The NOFA Summer Conference is the annual summer gathering of the Northeast Organic Farming Association. NOFA is a non-profit organization of over 5,000 small-scale farmers, gardeners, consumers and food system reformers. We promote healthy food, organic regenerative farming practices, and climate disruption solutions through soil management strategies.
The 49th annual NOFA Summer Conference begins online: Monday, July 24 – Thursday July 27, with evening workshops. On Friday July 28 and Saturday July 29, we gather in-personand online at Worcester State University, Worcester, MA for knowledge sharing and celebration through workshops and discussions, racial equity talks, children’s programming, plus local food and drink, music, and a fair. The 2023 theme is Buen Vivir: Celebrating Harmony with Nature and Our Communities. Buen Vivir is a contemporary philosophy rooted in Indigenous Andean traditions of collective care, land stewardship, and harmonious co-existence. For complete information and registration, visit https://www.nofamass.org/nofa-summer-conference/
Greenwood and Spartanburg, South Carolina will host the 2023 America in Bloom Symposium and Awards Program September 28 – 30. Thursday activities will include a tour of the Biltmore Estate & Gardens. Nestled within 8,000 acres of pristine Blue Ridge Mountain beauty, the Biltmore Estate is a one-of-a-kind destination. You will discover the estate’s origin and its evolution from the country home of the Vanderbilt family to beloved national treasure. This audio-guided tour spans three floors and the basement of the luxurious home, and then you can explore the historic gardens designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of American landscape design. You will be in horticultural paradise experiencing the indoor and outdoor gardens! This tour includes transportation and admission to the house and gardens. Lunch options are available at the Biltmore for all budgets and styles. This tour requires walking. The cost for this tour is $149. Seating is limited so register early. Later, catch up with old friends and make new ones at the Opening Night Reception followed by dinner, awards presentations, and silent auction.
Friday morning’s Keynote Presentation is Protecting the Life that Sustains Us – Conserving Pollinators, with Ann Barlow, Clemson University Master Gardener. Research has shown significant global declines in native pollinator population sizes and ranges. Fortunately, correct landscape practices can help to build thriving, diverse native pollinator populations. In this presentation, you will learn how to galvanize your community to sustain pollinators by increasing the abundance of native plants, providing nest sites, and more. Ann will show how volunteers can be involved, mosquito prevention programs and pest control practices to implement, how to educate the residents, and more. More talks and a networking lunch will be followed by a community tour of Greenwood, which will present a look at Greenwood’s rich history with tours of the Railroad Historical Center and the Benjamin E. Mays Historic Preservation Site. Your learning tour will continue as you walk through the city center and explore pollinator gardens, recent commercial and residential development, and the vibrant Arts and Cultural District. You will learn about Greenwood’s renowned SC Festival of Flowers’ Signature Topiary Display, including where they live and how they are created. The showstopping topiaries will be displayed throughout the walking tour, so make sure you’re prepared for numerous photo opportunities. In the evening A Taste of the South dinner is hosted by the City of Greenwood. Dinner will be served in the City’s Uptown Farmers’ Market that architecturally continues the rich railroad tradition in its “depot” design. Enjoy an ultimate Southern buffet complete with all the “fixins.” Dessert will be provided by the Career Center’s Culinary Arts Department, all in a true Southern setting complete with Southern flora and fauna. The fun won’t stop there, as the Greenwood in Bloom Committee has prepared a special and fun end to the evening.
Saturday is filled with optional sessions and showcases, ending with the Evening in Bloom America in Bloom Awards Banquet. For complete information, registration, and discounted hotel information visit https://americainbloom.org/about/
The Friends of the Public Garden and the City of Boston encourage members of the public to join them for the next Tool House Public Meeting on June 28 at 7:00 p.m. via Zoom. The City will present the final design plans for the Tool House in the Public Garden with a Q&A session to follow. Learn more about the project here and find more details about the public meeting here.
This project is a partnership between Public Facilities and Parks and Recreation Department and is looking to improve the Tool House which is home to the maintenance for the Public Garden and storage for the Swan Boat operations.
For more on the history of the public garden please visit the public gardens page.
