Boston Flora

  • Monday & Tuesday, August 6 & 7, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Basic Drawing: Observing Nature with Graphite Pencil

    Drawing is a great way to observe nature and have fun recording what you see. However, it may cease to be fun if you aren’t sure about how to begin or can’t achieve the likeness of your subject that you would like. This Berkshire Botanical Garden two-day drawing workshop on August 6 & 7 will give you the basic concepts and skills to get started. Under the guidance of Carol Ann Morley you will learn how to look at the natural world and give shape and definition to your subject. Through graphite shading techniques you will understand how to accurately render some basic shapes that underlie any subject you choose to draw from a plant to landscape, giving depth and meaning to your art. Open to any level student from beginner to those with drawing skills.

    Bring a bag lunch. Materials list and registration at www.berkshirebotanical.org

    Carol Ann Morley is an illustrator and dedicated teacher of botanical illustration working in Dover, NH. She founded the Botanical Art Illustration Certificate Program at the New York Botanical Garden and teaches illustration there and at other botanical gardens.

    Advance registration is highly recommended, but walk-ins are always welcome, space permitting. $225 for BBG members, $250 for nonmembers.

    Withdrawals: To withdraw your registration from a class, please contact us as soon as possible so we can make your space available to others. If you give us at least 7 days’ notice prior to the event, we will refund you less an administrative fee equaling 25% of the program cost. Please note: we cannot offer refunds for withdrawals fewer than 7 days before a class.

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  • Saturday, August 4, 10:30 am – 12:00 noon – Fall Planting Workshop

    Saturday, August 4, 10:30 am – 12:00 noon – Fall Planting Workshop

    Extend your growing season with this hands-on Massachusetts Horticultural Society workshop on Saturday, August 4 from 10:30 – noon. Senior Horticulturist Hannah Traggis will cover succession planting and send you home with some cold-hardy seedlings. Image below from www.shtfpreparedness.com.

    Hannah Traggis manages Mass Hort’s edible gardens throughout The Gardens at Elm Bank. She oversees the Seed to Table vegetable garden which produces more than 4,000 pounds of produce each year to support our educational mission and local food pantries. $25 for Mass Hort members, $35 for nonmembers. Register at http://masshort.org or call 617-933-4973.

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  • Wednesday, August 1, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Summer Vegetables

    Vegetables are not “side-dishes” anymore; in fact, vegetables take center stage in most cuisines around the world. Learning how to make them shine, however, takes some know-how, and in this hands-on cooking class on Wednesday, August 1 from 6 – 9 you will learn techniques for making vegetables bright and flavorful—the star of any meal. Join Milk Street Cooking School instructors to make four dishes perfect for summer’s peak produce: Palestinian Tomato-Herb Salad with Sumac, Spanish Ratatouille (Pisto Manchego), Shaved Zucchini and Herb Salad with Parmesan, and Greek Cabbage Salad with Carrots and Olives (Politiki Salata). You will also learn some of our favorite cooking techniques to use on almost any vegetable, no recipe needed.

    This is a hands-on cooking class. Tickets are $125, and take place at 177 Milk Street in Boston. To register, visit www.177milkstreet.com.

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  • Friday, July 27, 6:30 pm – Feast for the Farms

    Friday, July 27, 6:30 pm – Feast for the Farms

    Historic New England invites you to a festive evening of farm-to-table dining, live music, and dancing at Casey Farm, 2325 Boston Neck Road, Saunderstown, Rhode Island, on Friday, July 27, beginning at 6:30 pm. . Enjoy Rhode Island oysters, delicious cocktails, locally crafted wine and beer, and delectable dishes using ingredients from the farm, which has a view of Narragansett Bay. Proceeds support the preservation of Casey Farm and nearby Watson Farm, along with education programs that serve thousands of Rhode Island children each year.

