Daily Archives: December 15, 2023

Saturdays, December 16, and January 13, 10:00 am – Winter Walks at Polly Hill Arboretum

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In every season the Polly Hill Arboretum on Martha’s Vineyard offers something of beauty and interest to visitors. At this time of year, plants display unique textures, structure, cones, and berries. The Arboretum is offering staff-led winter walks on three Saturdays, December 16 and January 13, beginning at 10 am.

In order to help prevent the spread of the COVID-19 and RSV viruses, each tour is limited to 12 or fewer adults (no children under 12, sorry). Please do not attend a tour if you don’t feel well, or if you have recently been exposed to someone with a known case of COVID-19. Guides will wear masks, and we ask that all visitors wear masks for the duration of your time on the Arboretum grounds, for the safety of yourselves, other visitors, and our volunteer docents. Please practice social distancing between other visitors and your tour guide.

To register, visit www.pollyhillarboretum.org. Sorry, we cannot allow groups larger than the allotted number of slots. No children under 12. No dogs. Free for members, $5 for nonmembers.

Please check your email (the address you signed up with) on the evening prior to your tour to make sure you have not received a cancellation notice. Cancellation may result from inclement weather, or at the discretion of the Arboretum for any reason deemed appropriate by staff.

If you need to cancel or reschedule, please email info@pollyhillarboretum.org 24 hours prior to your scheduled tour (excluding weekends). This will allow us to fill unused slots or cancel tours that have insufficient registration. We appreciate your consideration in notifying us.

Tuesday, January 9, 5:00 am – 6:30 am Eastern (but recorded) – Queer Gardens: Come Outside

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Gardens are many things. An oasis for nature, a retreat from the outside world, a haven for blooms. But how has the LGBTQI+ community been involved with their design, upkeep and prominence throughout the years? How is queerness seen in the natural world?

As well as being a historian and tour guide, Sheldon K Goodman is also passionate about gardening. He will give three talks looking at queerness in gardens from the work of gardeners, LGBTQI+ led community gardening initiatives in London, historical people such as Virginia Woolf, Reginald Farrer and Sir Francis Bacon and queer ecology’s roots in Michel Foucault’s The History of Sexuality (tr. Robert Hurley, 1978-2021, Pantheon Books) as well as queer gardening in the here and now.

The first session on January 9 is Come Outside. Who are the trailblazers in representing queer gardening today and how has their work shown queerness? From institutions embracing the valuable expression outside of Pride month for all manner of talks and events throughout the year, in this talk Sheldon looks at the work of luminaries such as hortpreneur Michael Perry, Daisy Desire the Drag Queen gardener, horticulturalist and journalist Alys Fowler and garden designer Lee Burkill. The talk will also focus on the increasing popularity of queer gardeners online and how those outside the heteronormative world have channeled their identities into designing and planting gardens. This Gardens Trust talk is £8 through Eventbrite, or £15.75 for the series. Register HERE Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days (and again a few hours) prior to the start of the first talk, and a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week.