Join The Esplanade Association for a public meeting to discuss the plan to build the Esplanade’s first year-round visitors center: Charlesbank Landing. They will review the design plans and timeline, and want to hear from YOU to help plan for community programming. Refreshments, child care, and translation services will be provided.
The Historic Deerfield seminar on June 23 and 24 will address the gaps in Indigenous voice and visibility in public views of the past. We will critically consider who has claimed responsibility for “keeping” the Indigenous past in New England, including how it has been represented, how historical research can be decolonized and improved, and what museums and tribal nations have done to engage the public in better understandings.
Presenters will explore Indigenous forms of memory-making and pastkeeping, on landscapes and in oral tradition; Native American authors of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth century, including autobiography and tribal histories; collections of material culture; histories of tribal museums; repatriation and cultural recovery; language reclamation; and artwork as vehicles for historical reflection.
The Seminar will give particular attention to the work of museums, archives, historic preservation organizations, cultural centers, and initiatives that over the past thirty years have worked to provide more holistic and inclusive representations of regional Indigenous peoples and histories.
The Seminar will convene in Deerfield, Massachusetts. This will be a hybrid program, with both on-site and virtual registration options for attendees. Speakers will present on site at Historic Deerfield. Special thanks to sponsors American Antiquarian Society. Amherst College Library, Boston University American and New England Studies Program, Smith College Department of History, University of Massachusetts Department of History, and University of Massachusetts Public History Program.
The Deerfield Inn has a block of rooms dedicated to the Dublin Seminar. Room rates vary depending on the room. To make a reservation at the Inn call (413) 774-5587 and use the code “HDF11”.
Join other enthusiasts in great conversation while immersed in the beauty of the Garden at Elm Bank. The Massachusetts Horticultural Society Book Club meets monthly at 1:30 in the Putnam Building, 900 Washington Street. On June 20, the book to be discussed is We Are the Ark by Mary Reynolds. To join the list, visit www.masshort.org.
Join Master Gardeners for the International Master Gardener Conference 2023. It’s going to be five fun days of gardening inspiration and education. Gather new ideas from international experts and hands-on classes. Visit acres of lush gardens and one of North America’s most complex and vanishing ecosystems. Make new friends, share experiences. Enjoy heartland hospitality June 18-22, 2023, when you come to Overland Park, Kansas, a suburb of the Kansas City Metro area, to Celebrate, Educate and Grow with Extension Master Gardeners from around the world.
Keynote speakers include Jim Richardson, an award-winning National Geographic photojournalist, Abra Lee, a Longwood Gardens Fellow and groundbreaking historian and author of Conquer the Soil, Chuck Rice, Nobel Peace Prize winner, researcher, professor, mentor, and gardener, Jessica Walliser, author of seven gardening books including Plant Partners: Science-Based Companion Planting Strategies for the Vegetable Garden, and Scott Beuerlein, Botanical Garden Outreach Manager at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden.
Berkshire Botanical Garden will hold its annual meeting on May 26, from 3 to 5 p.m. The public is invited. The meeting will feature a talk by Don Rakow, who teaches in Cornell’s School of Integrative Plant Science.
Formerly the director of Cornell Botanic Garden, Rakow is a highly engaging speaker who runs Cornell’s NatureRX program. Members attending the brief business portion of the meeting will have the opportunity to vote in the election of BBG’s officers. Light refreshments will be served. Registration is recommended.
Join other enthusiasts in great conversation while immersed in the beauty of the Garden at Elm Bank. The Massachusetts Horticultural Society Book Club meets monthly at 1:30 in the Putnam Building, 900 Washington Street. On May 16, the book to be discussed is Fifty Plants that Changed the Course of History by Bill Laws. To join the list, visit www.masshort.org.
Join other enthusiasts in great conversation while immersed in the beauty of the Garden at Elm Bank. The Massachusetts Horticultural Society Book Club meets monthly at 1:30 in the Putnam Building, 900 Washington Street. On April 18, the book to be discussed is A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the 19th Century, by Witold Rybcznskji. To join the list, visit www.masshort.org.
