Boston Flora

Tag: Beneficial Insects

  • Saturday, September 29, 8:30 am – 3:30 pm – Inspiration for Next Year’s Garden

    Each winter when the Massachusetts Master Gardeners Association Symposium Committee meets to come up with a “wish list” for our next event, we start with feedback from previous participants. (If you attended in 2017, thank you for your thoughtful suggestions!) In keeping with our theme, Inspiration for Next Year’s Garden, we prioritize speakers whose topics not only challenge and elevate our thinking as gardeners, but also offer advice that is both practical and realistic. We hope 2018’s inspiration become your 2019 garden reality. The Symposium will take place Saturday, September 29, from 8:30 – 3:30 at Westford Academy in Westford, Massachusetts.

    Featured speakers include Joseph Tychonievich, author of Rock Gardening: Reimagining a Classic Style. Learn the basic principles of creating a rock garden, as well as knowing some of the most beautiful and easy to grow plants.
    Peter J. Hatch, Director of Gardens and Grounds Emeritus, Thomas Jefferson Foundation, will speak on the third US President’s unique approach to gardening and how it inspired both a vegetable-centric culinary revolution and today’s garden-to-table movement. Then, Kelly D. Norris, Director of Horticulture and Education, Des Moines Botanical Garden, will teach us about stylish plant alternatives that can help you create a more fulfilling connection between you and your garden. Finally, Jessica Walliser, author of the bestseller Good Bug, Bad Bug, will discuss how to attract beneficial insects to your property, helping to preserve the garden’s natural balance.

    Register online ($90, deadline 9/22) at http://massmastergardeners.org/2018-symposium/

    Image result for Massachusetts Master Gardeners Association 2018 Symposium

  • Monday, January 11, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm – Webinar: Garden Allies – The Art and Science of Conservation Biological Control

    Conservation biological control is the practice of designing and managing habitat that supports beneficial insects that regulate pests, while reducing or even eliminating the need for pesticides in landscapes. While many of the same flowering plants that attract pollinating bees also attract insects that attack common pests, effective conservation biological control requires a holistic approach to design that includes far more than simply growing the right flowers. Learn how to merge the principles of garden design and basic ecology to successfully influence the community of beneficial insects that keep pest insects at bay. As schools, parks, and other public areas increasingly ban the use of pesticides, conservation biological control is gaining visibility as an ideal tool for insect management. Geared to landscape professionals, this webinar, to be given Monday, January 11 from 1 – 2 EST introduces tools for design and maintenance, and provides resources for further study.

    Frederique Lavoipierre serves as the Director of Education at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, where the focus is on California native plants. She holds a Master’s degree in Biology from Sonoma State University, with an emphasis on sustainable landscape practices and conservation biological control. Frederique Lavoipierre was the founding director of the professional certificate program in sustainable landscaping at Sonoma State University, and founded and operated one of the first certified organic nurseries in California. She is the author of Garden Allies, a series for Pacific Horticulture magazine, completing its 9th year of publication, and has published in Public Gardens, Bay Nature, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among others. Frederique has extensive teaching experience in wilderness, garden and classroom settings. – See more at: http://www.ecolandscaping.org/event/webinar-garden-allies-the-art-and-science-of-conservation-biological-control/#sthash.5AWAJV7c.dpuf. Free for Ecological Landscape Alliance members, $10 for nonmembers.

  • Saturday, May 9, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm – Native Pollinator Conservation

    Sonia G. Schloemann will present the final spring Mass Aggie seminar on Saturday, May 9, from 10 – 2 at Smolak Farms, 315 South Bradford Street in North Andover, entitled Native Pollinator Conservation. Pollination is an important step in growing all fruits and many vegetables. While most people know about honey bees, native bees are also important pollinators. Encouraging native bees and other beneficials by providing nesting and forage habitat is easy and fun for the home gardener. Learn about how to build bee blocks and which flowering plants make good forage habitat. Participants will build nest boxes to bring home to their gardens. There will be a break for participants to enjoy a BYO lunch or buy lunch at the farm.  This seminar is partially out of doors, so please dress appropriately for potentially wet, cool, and muddy conditions.  Fee is $50, and you may register online at https://extension.umass.edu/fruitadvisor/mass-aggie-seminars-2015#program%20details

