Your kitchen is more powerful than you think! In this Berkshire Botanical Garden workshop with Kimberly Geisler on Saturday, February 8, from 1 to 3 p.m., discover how common herbs and ingredients from your pantry, fridge and spice cabinet can be made into natural remedies for everyday ailments. We’ll explore kitchen-based solutions for cold and flu relief, stress, headaches, first aid, digestive upsets, and other ailments. Join us to unlock the healing potential hidden in your kitchen, and support wellness from the heart of your home.
Kimberly Geisler is a clinical and folk herbalist, medicine maker and educator at Transcending Roots Apothecary. Kimberly opened an apothecary and community space centered around herbal education in Philadelphia in October of 2019, which has since transitioned into a cooperatively owned healing center, The Sacred Path. Kimberly has now settled in the forests of the Berkshires with her husband and two magical children, building a botanical sanctuary and homestead, and further cultivating our relationship with the land and our communities.
This sequence of Berkshire Botanical Garden online classes, taught by Duncan Himmelman on Zoom, is suited to gardeners of all levels, from novice to experienced. Sign up for individual classes or the whole series which run Saturdays, February 1 to February 22, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Series topics include Native Vines, Native Groundcovers, Living Mulch, Native Bulbs, and Native Plants for Container Gardens.
Duncan Himmelman earned his doctorate at Cornell University and taught horticultural science at the college level for 24 years. He recently retired as the education manager at Mt. Cuba Center, a public garden in Delaware devoted to native plant advocacy. He continues to enjoy teaching, designing landscapes and promoting ecologically focused gardening practices. $50 for BBG members, $65 for nonmembers. Register at www.berkshirebotanical.org
Join veteran teacher, award-winning memoirist, and avid gardener Jennifer Browdy for a series of four Berkshire Botanical Garden wintertime workshops (Wednesdays, Jan. 29 to Feb. 19, from 10 a.m. to noon) using gardening as a theme for personal writing. You can write about your gardening experiences, and/or write about your life using gardening as a metaphor.
Sessions will be organized around the following themes, with writing prompts that can be taken literally or metaphorically: 1. Designing with vision and intention 2. Composting, pruning and deadheading, and preparing new beds 3. Planting seeds and bulbs, and welcoming the sap and new shoots 4. Cultivating, weeding and fertilizing
Along the way, you’ll learn about Jennifer’s unique “elemental journey” framework for writing memoirs, and benefit from her decades of experience as a writing professor, author coach, editor, and publisher. Come meet other writer-gardeners and brighten up the winter season with the creative bloom of memoir writing in good company!
Jennifer Browdy, PhD, is a professor of literature, writing and media arts at Bard College at Simon’s Rock and the online global Bard Open Society University Network. Her latest book, Purposeful Memoir as a Quest for a Thriving Future, was a 2022 Nautilus Gold Award winner and a 2022 Gold Award winner in the Independent Press Awards. Her writer’s guide, The Elemental Journey of Purposeful Memoir, won a 2017 Nautilus Silver Award, and her memoir, What I Forgot …And Why I Remembered, was a finalist for the 2018 International Book Awards. Offering writing workshops, author coaching and manuscript review, Jennifer is the publisher of Green Fire Press and co-host of the Birth Your Truest Story online writers’ community. She has led writing workshops at many venues locally, nationally and internationally, including Bioneers, Kripalu, Mount Holyoke, the Mount, the Writers Federation of Nova Scotia, and many more. She publishes two Substack newsletters, Writing to Right the World & The Spirit of Education, and leads an annual memoir retreat in Tuscany as well as Riding and Writing trips to Portugal and Iceland.
In this two day Berkshire Botanical Garden in person course on January 4 and 5 from 9 – 4, learn the art and science of plant propagation with a focus on the basic botany needed to understand and successfully propagate plants. Sexual and asexual propagation methods including sowing seeds, cuttings, grafting, layering, and division will be covered. Students will learn the fascinating science behind propagation along with the various techniques used to create new plants.
Adam Wheeler started working and playing with plants at Broken Arrow Nursery in 2004 after completing his BS degree in Urban Forestry and Landscape Horticulture at the University of Vermont. His favorite role at Broken Arrow Nursery is plant propagation and the acquisition and development of new plants. Adam is a past recipient of the Young Nursery Professional Award from the New England Nursery Association and is the current Vice President of the North American Maple Society. He loves to share his passion for plants through photography and educational outreach. As a result, he lectures widely on a variety of subjects and is also an adjunct lecturer at Naugatuck Valley Community College and the Berkshire Botanical Garden. With his spare time he enjoys cultivating his eclectic collection of rare and unusual plants, rock climbing and competitive giant pumpkin growing!
Embark on a captivating journey with the Berkshire Botanical Garden through the lush landscapes and rich history of Ireland. For more information, contact Lani Summerville at 413-446-8728 oroffice@classicalexcursions.com. Tour participants to make their own travel arrangements to arrive at Dublin airport no later than June 2, 2025.