    Tickets:
    $175 per person ($105 tax-deductible)

    Sponsorships:
    Rhode Island Red: $1,000 ($860 tax-deductible, includes two tickets)
    Dominique: $2,500 ($2,220 tax-deductible, includes four tickets)
    Red Devon: $5,000 ($4,440 tax-deductible, includes reserved table for eight guests)

    To purchase tickets, visit http://shop.historicnewengland.org/DEV-FARM-MTX-1-10203/  If you can’t attend, but would like to make a donation, please click here.

    Advance tickets required. Please call 617-994-5934 for more information or to become a sponsor.

  • Saturday, July 28, 10:30 am – 12:00 noon – Native Lawn Alternatives for Urban Spaces

    “Lawns are a soul-crushing time suck” cries the media. Lawn covers more surface area of the U.S. than any other single irrigated crop, according to NASA. Lawns are resource-heavy, requiring irrigation, fertilizer, and pesticides to thrive in our climate. Learn some of the best, environmentally friendly lawn alternatives for urban gardens. Mark Richardson will discuss Native Lawn Alternatives for Urban Spaces on Saturday, July 28 beginning at 10:30 am. The program is free. The Urban Gardening Series is a set of lectures designed to help city dwellers grow healthy, sustainable, and beautiful gardens. Led by New England Wild Flower Society in partnership with the Cambridge Conservation Commission, these free lectures take place at the Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA.

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  • Saturday, July 21, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Living in Harmony With Nature: Gropius Landscape and House Tour

    Join Historic New England for a special evening tour of Gropius House and its grounds. Find out why Walter Gropius believed that the relationship between a house and its landscape was of peak importance. He designed the grounds of his family home as carefully as the structure itself. Gropius, founder of the German design school known as the Bauhaus, was one of the most influential architects of the twentieth century. The landscape of his 1938 home reflects Modern spatial principles, which Gropius integrated into a New England agricultural environment. Both the house and landscape reflect what Gropius called “living in harmony with nature.” Light refreshments provided at intermission. $35 Historic New England members, $45 nonmembers. Space is limited. Advance tickets required. Please call 781-259-8098 or buy online at www.historicnewengland.org. Gropius House is located at 68 Baker Bridge Road in Lincoln.

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  • Through August 4, 2019 – Wild Designs

    Wild Designs at the Peabody Essex Museum features works by artists and other creatives who are looking to nature and living systems for new ideas and creative solutions to human problems. The exhibition takes place in PEM’s Dotty Brown Art & Nature Center and explores biomimetic and bio-informed innovations in design and technology that either model or engage nature to generate novel products and more sustainable solutions. Included are design projects ranging from preliminary concepts to realized products and buildings, as well as mixed media sculptures, artist installations and drawings.

    Some of the featured designs will be as familiar as velcro, created in 1941 by Swiss engineer George de Mestral, who went for a walk in the woods and wondered if the burrs that clung to his socks — and his dog — could be turned into something useful. An air purifier made from a living plant inspired by early research from NASA turns nature into practicality as does a backpack designed to mimic the sliding scales of a pangolin. MiRo, a personal companion robot that resembles a small dog, includes smart sensors based on 20 years of research on animal brains and behaviors by UK scientists.

    Other featured projects aid with energy conservation, personal gear design, agriculture and water collection. One exhibition area features Geckskin, a super adhesive based on the toe pads of geckos created by researchers at UMass Amherst. This inspired material allows for an index card-sized piece to hold around 700 pounds without leaving behind a sticky residue. Scaling a building, like Spiderman, by wearing a pair of gecko-tape gloves may not be too far off.

    The exhibition will be on view through August 4, 2019. Image below is Jube, 2015, a bioinspired live edible insect trap, modeled after pitcher plants. Biomimicry Global Design Challenge entry by Pat Pataranutaporn with Ratchaphak Tantisanghirun, Purichaya Kuptajit, Tavita Kulsupakarn, Alfredo Raphael. Image courtesy of BioX team.

