Daily Archives: February 9, 2022


Monday, February 14, 1:00 pm Eastern – The Life and Work of John Bradby Blake: From London to Canton and Back, Online

The Gardens Trust presents a series on six online talks on Mondays through March 15 exploring the extraordinary life and work of John Bradby Blake (1745 – 1773). The lectures are £5 each or all 6 for £24, and you may register through Eventbrite by clicking HERE.

In the February 14 session, Dr. Jordan Goodman, University College, London, will discuss aspects of Bradby Blake’s collaborative project in Canton and its posthumous continuation in London and look forward to the more detailed examination of his creative life and accomplishments in the following three lectures.


Saturday, February 19, 10:00 am – 11:00 am – The Eye of the Beholder: Is it Messy, or an Acquired Taste, Online

Our obsession with tidy, “clean” landscapes is proving to be harmful to the things and the ones we love. How can we step away from the need for ‘neat’ and let nature play a role in how we perceive, design and maintain our human dominated lands? The rewards of gardening with nature, not against it, are a fabulous mix of process and perception. Edwina von Gal will discuss the reasons why we need to change the way we garden, the difference it can make, and how to make it all happen. Join her and the Berkshire Botanical Garden community online on February 19 at 10 am in a transformative commitment to actually do something incredibly effective about climate change and the loss of biodiversity.  

Edwina von Gal has been principal of her eponymous landscape design firm since 1984,  creating landscapes with a focus on simplicity and sustainability for private and public clients around the world. She has collaborated with noted architects such as Maya Lin, Frank Gehry, Annabelle Selldorf, and Toshiko Mori, on projects for Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Richard Serra, Larry Gagosian, Robert De Niro, Jann Wenner and many others in the environmental, design and art communities. Edwina’s work has been published in most major publications. Her book “Fresh Cuts” won the Quill and Trowel award for garden writing.  In 2008, while designing the park for The Biomuseo Panama, she founded the Azuero Earth Project, promoting native species reforestation on Panama’s Azuero Peninsula, perhaps the first of its kind to work without synthetic chemicals. In 2013, she created the Perfect Earth Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising consciousness about the dangers of toxic lawn and garden chemicals, and the importance of planting native species, to protect the health of people, their pets, and the planet.  In 2021 she launched a new initiative, Two Thirds for the Birds, a call to action to landscape and environmental professionals to make all their projects habitat friendly. She is currently converting her own property, Marshouse, into a laboratory and teaching center for Whole and Healthy landscape practices.  

Edwina received the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art’s Arthur Ross Award in 2012 and is the 2017 recipient of Guild Hall’s Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Award for the Visual Arts. In 2018 she received the NY School of Interior Design’s Green Design Award and The Isamu Noguchi Award, as well as the Conservator Award from Quogue Wildlife Refuge in 2020. She lectures regularly about nature-based landscape solutions.

$30 for BBG members, $35 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/winter-lecture-eye-beholder-it-messy-or-acquired-taste Thank you avenuemagazine.com for the image below.


Wednesday, February 16, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm – Dahlias for Days, Online

Have you ever fallen in love with a flower before? If not, dahlias just may be the flower to change that for you! Dahlias are a tremendously diverse flower. While they are native to Central America, they can grow fabulously in New England with proper care. In this class you will learn about this spectacular flower with insight on how to grow from tubers. Specific topics Including variety selection, planting, plant support techniques, cut flower treatment, plus the most challenging part — tuber division and storage. Join Berkshire Botanical Garden on February 16 at 4 pm online to learn more about this divine and prolific plant just in time to plan your dahlia orders. Soon enough you will be trading dahlia tubers with all your gardener friends.    

Jacqueline Maisonpierre is an organic farmer, public health educator and avid dahlia grower. She fell in love with dahlias her first year farming, and like many dahlia growers just can’t seem to get enough. She has worked as an organic vegetable farmer in New England for the past ten years in a variety of settings, ranging from large rural farms to tightly managed, no-till urban plots. As of this year she is the proud owner of her own homestead in North Haven, CT, where she is starting a cut flower farm. She grew 400 dahlia plants in 2021 and can’t wait to grow more!

$10 for BBG members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/dahlias-days