Daily Archives: September 27, 2024

Thursday, October 3, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Eastern – The Crevice Garden, Online

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A rock garden is an age-old institution in gardening, maybe even a crusty old one, but Crevice Gardens are the ultimate expression of the spirit of gardening with nature’s rocky places in mind. More and more of them are recently part of the exhibits of botanic and public gardens around the world- as well as home gardener’s back yards. Why is that? In this American Horticultural Society webinar on October 3 at 2 pm Eastern, we’ll learn what a crevice garden is, a bit of its history, how all it can be used to create something special, grow challenging plants, or solve a problem. Finally, we’ll learn how to make an approachable one in the home garden, in any climate. $15 for AHS members, $20 for nonmembers. Register at www.ahsgardening.org

Kenton Seth is the owner of Colorado-based garden design business Paintbrush Gardens, co-author of the New York Times-acclaimed book The Crevice Garden, and former Head of Horticulture for Western Colorado Botanic Gardens. He is an international speaker, a nursery owner/operator, an accomplished propagator of novel plants, and a designer and plantsman of crevice gardens, meadow gardens, and native plant landscapes.

In his freelance garden design work, Kenton Seth consults for, designs, and installs rock, native plant, and xeric gardens. His landscapes span from Colorado to the Pacific Northwest, North Carolina, and New Zealand. He tests and implements cutting-edge planting systems, making them practical for use in both the private and public sector. While primarily an educator, consultant, and designer, he also installs public demonstration exhibits and residential landscapes to test, perfect, and demonstrate new techniques and plants. Seth operates a small nursery to supplement plant material for his designs as well as to supply plants to growers to support xeric plant availability. His mission is to demonstrate and facilitate examples of dry or unirrigated landscapes that are also ecologically beneficial, to raise the demand for such landscapes. Seth’s landscape worked is informed by his BFA in Studio Art from Colorado Mesa University and his Master Gardener certification from Colorado State University.

Thursday, October 17, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Into the Thaw: Witnessing Wonder Amid the Arctic Climate Crisis

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The effects of climate change are most felt in the Arctic landscape, where Lexington Massachusetts native Jon Waterman has been exploring for decades. On Thursday, October 17, the Lexington Historical Society will host a lecture at the Isaac Harris Cary Memorial Building, 1605 Massachusetts Avenue in Lexington.

In 2024, Minuteman National Historical Park and Walden Pond were named as among the top 11 endangered historic sites in America, in part due to climate change. The alterations to our natural environment during the climate crisis have far-reaching consequences to the preservation of historic structures like those we steward in Lexington and Concord, as well as the natural historical landscape.

More than 40 years ago, park ranger Jon Waterman took his first journey to Alaska’s Noatak River. Astonished by the abundant wildlife, the strange landscape, and its otherworldly light, he spent years of his life exploring Arctic North America on extended sea kayaking, packrafting, skiing, dogsledding, and backpacking journeys—often alone for weeks at a time. After three decades away from the Noatak, he returned with his son, and amid a now-flooded river bereft of the once-plentiful caribou, he was shocked by the changes. The following year, 2022, he took one final journey to film and document the climate crisis across the North in his new book, Into the Thaw (Patagonia Press)—the subject of his October 17 image-intensive presentation.

A frequent National Geographic grantee and NEA Literary Fellow, Waterman (Lexington High class of 1974) is the author of 17 books. $10 Lexington Historical Society members, $15 nonmembers. Register through Eventbrite HERE.