Day 1, June 2, 2025
8 a.m. — Departure from Dublin Airport
11 a.m. — Enjoy a morning visit to Ballysallagh House and Gardens, County Kilkenny. The charming mid-18th-century house and gardens were restored and decorated by the present owners.
1 p.m. — Lunch at Dangan Cottage. Originally a late 18th-century cottage orné built in the grounds of a larger, now lost, country house. With the river Nore flowing past at the bottom of its garden, the building was subsequently extended so that it is now a substantial property, perfectly suited to owner Christopher Moore who has a renowned collection of Irish furniture and pictures that fill all the rooms and act as a living museum of Georgian taste.
4:30 p.m. — Check-in at the Cliff House Hotel, County Waterford – staying three nights. OR Lismore Castle (pictured below)
6:30 p.m. — Dinner at The Cliff House Hotel
Overnight at the Cliff House Hotel
Day 2, June 3, 2025
Breakfast at the Cliff House Hotel
9 a.m. — Tour in House & Garden, situated on the banks of the river Blackwater, home to the famous Jameson Whiskey family. Enjoy fifteen acres of various types of gardens, including walled gardens, rock gardens, formal gardens, and a woodland walk.
12:30 p.m.— Lunch and a visit at Kilshannig House, County Cork. Considered to be one of the finest Palladian houses in Ireland with superlative plasterwork by the Lafranchini brothers, the house was built in 1760 and designed by architect Davis Ducart.
4 p.m. — Return to the Cliff House Hotel
Dinner on your own tonight
Overnight at the Cliff House Hotel
Day 3, June 4, 2025
Breakfast at the Cliff House Hotel.
10 a.m. — Departure for Dromana House & Garden for a tour and lunch with the owner Barbara Villiers-Stuart, whose family has lived on this site for more than 800 years. Perched high above the river Blackwater, Dromana was originally a castle, then a 17th-century house, and finally an 18th-century house. Parts of the house were demolished some 50 years ago, but the most important interiors and contents remain and were sensitively restored by Barbara. Her husband Nicholas Grubb, himself a descendent of a very old Quaker family, has rescued large portions of the gardens.
1:30 p.m. — Visit Cappoquin House & Gardens, County Waterford. The Keanes have lived at Cappoquin since the first of their number bought the estate in the 1770s and built a house above the river Blackwater. It survived until burnt in 1923 during the Irish Civil War. However, Sir John Keane — who had wisely removed all furniture and pictures before the fire — immediately embarked on a rebuilding program and today it is impossible to tell if Cappoquin had ever been damaged. Surrounded by exquisite gardens, the house today is home to Sir Charles Keane and his wife Corinne.
4 p.m. — Return to the hotel
Overnight at the Cliff House Hotel
Day 4, June 5, 2025
Breakfast at the Cliff House Hotel
10 a.m. — Departure for Curraghmore Estate for a visit and lunch with the owners. One of the great houses of Ireland and only recently accessible to the general public, Curraghmore has been home to the same family for the past 800 years. Now home to the ninth Marquess of Waterford and his wife, at the core of the building is a medieval tower, the first floor of which now contains spectacular plasterwork created by the Lafranchini brothers in the 1740s. Much of the rest of the house was designed some thirty years later by James Wyatt, and today these are the finest set of rooms by that architect in Ireland. Curraghmore is complete with treasures as would be expected of a property occupied by successive generations for so long. On the grounds is the only surviving 18th-century shell house, decorated in 1754 by Catherine, Countess of Tyrone. The vast surrounding gardens consist of 2,500 acres of formal gardens and woodlands.
2 p.m. — Possible visit to Mount Congreve Gardens or LafCadio Hearn Japanese Garden
5:45 p.m. — Departure for Lismore Castle, County Waterford, for a private tour and dinner. Used since the mid-18th century as the Irish residence of the Dukes of Devonshire, Lismore Castle itself is much older, its origins going back to the 13th century when commissioned by King John. Since then, it has passed through various guises, but much of the present building was commissioned by the 6th ‘Bachelor’ Duke of Devonshire who invited his architect Sir Joseph Paxton to renovate and extend the existing castle which perches dramatically above the river Blackwater. Little has changed since then, and the main rooms today contain the largest private collection of furniture designed by Augustus Welby Pugin. (Alternative Ballynaytray Estate)
Overnight at the Cliff House Hotel
Day 5, June 6, 2025
10 a.m. — Check out of the hotel and depart for Dublin. Enjoy a morning visit to Gloster House & Gardens, a well-preserved 18th-century house thought to have been designed by the period’s pre-eminent architect Sir Edward Lovette Pearce.
