Our annual fund raiser, The Twilight Garden Party 2022: Blossoms & Bubbles, at the St. Botolph Club, 199 Commonwealth Avenue, is sold out! Thank you to all who have purchased tickets. Names are held at the door. If you find you are unable to attend, or if a friend is using your ticket, please let us know by emailing HERE
We look forward to a lovely evening in support of all our beautification endeavors.
Come to The New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill on May 1 at 9:30 in the morning to learn how to design and create attractive gardens filled with ornamental plants and nutrient-dense edibles. This workshop will discuss soil health, site preparation, sustainable land-use techniques, and how to maximize garden productivity while harmonizing with the landscape. With a home garden you can grow sweeter and more nutritious produce than anything you can buy in a store, but it’s essential that you start with healthy soil and learn the basics about garden design. This thorough workshop will help those interested in growing food in an urban or suburban landscape while using sustainable and organic practices.
Inspired by working on more than 35 organic farms in New England, California, Oregon, Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, and Costa Rica, instructor Ben Barkan applies lessons learned to HomeHarvest’s unique custom garden installations. Ben earned a degree in Sustainable Agriculture from the Stockbridge School of Agriculture (4.0 GPA), is permaculture-design certified, and started HomeHarvest with just a bicycle and shovel in 2008. Ben is licensed in Massachusetts as a Construction Supervisor, Home Improvement Contractor, and enjoys designing and selling beautiful landscapes with custom construction and creative plant integration. $40 Member Adult; $55 Adult (Registration includes admission to the Garden) Register HERE.
If you have a patch of lawn, you may consider participating in No Mow May, an initiative where neighborhoods, or even just individuals, refrain from moving their lawns for the entire month to help out pollinators. Wright-Locke Farm clued us into it, and the New York Times published a recent article with details and some special pictures. The movement is also alive and well and was started in Great Britain and in Wales, where towns are asked to let their parks and road verges go wild. The site Plantlife has details. So take a month off and enjoy your pollinators.
For those of you who missed Troy Scott Smith’s talk at Long Hill on April 1, we have another opportunity. In this virtual illustrated Garden Conservancy talk on April 28 at 2 pm, Troy recounts his long tenure at Sissinghurst and his efforts to recapture the distinctive vision of its creators, the writers Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, in the 1930s, as a refuge dedicated to natural beauty. He studied not only Sackville-West’s and Nicolson’s gardening style, but also their characters, philosophy, and interests, while balancing the reality of hundreds of thousands of annual visitors and the effects of climate change. In the end, Troy shows how he settled on an approach that allowed past, present, and future to co-exist.
One of Britain’s best-known Head Gardeners, Troy Scott Smith, has devoted his career to the beauty and romance of gardening. Since joining the National Trust of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland in 1990, Troy has led some of the world’s most beautiful gardens, among them the Courts (Wiltshire), Bodnant (Wales) and two stints at Sissinghurst (Kent), where he has led a remarkable transformation and restoration of the Vita Sackville-West gardens.
After spearheading a multi-year plan as Head Gardener at Sissinghurst, which included the recreation of a Mediterranean-style garden from the Greek Island of Delos, Troy left to take up leadership of the award winning Iford Manor Garden in Wiltshire, near Bath, where he set in motion a 10 -year masterplan. After two years, Troy returned to his spiritual home of Sissinghurst.
A recording of this webinar will be sent to all registrants a few days after the event. We encourage you to register, even if you cannot attend the live webinar. $5 for Garden Conservancy members, $15 General Admission. Register HERE.
Members of the Frank & Anne Cabot Society for planned giving have complimentary access to Garden Conservancy webinars. All Cabot Society members will automatically be sent the link to participate on the morning of the webinar. For more information about the Cabot Society, please contact Sarah Parker at sparker@gardenconservancy.org or 845.424.6500, ext. 214.
This Gardens Trust talk on April 28 is the first in our 2nd series on Victorian Gardens on Thurs @ 10.00 GMT (5 am Eastern) from 28 April. £5 each or all 6 for £30. Register through Eventbrite HERE. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.
On April 28 Mark Johnston will speak on Trees in Towns & Cities, Victorian Urban Arboriculture. Throughout the nineteenth century and particularly during Victorian times, trees became an increasing feature in Britain’s towns and cities. In this talk the focus is on those trees that were planted and maintained in a variety of urban settings. This includes trees in private residential gardens and squares, those in public parks and arboretums, alongside streets, in cemeteries and in therapeutic landscapes. The nineteenth century witnessed huge advances in the development of British arboriculture that laid the foundations for today’s arboricultural industry. This was particularly evident in development of new machinery, equipment and techniques. Much of this was prompted by the challenges of integrating large trees into the urban environment in close proximity to people, buildings and roads. After centuries of being regarded as synonymous with forestry or considered a branch of horticulture, arboriculture emerged in the late nineteenth century as a separate discipline.
Dr Mark Johnston is an independent scholar who holds a PhD in urban forestry from the University of Ulster. He has nearly fifty years’ experience in the greenspace industry, including working as a tree surgery contractor, tree officer in local government, consultant in private practice, government adviser and university academic. Mark was the Lead Researcher and main author of the government report entitled Trees in Towns II published in 2008. For fifteen years he was Research Fellow at Myerscough College and Course Leader for its MSc Arboriculture and Urban Forestry. Since his official retirement Mark’s research has focused on the historical aspects of arboriculture and he has published three books on this subject. His contribution to trees and the urban environment has been widely acknowledged with several prestigious national and international awards.
