Want a garden that is more unusual than usual? In this New England Botanic Garden design class on September 10 at 6 pm, you will learn about dark, spiky, leathery, and creeping plants for your goth-themed garden. From native plants in shade gardens to dark leaves and flowers in full-sun gardens, we will cover a variety of planting situations and seasonal interest.
During this class, we will cover a variety of plants for every planting situation and every season. We will also have a brief tour of the Garden to see some of the plants that we will discuss. In the second part of the class, we will discuss the basics of garden design and practice designing a small goth cottage garden. We will also discuss adding plants with flare to an existing garden to help bring it to the dark side.
Every garden needs some décor, and we will share a few ideas fit for the spookiest and most stylish house on the block. The goal is to help you plan your garden in the fall so that you can plant it in the following spring. All materials included as well as a themed mocktail.
Instructors: Meg Varnes & Liz Ives
Meg Varnes has been with New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill for over 9 years. She is the Conservatory and Formal Garden Horticulturist 2 and manages several hundred conservatory plants, thousands of orchids during the Orchid Exhibition, and the gardens surrounding the conservatories with a team of 2 gardeners. She has a bachelor’s in Ornamental Horticulture and Floriculture from Delaware Valley University and is a lifetime gardener who loves connecting people with plants. Her favorite garden space at NEBG is The Court – A Garden Within Reach, because it allows her to use plants that stimulate all the senses and is a garden designed to be accessible to all.
Liz Ives serves at the Registrar at New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill, where she is passionate about making art and arts education available to everyone. As a textile arts teacher with 25 years of experience in all types of education, from college lectures to private mentorship, Liz believes firmly that anyone can do art if they have a desire to try.
Liz has a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago in textile arts and an MA in history from Villanova University with a focus on material culture. She believes that learning about material culture, the things created and used in daily life, can teach us about the past and inform the present. In her personal life she enjoys sewing, weaving, spinning yarn, fashion history, quilting, natural dyeing, embroidery, and many other types of textile arts. As a long-time kitchen and garden witch she enjoys cultivating her own goth garden.
$65 Member Adult; $75 Adult (Includes admission to the Garden) Register at www.nebg.org
