday, December 4, 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm – Backyard Carbon Sequestration: How You Can Help Webinar

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Landscapers and gardeners have long known that soil is not simply the stuff that props up plants. But not everyone knows that organic and native plant gardening practices can help mitigate climate change by building and protecting soil health.

In this December 4 Ecological Landscape Alliance free webinar presentation at 1:30 pm, Adrian Ayres Fisher will review the characteristics of healthy soil, how plants and soil life work together to store carbon below ground, and how gardeners and landscapers can make a difference in the fight against climate change.

Adrian Ayres Fisher, a Chicago-area native, is Sustainability Coordinator at Triton College in River Grove, Illinois. Among other duties, she is in charge of two large rain gardens and a small prairie area that is certified as a Monarch Waystation. She is active in Chicago Wilderness initiatives, the West Cook Chapter of Wild Ones, and volunteers with the Plants of Concern rare-plant-monitoring program in Cook County Forest Preserves. She has trained and volunteered as a University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener and was the native plant buyer for an independent nursery. Her backyard pollinator reserve has been included in local garden walks. Ms. Ayres blogs at http://ecologicalgardening.net and is a featured writer at http://Resilience.org.

To register, visit https://www.ecolandscaping.org/event/webinar-backyard-carbon-sequestration-how-you-can-help/

Trees For Troops

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Donate a real Christmas Tree to a military family for $30.

Imagine somewhere on the other side of the world, a group of U.S. troops gathered around a fresh, real Christmas tree that was express shipped from the states. Or imagine how a military family of a deployed loved one would feel if they received a real Christmas tree, given by a caring family they have never met. This is the mission of  Trees for Troops, a national charitable campaign that provides real Christmas trees to members of the armed forces and their families at more than 65 military bases in the U.S. and overseas. Since 2005, Trees for Troops has provided more than 176,00 Christmas Trees to military families and troops in the United States and overseas.

2018 will be Mahoney’s 12th year participating in the Trees for Troops program and they hope to make it their most successful year yet! They are proud to say that through the support of our customers, last year we were able to donate 2700 Christmas trees. This year, with your help they think they can do even better. They’ve made it easier than ever to donate a tree by accepting donations in all of their stores, online, and over the phone. To support online, and for more information, visit http://mahoneysgarden.com/trees-troops/