Free seedlings of bee balm, penstemon, and swamp milkweed will make it easy for you to support wild bees and butterflies in your gardens, roof decks, and balconies. This giveaway, happening at the Brookline Farmers’ Market, will take place at the Brookline Farmers’ Market and is sponsored by the Brookline Pollinator Pathway. Brookline Pollinator Pathway was created in 2023 by Brookline residents concerned about the decline in insect population. Their mission is to create native plant gardens that will increase insect biodiversity, improve ecosystems, support bird and animal life and improve soil health. For more. information visit https://brooklinepp.wixsite.com/brooklinepp
London’s Garden Museum summer exhibition is open now. Best known for his iconic fashion photography, Cecil Beaton had a bouquet of creative talents: he was also an accomplished costume and set designer for film, theatre and ballet, and a gifted artist. This exhibition is the first to examine the common thread weaving through Beaton’s work: gardens and flowers.
Photographs, paintings, drawings, costume and set design will explore the role flowers played in developing Cecil Beaton’s creative practice; from the lavish floral installations he created for parties with flowers from his own gardens, to painted and fresh flowers used as backdrops for fashion photography and royal portraits, to the famous floral costumes in My Fair Lady.
The exhibit, open through September 21, is curated by Garden Museum Curator Emma House and designed by artist and designer Luke Edward Hall. Can’t get to London? Buy the catalogue. This catalogue accompanying the exhibition includes a foreword by art historian and museum director Sir Roy Strong sharing memories of his lifelong friendship with Beaton, which followed their collaboration on Beaton’s 1968 exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, where Strong was then Director.
An essay by Garden Museum Curator Emma House further explores Beaton’s passion for his gardens, with photographs, paintings, drawings, costume and set designs from the exhibition illustrating the role flowers played in developing his creative practice.
Join The Charlesgate Alliance and the Charlesgate Farmers Market on Sundays, June 22 – October 12, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm, for the popular Farmers Market. Support local farmers, small businesses, and musicians. Entering its second year, the event has been a success and fills a community need for fresh food and friendship.
On Memorial Day weekend, join the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club for its annual plant sale at the Old Mill, 690 Edgartown Road in West Tisbury. All proceeds benefit the Club’s civic projects. For more information visit https://www.marthasvineyardgardenclub.org/
Fill your garden with vegetable transplants, locally grown on the Farm at Gore Place. Choose from many varieties of hard-to-find heirloom and hybrid tomatoes, as well as peppers, eggplants, and herbs. Back this year: customer-favorite marigolds! This year’s sale takes place in-person, on-site at our Farm; there will be no online sales this year. The dates and times are May 16, 9 – 3, May 17, 9 – 5, and May 18, 9 – 12.
It’s not just the great plants that make this sale special: Farmer Scott has been growing vegetables for almost 50 years. He has deep knowledge of these varieties and is onsite and ready to share! According to Scott, “We get lots of return customers. They count on us to provide the rare varieties that commercial nurseries don’t carry.” To see the plant list, visit https://goreplace.org/whats-on/plant-sale
The sale will take place on the Farm and there will be plenty of free parking (enter at 249 Waltham Street)
Kick off the gardening season with Wright-Locke Farm. This exciting new event offers a unique opportunity to purchase a variety of healthy, locally grown seedlings for your garden, from vibrant flowers to organic vegetables. Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or just getting started, the expo features an array of supplies, expert demonstrations, and a chance to chat with local farmers and gardening enthusiasts. Explore sustainable gardening practices, discover new tools, and take home everything you need to cultivate your green space. Come out, meet your neighbors, and celebrate the joys of gardening in our beautiful community! Mother’s Day Weekend! May 10th and 11th 9 am – 1 pm
Porter Square Books is excited to welcome author Jeff Chu to celebrate the release of his book,Good Soil.Author Kristin T. Leewill join Chu in conversation. This event will take place on Thursday, May 1 at 7pm at Porter Square Books (1815 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02140).