Noon — Lunch at Birr Castle, County Offaly, with the Earl and Countess of Rosse. The castle has been home to the Parsons family for 400 years and contains much of the original furniture and paintings collected throughout generations. Our private tour of the house and renowned gardens will be conducted by the Countess of Rosse.
Check-in at the hotel in Dublin
Day 6, June 7, 2025
Breakfast at the hotel
A morning private tour at Burtown House & Garden. Burtown House has always belonged to the same Quaker family since being built in the first half of the 18th century, and is now home to photographer James Fennell and his wife Joanna, who have built a barn on the grounds offering fresh food from the gardens. Burtown was home to Ireland’s finest botanical artist, Wendy Walsh (James’ grandmother), and is still home to her daughter, landscape artist Lesley Fennell. We will tour the house, which is not open to the public.
Lunch at the Green Barn at Burton following our tour of the house & extensive gardens.
Irish National Stud Gardens
Farewell Dinner in Dublin
Day 7, June 8, 2025
Departures
COST: $4,974 per person for six nights, including a tax-deductible $500 donation to BBG. (An additional $1,500 charge will be applied to a single traveler using a room that could sleep two or more.)
This Berkshire Botanical Garden course, offered Saturdays, December 14 and 21, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., teaches students how to design a planting plan for private and public garden spaces. Explore the manipulation of space by using plant material through a series of exercises dealing with form, color, and texture. Students will consider the nature of plant characteristics in specific design settings. Style of house will be used for a source of inspiration while honoring the horticultural needs of each plant. Students will make presentations for each project, and class critiques will be positive, instructive, and essential to the learning process. This is a participatory class and will include completing various design projects throughout the course. Taught by Tom Smith of Springfield Technical Community College.
Tom Smith teaches at Springfield Technical Community College. His past career adventures include precision machining, HVAC ductwork fabricator, installer and apprentice service technician, and the U.S. Navy. He also wore many ‘hats’ within a small landscape company as a designer, estimator, salesperson, horticulturist, and construction crew leader.
This Berkshire Botanical Garden course on Plant Health Care meets for 4 weeks on Tuesdays, November 26 – December 17, 5:30 – 8:30 pm, in the Education Center. BBG members $215, nonmembers $240. Register online at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/plant-health-care-2
Look at factors that affect plant health care, including insects,
diseases, pathogens, and abiotic influences. Basic diagnostic techniques
will be taught. Learn to minimize potential problems through proper
site preparation, plant selection, and placement. Managing problems
using biological, chemical, and cultural techniques will be discussed
with a focus on IPM (integrated pest management).
Instructor: Jen Werner has taught at the vocational high school level and at Springfield Technical Community College, as well as leading trainings for Master Gardeners and classes for garden clubs and garden centers. her hands-on experience ranges from landscape maintenance, construction and design, greenhouse management and production, nursery work, horticulture therapy, and entrepreneurship. Jen is a NOFA Certified Organic Landcare Professional and recently earned a UMASS Invasive Plant Management Certificate.
This Berkshire Botanical Garden online course on Soil and Soil Amendments will explain how plant growth is affected by soils, from drainage to pH and nutrients. Learn how to evaluate soils, improve those that are less than ideal, and amend soils for specific garden uses. Fertilizers, soil amendments, making and using compost, moisture management, and the pros and cons of mulching will be covered. Students need to get a soil sample before class and bring the results to the first class. This course meets for 4 weeks on Tuesdays, October 29 – November 19, 5:30 – 8:30 pm Eastern.
Taught by Monique Bosch, trained in landscape design, horticulture and soil biology, who is a community leader focused on healthy soil/healthy food. In the last 15 years she has worked with volunteers and students to build over 40 edible school and community gardens, and a two-acre urban farm in Bridgeport CT. These days she works as a Soil Health Program Manager for CT NOFA, and runs a worm composting business with her son Justin. She also teaches Soil Management for Brooklyn Botanic Garden. In 2023 Monique worked with staff and students at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, to launch a Food and Resilience center. She studied ‘The Soil Food Web’ under Dr. Elaine Ingham, and teaches microscopy, soil health and composting to farmers and organizations. Through microscopy and test trials, Monique explores the relationship between living soil and healthy, nutritious food.
This four-session Berkshire Botanical Garden course will focus on the bones of the garden with a survey of ornamental woody plants for residential landscape design. It will cover ornamental shrubs, small flowering trees, shade trees and broadleaf and needle evergreens. Students will become familiar with the many garden-worthy woody plants that thrive in Zone 5. The course covers plant ID, selection, siting, cultivation and possible design uses. The classes will be held Tuesdays, October 1 – October 22 from 5:30 – 8:30, and is $215 for BBG members, $240 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/ornamental-woody-plants-1
Jenna O’Brien, owner and founder of Viridissima Horticulture & Design since 2003, has been working in Berkshire gardens for over 20 years. Jenna specializes in container gardening, perennial garden design and care and estate garden and conservatory management.
