Save the date for the First Annual Charlesgate Alliance Muddy River Earth Fest on Saturday, April 27 from noon to 3 at the DCR Charlesgate Park, at the intersection of Commonwealth Avenue and Charlesgate East. For complete information visit http://CharlesgateAlliance.org.
Barbara Erickson. CEO of The Trustees, council member of the Land Trust Alliance, and frequent speaker on topics of community and conservation, will address the Boston Committee of the GCA Spring Membership Meeting, Lecture, and Luncheon.
Thursday, April 25, 2019
Brae Burn Country Club
326 Fuller Street, West Newton, MA 02465
10:00 a.m. | Registration and Coffee
10:30 a.m. | Welcome, Business Meeting, and Award Presentation
11:00 a.m. | Lecture and Luncheon to follow
Barbara Erickson has been the president and CEO of The Trustees since 2012. She recently expanded The Trustees leadership role in Boston proper, establishing headquarters where the organization was originally founded in 1891. She is the 2017 recipient of the Garden Club of America’s Elizabeth Craig Weaver Proctor Medal. Barbara will speak to the committee about the challenges to Boston’s waterfront and The Trustees’ One Waterfront Initiative, a multi-year effort to create an iconic, resilient open space on the waterfront.
The Beautification Award of 2019 for Lifetime Achievement in Civic Improvement will be presented to Marion Pressley, FASLA, Principal at Pressley Associates Landscape Architects (and Garden Club of the Back Bay speaker.)
The meeting is open to Boston Committee member clubs and their guests. For more information visit http://www.bostoncommitteegca.org/events.html
The New England Wild Flower Society has a big announcement. Since its founding in 1900 as the Society for the Protection of Native Plants, it has had four names.
“In 2019 we are ready for one that is better aligned with our mission, our impact…and our roots. After a great deal of research and careful consideration, we are pleased to announce that New England Wild Flower Society is now Native Plant Trust – Conserving and promoting New England’s native plants. Our new name more accurately reflects our mission and our achievements in conservation, horticulture, and education. The tagline is an abbreviated version of our mission statement and communicates our geographic focus. We are grateful to our board, staff, volunteers, and members who helped us throughout the process, and we are excited to share this news with our supporters across the region and around the world.
For a full description of the history of the organization, visit the exciting new website, www.nativeplanttrust.org
Faced with undeveloped space on his property in Petersham, Massachusetts, a true luxury for any gardener, Bruce Lockhart decided to create a meadow. Enlisting the aid of designer Gordon Hayward, Bruce gave him two directives: look to the work of Piet Oudolf and create a pollinator-friendly habitat as a companion to the orchard nearby. In 2012 Gordon arrived to lay out thousands upon thousands of meadow plants, and he brought help: nurserywoman and garden designer Helen O’Donnell, who has been part of this strong collaboration ever since. In this Garden Conservancy behind-the-scenes look at the creation and ongoing management of a visually striking meadow that is alight with more beneficial insects every year, Bruce and Helen will share techniques, challenges, successes, and, of course, favorite plants.
Helen O’Donnell manages a garden design and maintenance business and co-owns the Bunker Farm in Vermont, where she has a specialized plant nursery. Working at Great Dixter under the tutelage of Fergus Garrett, she developed a passion for garden design and growing interesting plants from seed, as well as a belief that great gardens come from exquisitely grown plants. Helen is equally a gardener and a grower, finding she cannot be one without the other.
Bruce Lockhart was a gardener without a garden until 1998, when he and his partner found this 88-acre property with a scrappy house and lots of weeds. It has been a labor of love ever since, the first fourteen years while working full time as a physician, and the past six years retired.
Advance registration is required and space is limited. The event will take place at Swiftriver Farm, 27 Nichewaug Road in Petersham. $30 for members of The Garden Conservancy, $40 for nonmembers. Register early (these events sell out) at https://www.gardenconservancy.org/open-days/open-days-schedule/digging-deeper-the-making-of-a-meadow-garden
On April 18 from 10 – 11:30 at the Wellesley College Club, Carol Govan will talk about the website she is developing, called “Seeing Nature: the Connection between Art and Science.” It combines all the fun she had teaching and taking various courses at the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens, the Garden in the Woods and the Eagle Hill Institute. She uses art as a process to slow down and record what she sees, and science to research what she has been looking at. This website is a way for her to create her own reference book of illustrated nature observations. Free to members of the Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Garden, $10 for the general public. Pre-register at wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu or call 781-283-3094.