In his late thirties, Jeff Chu left his job as a magazine writer and found himself at Princeton Theological Seminary’s “Farminary”—a twenty-one-acre working farm where students learn to cultivate the earth while examining life’s biggest questions. Now, he unpacks what he learned about creating “good soil,” both literally and figuratively, drawing lessons from the rhythms of growth, decay, and regeneration that define life on the land.
In gorgeous, transporting reflections, Chu introduces us to the cast of characters, human and not, who became his teachers. While observing the egrets that visit the pond, the worms that turn waste into fertile soil, and the Chinese long beans that get passed over in the farm’s CSA, Chu considers our desire to belong, the story behind the food on our plate, and the significance of his own roots. What is the earth trying to tell us, if we’ll only stop and listen?
Good Soilhelps readers connect to the land and to one another at a time when we seem drawn most to the phones in our hands. For nature lovers, foodies, and anyone who has daydreamed about a more fulfilling life, this book is a tribute to friendship, to the sacredness of our bond with the natural world, and to how love can grow from the unlikeliest of places.
We will have a wide selection of seedlings including annual vegetables, herbs, and cut flowers, as well as native herbaceous perennials and woody plants for sale.
The 2025 plant sale will include pre-orders and in-person shopping. Pre-orders are open now (using link above) for pick up mid-May. Vegetable supply is limited- pre-order to ensure availability.
City Natives, part of The Trustees of Reservations, is located at 30 Edgewater St in Mattapan, a short walk from the Mattapan Square trolley station. There is limited parking available on site.
Pre-order pick up dates: May 8, 10, 15, 17 from 9am-3pm
In-person shopping: May 22 and 24 from 9am-3pm
We accept cash, credit, and debit for in person sales. If you show your EBT card we can offer a 50% discount on vegetable plant sales.
The Daffodil & Tulip Festival at Naumkeag returns for its 6th year on Thursdays through Sundays, April 18 – May ll. Stroll through the 8 acres of the Trustees’ world-renowned gardens artfully decorated with daffodil, tulip and minor bulbs as we celebrate the return of Spring to the Berkshires. The 48 acre estate in the heart of Stockbridge will come to life with the colors and spirit of spring. There will be a plant sale, food, and refreshements for sale on site. Advanced purchase of timed tickets is required – tickets will not be sold on site. Member adults $15, nonmembers $25, children FREE. To learn more, reserve tickets, and for more information on parking and weather cancellations visit https://thetrustees.org/event/427419/
Porter Square Books is thrilled to welcome Julia Thacker to discuss her collection of poetry,To Wildness. Author Katherine Hollander will introduce Thacker. This event will take place on Thursday,April 10 at 7pm atPorter Square Books (1815 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02140).
To Wildnessis winner of the 19th annual Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize, and was chosen by the internationally acclaimed poet, Paul Muldoon. As Joan Houlihan says in her enthusiastic endorsement, “Teeming with image, sensation and sound, the poems in To Wildness tumble us into a glorious exuberance of catalog and character, rural landscape and dark imaginings (‘We ate ants peeled from bark, a rain of plums / when he rattled the trees. Lumbering. Shackled.’). Ancestral voices speak from the grave; fabulist figures like the girl buried with a finch tell their stories; and contemporary ghosts only the narrator sees abound (Let me touch them as they pass.) A southern gothic atmosphere hovers here: shapes twisting in the dark and the language to conjure them near. What a rich and thrilling collection!”
In recipes, spells, odes and elegies, ToWildness conjures what has been lost and what remains. These are poems of the body. They rub up against one another and knock elbows. Plum Jam calls preserving fruit as spiritual labor: To be elbow deep in a barrel/arms gloved crimson. In this collection, the dead reside alongside the living. Ancestors roost in trees, having forgotten language, their coats inside out. Others sulk in the eaves, their ears clogged with clover. The past made vivid renders an extravagant present and offers a balm to the isolation of the contemporary world.
