The Polly Hill Arboretum in West Tisbury will host its annual Lisina & Frank W. Hoch Memorial Lecture on July 20 at 5:30 pm. Like most public gardens across the U.S., the global pandemic drastically altered how the Columbus Botanical Garden relates to its diverse community. Adriana Quiñones, Executive Director of Columbus Botanical Garden, will share how one public garden made it through the turmoil to actually build a new garden when the world was shut down, and explore how a public garden responds to the needs of its community.
You’re invited to join in the joy, creativity, and fun of an Alice’s Table exclusive floral workshop experience. Unleash your inner artist, as our encouraging instructor teaches you step-by-step how to make this impressive, photo-worthy floral arrangement using farm-fresh flowers delivered to your doorstep. You’ll learn design basics such as color, scale, and combination and gain the confidence to design more stunning arrangements for your home or event. Join your friends and join live. You are sure to be inspired, laugh along the way, and be eager to show off your new floral design skills. You’ll be amazed at what you can do. There’s always a seat at our table for you. There are a number of possible dates and times, in addition to July 27 at 8, but visit https://alicestable.com/workshops/floral/virtual-private-event-recipe-secret-garden?variantId=1689266
Each ticket includes an abundance of fresh flowers and a vase delivered to your doorstep 1-2 days before the event. All you need to bring is a pair of floral clippers or scissors. To ensure you receive the best quality flowers, this arrangement may slightly change due to our farm’s availability.
Prior to the event, each guest will receive tracking details and live streaming instructions. Pour a beverage of your choice and log on to experience a one-of-a-kind Alice’s Table floral workshop.
Products for this arrangement are perishable, all purchases are final and will not be eligible for refunds or transfers. $65. Register at the link above.
Do you delight in the little things in nature? Join photographer and author of Wild in Arizona: Photographing Arizona’s Wildflowers Colleen Miniuk as she walks through the joys–and challenges–of macro and close-up photography. Learn what gear can help you create macro-style photographs, how to develop meaningful compositions in confined spaces, how to control your focus and short depth of fields, and how to manage lighting conditions throughout the day—even at high noon! Hear how tapping into a visualization-driven approach can help you make a big impact when creating images of small scenes. The online event, August 16 from 4 – 6 Eastern time, is exclusively for members of Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, so if you are not a Club member, we invite you to join ours at https://www.gardenclubbackbay.org/membership/ The Zoom event is $10, and you may register online HERE.
After registering, you’ll receive an e-mail with the link for joining the webinar. You’ll receive a reminder one week, one day and one hour before the webinar starts. You can log on from your computer and view the webinar from the safety and comfort of your home.
Note: Register even if you can’t attend the live session. The webinar will be recorded and if you’re registered, you’ll receive a link to the webinar that you can view for at least the next 30 days.
Picking out your plants should be fun and creative, not daunting or complicated. In this live virtual webinar, we will learn how to create a native plant palette with trees and groundcovers. Using sample plant lists for various conditions, you will receive step-by-step guidance to inspire you with ideas for Fall 2022 planting. $12 for NPT members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at http://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/native-plant-guides/
The Garden Club of Mount Desert Open Garden Day held every other year on even years.
When: Saturday, July 30, 2022
Details: We will abide by local and State laws regarding the pandemic and masks/distancing. Please check back for updates. Some gardens are not wheelchair accessible and include uneven terrain. Cell phone photography only, thank you. Click here for ticket order form. Tickets are $40 in advance or $45 on day of event; more information at http://www.gardenclubofmtdesert.org.
Six gardens will be included on the tour.
Sand Point
The pink granite drive leads you through a well-tended woodland with a moss stream and ferns to the gracious shingled cottage designed by architect Keith Kroeger. Walking around the house notice the shade garden. The sweeping lawn, accented with seal sculptures, stretches towards Somes Sound.
Sand Point is the furthest point of land sticking out into Somes Sound, which is the only natural fjord on the east coast. It is thought to be where Indian tribes camped, fished, dried skins, and wove baskets of sweet marsh grass during the summers.
This property combines natural planting and glorious container gardens. At every corner and doorway there are groupings of pots filled with beautiful combinations of annuals and perennials. Clematis vines trail up the south facing walls leading to the rose garden and the kitchen garden. Exit past teepees of nasturtiums backed with pots of sun gold cherry tomatoes.