Here we go for 2019. Beginning May 6 and continuing through December 6, the City of Boston will be picking up Leaf and Yard Waste. If you have two recycling days per week, collection is on the FIRST recycling day of the week. Collection is every other week, and leaf and yard waste left curbside on alternate weeks will not be collected. If you want to compost, you may buy backyard compost bins and kitchen scrap buckets at Boston Building Resources, 100 Terrace Street in Mission Hill, but remember, if you are in an area with a high rat density, composting may not be a good option.
Use large paper bags or open barrels labeled “yard waste” but do not use plastic bags. Tie branches (3 foot maximum length, 1 inch maximum width) with string. Do not put branches in barrels. And please, no dirt!
For more information visit http://boston.gov/trash
The Pepin Lecture Series in Food Studies and Gastronomy, cosponsored by Jacques Pepin and Boston University’s Master of Liberal Arts Program in Gastronomy, continues on Thursday, April 18 at 6 with a free lecture at 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 313, examining the complexities of Britain’s post-World War II position through the lens of its food relief to Europe. Specifically, it will investigate the efforts made by the Council of British Societies for Relief Abroad, which worked with the British government, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, and voluntary societies to feed the women and children of Europe, particularly those living in Germany and Austria. The discussion will demonstrate the ways that relief initiatives shifted over time due to domestic considerations, British foreign policies, and international relations. Attendees will gain a vital new perspective on Britain’s transatlantic relations and the tensions between the United States and Europe in the early days of the Cold War. For more information visit http://bu.edu/foodandwine
Greenovate Boston is now accepting nominations for the 2019 Mayor’s Greenovate Awards. As in past years, we ask that you nominate leaders in climate action, be it an individual, an organization, or a business. The categories for this years’ awards will be:
The Greenovate Team is adding a special twist to the awards selection process. Once we have received nominations, we will be hosting live voting on our website, where you and other community members can vote on who you think should win the award for each category.
Your votes will help us choose the top 3 finalists, from which the Greenovate team will choose the winner, whom we will announce at this year’s Greenovate Awards Ceremony!
Nominations are open from April 4th through April 24th – Nominate your leader today! Voting will be open from April 26th through May 10th.
On April 27 from 10 – 11:30 at Hollister House Garden, 300 Nettleton Hollow Road in Washington, Connecticut, join Dan Furman, co-owner of Cricket Hill Garden, a second generation specialty nursery and forest farm in Thomaston, CT, as he explores the World of Peonies. Peonies are one of the most beloved flowers in New England gardens and in this illustrated talk Dan will offer tips on planting, cultivating and propagating this springtime showstopper. You will hear about the different types of peonies (tree, herbaceous and intersectional) and get ideas about how to use peonies in the landscape.
At the conclusion of this talk there will be an opportunity to purchase containerized peonies suitable for spring planting.
Hollister House Garden Members $25 Non-Members $35. Register at https://hollisterhousegarden.org/events/the-world-of-peonies/
New England Wild Flower Society celebrates the extraordinary during the fourth annual Trillium Week, May 5-11, 2019 at Garden in the Woods in Framingham, MA. Known for their delicate beauty, trilliums are woodland plants highly prized by both gardeners and conservationists, in part because even in the wild it takes four to seven years for the plants to reach flowering age.
Trillium Week- which also coincides with peak bloom time for many other beautiful spring plants at the Garden- features guided tours, a workshop on propagating trilliums, and an evening of music and craft beer. Several species of trillium will also be available in limited numbers for purchase at the Garden’s shop. For more information about Trillium Week, please visit www.newenglandwild.org.
THE TRILLIUM COLLECTION AT GARDEN IN THE WOODS
The trillium collection at the Society’s Garden in the Woods is the most extensive in New England, with twenty-one of the thirty-one species native to North America, including three of the four species native to the region. It has earned coveted national accreditation by the American Public Gardens Association’s Plant Collections Network, which recognizes the botanical integrity of the collection and the Society’s effective stewardship and management.