Emily Dickinson wrote memorably that “Hope is the thing with feathers.” In The Arnold Arboretum’s current art exhibition, artist Laura Fantini illustrates “hope” in each seed she discovers, draws, and records. Her “hope” is not of feathers, though their effervescence and somewhat fragile appearance might be applied to a seed. Her “hope” is for the future of our world—a simple, yet thoroughly necessary application of the word. Each of her drawings includes the word “hope” in its title, each bears her plea to hope for each plant to endure and thrive through the life of its seed.
Seeds for Fantini are the messengers of life, as indeed they truly are. Their DNA promises a continuation of a species, a thread that the earth can hold onto, and a promise for tomorrow. Fantini’s affinity for art and fascination with nature have been with her since she was very young in Italy. She notes that though Italy has a strong agricultural heritage and respect for nature and biodiversity, documenting seeds remains the domain of scientists and botanists. It has been in North America where she found a much more accessible climate for public involvement. Each seed that Fantini draws is given her full attention. She respects and gives it endless study and consideration as she envisions the final composition. With her first visit to the Arboretum in 2016 and through the development of this project, she found an aligned sense of spirit and true affiliation. Her artistry combines an eye for the precise physicality of these small beginnings of plants with a reverence for the world of nature. Hope for each seed includes her aspiration that all may appreciate and nourish seeds, as we marvel at their intricate beauty, meticulously rendered in her pieces.
To view the exhibition online visit https://arboretum.harvard.edu/art_shows/seeds-for-tomorrow-woody-plants-of-the-arnold-arboretum/
Wright-Locke Farm in Winchester will cover all of your gardening questions in this comprehensive 6 week gardening series. Master Gardener Ferriss Donham will share her knowledge on all of these topics from our historic 1827 Barn, and we’ll spend some time outside too. Topics vary week to week. Book one, or book all six and receive a discount. Enjoy the benefits of getting your hands dirty. The Wednesday series kicks off with Soil Amendments, Composting, and No-Dig Practices on April 27, followed by Bulbs that Naturalize and Non-Invasive Ground Covers on May 11, and on May 25, Organic Practices for the Home. June 8 covers Easy To Maintain Perennials, June 29 is a primer on How to Divide Perennials and Perennial Herb Gardens, and finally, on July 6, Drought Tolerant Flowers and Extending the Bloom Season. Complete Series $240 – Register HERE
Have you been yearning to know more about trees? Arbor Day is the perfect time to learn about them. No single view of a tree is a fixed snapshot in time that tells the complete story. Join Michael Wojtech (one of the Garden Club of the Back Bay’s speakers this season) on April 29 at The New England Botanical Garden at Tower Hill in Boylston and discover how trees grow, reproduce, and interact with their environment across days, weeks, seasons, and years and over varying scales—from the intricate details of buds, flowers, and leaves that we use for species identification to the collaborative roles of trees in ecosystems. Learn more about the function and experience the beauty of overwintering buds, lobed or toothed leaves, flowers by the thousands, seeds that fly on the wind, and more.
Michael Wojtech is the author of Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast. As a naturalist and educator, Michael strives to share the science and wonder of trees in an accessible and compelling fashion. He writes, photographs, illustrates, and presents programs about the structure, growth processes, and ecology of trees-including their bark, buds, leaves, roots, and wood-for audiences at all levels of experience. He is especially interested in the process of discovery and engagement, and draws his greatest inspiration from sharing the sense of wonder, awe, and the recognition of beauty that result from these investigations.
$60 Member Adult; $75 Adult (Registration includes admission to the Garden) Register at www.nebg.org.
Sunday, May 1 marks the start of Berkshire Botanical Garden’s 88th outdoor season and the annual Roy Boutard Day, a community celebration steeped in history and tradition that honors one of BBG’s most influential past directors. Admission to the garden is free all day, 9 – 5. Visitors can stroll the 24-acre grounds, enjoy the spring blooming bulbs and trees, visit the Visitor Center Gift Shop, and attend the Horticulture Certificate Program graduation, followed by a reception hosted by the Herb Associates, a volunteer group that, for 65 years, has created herbal products from the Garden’s 1937 herb garden. Members of the Herb Associates will serve an assortment of herb-infused cookies and Mai Bowle, a May wine punch. The day includes activities for children. The Garden’s Leonhardt Galleries will feature the first artists of this year’s ART/GARDEN season. The theme for the season is “Symbiosis.” This first exhibit, Shimmer, curated by Sue Muskat and Phil Knoll, brings together 38 artists whose drawings, paintings, prints, photographs, and sculptures are ignited by paying attention, by being present and making a record, chronicling the condition of life. For directions and more information, visit www.berkshirebotanical.org
North Wales, a land blessed with rugged mountains, beautiful beaches and picturesque villages is also home to some of the most striking gardens in the UK, many of which surround magnificent houses with centuries of history to uncover. From world-renowned gardens to hidden gems, we encounter a remarkable array of sweeping landscapes, woodlands, valleys and displays of abundant flowers and shrubs which thrive in the unique climate of this region. The Royal Oak Society, in conjunction with Albion Tours, has created a special trip June 5 – 14. A complete itinerary may be found at https://www.albionjourneys.com/item/100/Literature/Glorious-Gardens–Grandeur-of-North-Wales.html
Special extras included in your itinerary
• Guided walking tour of Stratford-upon-Avon
• Guided tour and lunch at Plas Cadnant Hidden Gardens
• Guided tour and refreshments at Plas Tan y Bwlch
• Guided tour of Erddig Hall House and Gardens
• Boat cruise with fish and chips supper
• Guided tour of Portmeirion
• Heritage train journey on the Welsh Highland Railway
• Guided tour and lunch at Tatton Park
• Guided tour and lunch at Waterperry Gardens
• Themed evening talk by a guest speaker