     

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  • Sunday, July 29 – Farm To Table Dinner at E. Cecchi Farms

    You’re invited to join The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts for an elegant dining experience at E. Cecchi Farms and engage in a discussion about the important role local farms play in feeding our neighbors in need. The meal will be prepared by the creative chefs at Wheelhouse Farm Truck & Catering, using ingredients sourced directly from the farm.

    E. Cecchi Farms, 1131 Springfield Street in Feeding Hills, has been family owned and operated for more than fifty years. Their motto, “everything you’d grow if you had forty acres,” encapsulates their commitment to a diverse variety of fruits and vegetables, including asparagus, kale, melons, carrots, strawberries, squash, beets and much more.

    Tickets ($80) for this 21+ event will include food, beer, cider and non-alcoholic beverages. To purchase, visit https://www.foodbankwma.org/events/farm-to-table-dinner/

    All proceeds from the event will benefit The Food Bank. Together, with your support, we can continue to cultivate these partnerships and put more fresh food on dinner tables across our region.

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  • Thursday, August 2, 8:00 am – 5:30 pm – Trip to The Blue Garden in Newport and Green Animals Topiary in Portsmouth

    Enjoy a presentation and an exclusive tour of the privately owned Blue Garden with Director Sarah Vance, followed by time for lunch and strolling on your own in downtown Newport. After lunch, we’ll travel to the Green Animals Topiary Garden before heading home. The field trip, sponsored by Tower Hill Botanic Garden, will take place Thursday, August 2. Group will leave from Tower Hill at 8 am and return by 5:30. If you wish to meet the group in Rhode Island, call 508.869.6111.

    The Blue Garden was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., and the Olmsted firm from 1910-1918 for Arthur Curtiss and Harriet Parsons James for their Newport estate, Beacon Hill House. Blasted from the surrounding ledge, this garden room is a classical form with formal beds planted with blue and white flowering perennials, annuals, and vines. The garden is framed by evergreen trees that enclose the space and buffer the transition from the formal symmetry of the garden to the windswept, rocky landscape. The 125-acre James estate was eventually divided into smaller residential properties, one of which included the Blue Garden. The property was purchased in 2012 by Dorrance Hamilton, a resident of Newport who had a deep interest in horticulture and preservation. Only the pools, runnel, and part of a pergola remained; the architecture and remaining features of the spaces had disappeared, subsumed under a thick covering of invasive trees and vines. Thanks to the vision and generosity of Dorrance Hamilton, the garden was restored using original drawings and photographs from the archives of the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site in Brookline, Massachusetts.

    The Green Animals Topiary Garden, located in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, is the oldest and most northern topiary garden in the United States. The 7-acre estate overlooks the Narragansett Bay. It contains a large collection of topiaries including eighty sculptured trees. Favorites include teddy bears, a camel, a giraffe, an ostrich, an elephant and two bears made from sculptured California privet, yew, and English boxwood. There are over 35 formal flower beds, geometric pathways, rose arbor, grape arbor, fruit trees, and vegetable and herb gardens. A greenhouse is used extensively to provide seedlings used on the estate. The 1859 Victorian Brayton house museum contains a small display of vintage toys and the original family furnishings.

    Tower Hill Member $125, Non-member $150; includes transportation, admissions and guided tour of the Blue Garden. Register at www.towerhillbg.org.

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  • Monday, July 30, 7:00 pm – Slow Money and Nurture Capital: A New Vision of Food, Money, and Soil

    On Monday, July 30, beginning at 7 pm, come hear Slow Money founder Woody Tasch speak about his new book Soil 2017, and Slow Money’s progress, including the $65 million invested in more than 728 small organic farms and local food businesses. This free event will take place Monday, July 30 at the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury, and is sponsored by the Dukes County Conservation District, Island Grown Initiative, Slough Farm Foundation, Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society, and The Polly Hill Arboretum.

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