WatersEdge
WatersEdge features a great lawn and a sweeping view of Somes Sound. When the current owner acquired the property and renovation began back in the 1990’s, it became evident that a hundred years of withstanding Maine winters, unheated, had taken its toll on the house. The decision was made to have the architect, Bill McHenry, design a new, similar Shingle Style home, incorporating many of the architectural features from the original. An adjoining property, Lilac Hill, was acquired at the same time and was restored. Gardens were designed for both properties as well as a pine needle path that follows along the outside perimeter of both.
On the right side of the cobblestone edged driveway leading to WatersEdge there is a classically styled rose garden with geometric beds of roses, featuring a marble cherub statue at the center, and a greenhouse at the opposite end.
On the left side a moss and fern garden leads to a pool house. Beyond the pool house, and hidden behind a cedar privacy hedge, is a large infinity edged swimming pool that visually blends with the Sound.
As you approach the house, a tall, graceful American Elm welcomes visitors. An L shaped cedar hedge, opposite the entrance, visually blocks the parking and garage area, and provides a backdrop for a large border of perennials and annuals in colors that reflect the owner’s fondness for the pastel shades of a Monet painting. On the water side of the house there is a stone and grass terrace with a handsome retaining wall designed by Fresh Water Stone of Orlando, Maine.
Below the swimming pool, a circular pavé style garden with a millstone/sun dial at the center has been sunk into the sloping lawn. Repeating the curve of this garden, a second semi-circular flower border runs along the edge of the perimeter path to where the land drops down to shore level. The path then winds down to the shore through a wetland garden planted to attract pollinators. A babbling stream runs through it and several small frog ponds, planted with water lilies, add interest. The path then continues along the shoreline to the pier. Turn right at the stairs, and walk up the pine path, past the flagpole, to the house and a walled garden by the conservatory which features large leaf ball sculptures made of hundreds of individually cut metal leaves welded into a spherical frame (design by “A Place in the Sun,” London), and a wonderful architectural model of the main house.
The Ledge
To enter this extraordinary garden, follow the path under an arch of Sorbaria sorbifolia, past the front door and around to the left side of the house and the kitchen garden. The owner, a talented artist and designer, describes this garden as “looking like a Poussin painting.”
The garden was raised twelve feet up from the rocky shoreline to its perch above Gilpatrick Cove. It is lush with sweet peas staked with birch branches in tubs, tall, staked tomatoes, herbs, lettuces, vegetables, and decorative blue cabbages growing amongst the flowers.
Walk up onto the porch to see the view out the Western Way above a lawn, sculpted with areas of moss and low ground covers, and be awed by the glorious border that runs down the right side of the house to the shore. This undulating deep border, backed with sunflowers, and tall perennials, is full of rich, hot colors and features dahlias, some the size of dinner plates.
Each fall, all the plants are chosen by the owner and each section of the garden is carefully mapped out. Her long-time gardener and collaborator Tim King, then grows the plants in his winter greenhouse. The result is a true work of art.
Hedgefield
Four years ago, Hedgefield was on this Tour as two separate gardens: The house and the gardens around it, and a fenced garden, down the road and separated from the house by woods. Today the woods are gone, and these two gardens are now connected. In addition, the owner has purchased some adjoining property and has expanded the garden and added some new features.
The entrance to the house still features the stacked stone walls, the bronze Arts and Crafts lanterns designed by Dennis Bracale and crafted by Robert Breeden, and the playful animal sculptures by Dan Falt. The traditional knot garden in the backyard of the house has matured and in addition to fifty roses, (nineteen varieties) there is lavender, and Cranberry Isles Nicotiana. Dutchman’s Pipe winds around the picket fence. Here you will find, mounted on a Deer Isle Granite Post, a railroad bell engraved with the name of the house which is also the name of the owner’s parents farm in St. Louis. The short allée, opposite the front door, that led to an outdoor children’s playroom on the left, has been elongated and transformed into a grand allée of green lawn, flanked with large borders of annuals and perennials, now connecting the gardens around the house to the fenced “Petal Garden” (named for its central feature: beds shaped like flower petals around a millstone center). There is a small moss garden on the right side of the potting shed, and some vegetable boxes on the left side. A walk through an area of shade loving perennials behind the petal garden remains, but some of the woods have been removed to create access to the new areas. In the new area, a stream meanders through a Japanese style water garden before cascading into a free form swimming pool, which is tucked into the landscape and lined with granite rock to resemble a quarry pool.