  • Saturday, May 17, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm – Native Pollinator Conservation

    The University of Massachusetts Extension wraps up its spring fruit courses with a session on Native Pollinator Conservation, led by Sonia Schloemann (pictured below) on Saturday, May 17 from 10 – 1 at Powisset Farm, 37 Powisset Street in Dover. Pollination is an important step in growing all fruits and many vegetables. While most people know about honey bees, native bees are also important pollinators. Encouraging native bees and other beneficials by providing nesting and forage habitat is easy and fun for the home gardener. Learn about how to build bee blocks and which flowering plants make good forage habitat. Participants will build nest boxes to bring home to their gardens. $50.  Register on line at https://classic.regonline.com/builder/site/?eventid=1460640.

    http://www.justfoodnow.org/SoniaBio_files/image002.png

  • Thursdays, October 1 & 8, 5:45 – 7:45 pm – Habitat Gardening

    The Cambridge Center for Adult Education will offer a two session course led by Kim DeAndrade and Ellen Sousa on Habitat Gardening. You don’t need to get in the car and drive somewhere to enjoy nature. By learning to create a backyard habitat, you can create a sanctuary for songbirds, butterflies, and people, right in your own backyard. In this two-session course, for beginners or experienced gardeners, you will learn how and what to plant to attract various kinds of wildlife; how birds, dragonflies, bats, and beneficial insects all provide free pest control; plus other ecological gardening techniques. They will walk you through the process of providing the four elements that wildlife need: food, water, cover, and places to rear their young. They will explain how your property, large or small, can become a National Wildlife Federation-certified backyard wildlife habitat. Beautiful photos of New England habitat gardens will inspire you and wash away any remaining post-winter doldrums. Help create habitat, one yard at a time! Limited to 16.
    Sec. 01: 2 Thursdays, 5:45-7:45 pm. Oct. 1 & 8, 56 Brattle St. | $75
    Course Code: HABG–1
    To register, log on to www.ccae.org.
    Ends on: October 08, 2009
    Price:75.00

  • Wednesday, September 9, 1:00 pm – Gardening For Wildlife

    Now in its third year, the American Horticultural Society’s “webinar” program , offered exclusively to members, is a great way to learn from and interact with leading horticultural experts without having to leave home.  Past presenters include Julie Moir Messervy, Norm Lownds, and Scott Calhoun.  On Wednesday, September 9, beginning at 1 pm, Douglas Tallamy, author of the highly aclaimed Bringing Nature Home, will present “Gardening for Wildlife.”  The seminar will consist of an online slide show with the presenter’s voice streamed through your computer’s speakers, or delivered by telephone.

    Tallamy takes an obvious observation—wildlife is threatened when suburban development encroaches on once wild lands—and weds it to a novel one: that beneficial insects are being deprived of essential food resources when suburban gardeners exclusively utilize nonnative plant material. Such an imbalance, Tallamy declares, can lead to a weakened food chain that will no longer be able to support birds and other animal life. Once embraced only by members of the counterculture, the idea of gardening with native plants has been landscape design’s poor stepchild, thought to involve weeds and other plants too unattractive for pristine suburban enclaves. Not so, says Tallamy, who presents compelling arguments for aesthetically pleasing, ecologically healthy gardening. With nothing less than the future of North American biodiversity at stake, Tallamy imparts an encouraging message: it’s not too late to save the ecosystem-sustaining matrix of insects and animals, and the solution is as easy as replacing alien plants with natives. After the presentation, which lasts about an hour, the speaker will take questions from participants via a chat box.  Space is limited so registration prior to the event is required.  A high-speed Internet connection is strongly recommended for an optimum viewing experience.  For more information on registering and joining the American Horticultural Society, log on to www.ahs.org.

    Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens