Daily Archives: June 11, 2021


Wednesday, June 16, 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm – Fundamentals of Garden Layers, Online

When designing any garden, there is an opportunity to eschew the norms of beauty as the only priority. With careful planning, we can create a space that works in harmony with nature, expands biodiversity, builds healthy soil, and nurtures pollinators and other wildlife. Let’s learn from natural plant communities to increase ecosystem function and climate resilience at home in our designed gardens. From the fundamentals of seasonal and yearly plant succession, to using plant reproduction and sociability to fill ecological niches, the right native plant communities make all the difference for beautiful gardens both wildlife and people crave. Benjamin Vogt owns Monarch Gardens, a prairie-inspired design firm. Benjamin is primarily a plantsman with deep prairie roots. His designs are 100% native plants and his firm specializes in converting lawn to prairie gardens that build biodiversity and support pollinators. His landscapes have been featured in Garden Design, Fine Gardening, and The American Gardener. Benjamin speaks nationally on a variety of topics and is the author of A New Garden Ethic: Cultivating Defiant Compassion for an Uncertain Future and the forthcoming Prairie Up: An Introduction to Natural Garden Design (spring 2022).

Webinar will take place June 16 at noon and is free, but registration required at https://www.ecolandscaping.org/event/webinar-fundamentals-of-garden-layers/


Saturday, June 26, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Tour of Bill Noble’s Vermont Garden

Author and garden designer Bill Noble will lead participants on a June 26 Berkshire Botanical Garden tour of his celebrated Vermont garden, which surrounds an 1830s Vermont farmhouse and barn, with stone walls, fields and views of neighboring farms and distant mountains. The garden reflects Bill’s horticultural path from market gardener to garden designer. The garden features a bountiful perennial garden, vegetable garden and orchard, rock gardens and shrub borders, surrounded by fields and meadows. The focal point is a mixed border of shrubs and hardy perennials, while remnants of barn foundations offer a setting for alpines, ferns, ornamental grasses and shrubs. Foliage and texture predominate. The garden is an ongoing experiment with plants and ideas gathered from other gardens and gardeners. It is the subject of Noble’s book, Spirit of Place: The Making of a New England Garden, published in June, 2020 by Timber Press. Signed copies of the book will be available for purchase. Refreshments will be provided on-site. Participants are responsible for their own transportation and will receive the address upon registration. BBG members $65, nonmembers $70. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/tour-bill-noble%E2%80%99s-vermont-garden