Shelley and Dave Small invite our friends and neighbors to the Annual MothBall at our home at 1542 Pleasant Street, Athol. July 23rd 2022 9:00 PM to whenever… Please follow current Covid protocols when at our home. Bring flashlight, camera, lawn chair, a beverage and/or snack to share (keep it simple grab and go) and your sense of adventure. No rain date. This will be an all outdoor event portable toilet in place. Please register with https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc4R-fxPLozgTOSM7L69uB7bmEkGa5dl8BYlCtDk-z9oxy46g/viewform just to let us know who is coming Looking forward to a fun evening. Welcome to the dark side 😊 Dave at Dave@atholbirdclub.org if you have additional questions.
The Piers Park III project in East Boston has received $2 million in federal funds, to help support construction of the waterfront public space. The award comes from Congressional Directed Spending (CDS) funding, requested by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), and U.S. Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass), with support from Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07). After being approved by the legislature, the CDS funding was included in the bipartisan omnibus federal budget signed by President Biden on March 15. An estimated $35 to $40M is being raised to build Piers Park III, funded largely through philanthropic contributions from a mix of private individuals, foundations and corporations. To date, $28.5M has been committed, including the recent federal funds.
Piers Park III is currently in the community design phase, with a second draft of the design for the future waterfront park shared during a public meeting in February. Feedback was collected throughout 2021 and will continue to be gathered during 2022 in order to finalize the park landscape, programming, and design features. An updated design, the third draft, will be shared during public meetings this summer.
Construction is expected to begin in mid-2023. The creation of Piers Park III advances a bold vision for iconic, public open space on Boston’s Harbor, managing a world-class park that supports diverse community needs, brings value to the city’s climate resiliency goals, and serves as welcoming public outdoor spaces helping people stay physically and mentally healthy and active
Emerging research suggests that mushrooms may be beneficial for brain and nerve health. Discover the properties of different species and learn where medicinal mushrooms occur locally. Study how select types such as Maitake, Reishi, and Lion’s Mane can help strengthen the immune system and increase resistance to stress. We’ll also explore how fungi have been used to clean toxins from the environment by filtering water and removing heavy metals from soil. This New York Botanical Garden webinar takes place July 19 from 6 – 8, with instructor John Michelotti. NYBG members $45, nonmembers $49. Register HERE.
In this Nature Conservancy webinar on July 21 at 2 pm Eastern, David Godshall and Jenny Jones of TERREMOTO, a young landscape architecture design studio with offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco, will discuss the preservation and ethics of garden design for mid-century Modernist houses. Godshall and Jones will explain how the historic landscapes for these properties are rarely as sophisticated as the design of the houses, posing interesting challenges for the social and environmental principles of their practice. $5 for Garden Conservancy members, $15 for nonmembers. A recording of this webinar will be sent to all registrants a few days after the event. We encourage you to register, even if you cannot attend the live webinar. Register at https://www.gardenconservancy.org/education/education-events/virtual-talk-7-21-22-ewrestling-with-contradictions-labor-and-ecology-in-california-s-modernist-gardens
Join Friendship Tours and the Federated Garden Clubs of Ct. for a full three night tour of the beautiful Finger Lakes region. We spend our three nights at The Gould in Seneca Falls, home of the women’s civil rights movement and inspiration for It’s a Wonderful Life. From Seneca Falls we will branch out to visit all the prime sights of the Finger Lakes experiencing gardens, a castle, wineries, local cuisine along with your congenial group! Have some fun this September in the Finger Lakes. $1,512 for a twin, double occupancy, and $1,758 for a single.
Highlights include the famous Beekman Farm, home of the Beekman Boys and their lifestyle brand Beekman 1802, McKenzie Child pottery, Belhurst Castle and Winery, formerly the home of Harrison Otis of Otis Elevator, Granger Homestead & Gardens, the Sonnenberg Gardens & Mansion, a cooking demonstration and dinner at New York Kitchen, the Corning Museum of Glass, and tour of the private garden of Wayne Myers. Complete itinerary details and registration links may be found HERE.
