Boston Flora

Tag: Boston Phoenix

  • Wednesday, March 8, 10:00 am – How the Glaciers Affected New England’s Plants

    Wednesday, March 8, 10:00 am – How the Glaciers Affected New England’s Plants

    Today, Massachusetts is a network of houses, businesses, farms, forests, and wetlands—but how did it get to be that way? What did it look like when the Laurentide Glaciers melted 12,000 years ago? How did a state that was only 25 percent forest by 1850 come to be 64 percent forested today? As part of our ongoing series The Prehistoric Garden, The Garden Club of the Back Bay welcomes Meg Muckenhoupt to our March meeting on Wednesday, March 8 at 10 am at The College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue. This broad overview traces how and why the land has changed and what people thought about it—from Wampanoag King Philip to Frederick Law Olmsted to Governor Charlie Baker.

    Our speaker Meg Muckenhoupt is an environmental and travel writer. She has appeared on NPR’s Radio Boston and WCVB’s Chronicle, as well as WGBH’s Forum site. Her work has been featured in the Boston Globe, the Boston Phoenix, Boston Magazine, and the Time Out Boston guide; her book Boston Gardens and Green Spaces (Union Park Press, 2010) is a Boston Globe Local Bestseller. She currently serves as Executive Director of Community Outreach Group for Landscape Design (COGdesign).

    Meg was awarded a certificate in Field Botany by the New England Wild Flower Society and earned degrees from Harvard and Brown University. She lives in Lexington, Massachusetts. Garden Club members will receive notice of the meeting. If you are not a member but are interested in attending, please email info@bostonflora.com. Image from bostongeology.com.

  • Meg Muckenhoupt Named Executive Director of COGdesign

    Meg Muckenhoupt Named Executive Director of COGdesign

    Our friend Meg Muckenhoupt has assumed the role of Executive Director of COGdesign. Meg brings more than a decade of experience in writing, web publishing, and nonprofit management to her role. Meg is an environmental and travel writer and co-creator of the GREEN SPACES: Boston smartphone app. She has appeared on NPR’s Radio Boston and WCVB’s Chronicle, as well as WGBH’s Forum site. Her work has been featured in the Boston Globe, the Boston Phoenix, Boston Magazine, and the Time Out Boston guide; her book Boston Gardens and Green Spaces (Union Park Press, 2010) is a Boston Globe Local Bestseller. A talented public speaker, she gives frequent talks about Massachusetts landscape history and Boston’s greatest unknown parks to audiences around New England.
    Meg was awarded a certificate in Field Botany by the New England Wild Flower Society and earned degrees from Harvard and Brown University.

    The Community Outreach Group for Landscape Design (COGdesign) connects underserved communities with the technical design assistance they need to bring healthy, attractive open space to their neighborhoods.  COGdesign clients include affordable housing sites, public and private schools, neighborhood parks, Friends groups, churches, municipal agencies, historic sites, arts centers, and community gardens.  COGdesign’s volunteer designers are trained landscape design professionals and students. We recruit seasoned, licensed professionals, recent graduates with innovative ideas, and landscape designers at every level in-between.  Image from boston.com.

    Meg

  • Thursday, April 26, 10:30 am – Boston Committee Spring Meeting and Luncheon – Living on Earth

    The Boston Committee of The Garden Club of America invites members of its constituent fourteen clubs to its Spring Meeting and Luncheon on Thursday, April 26, beginning with registration at 10:30 am at The Country Club, 191 Clyde Street in Brookline. The featured speaker will be Steve Curwood.

    In 1970, as a writer for the Boston Phoenix just out of Harvard University, Steve broke the story that Polaroid’s instant photo system was key to apartheid pass system in South Africa. Steve moved on to the Boston Globe as an investigative reporter and columnist and shared the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service as part of the Boston Globe’s education team.  His production credits in public broadcasting include reporter and host for NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered, host of NPR’s World of Opera, producer for the PBS series The Advocates with Mike Dukakis, and creator, host and executive producer of Living on Earth, the prize-winning weekly environmental radio program heard for more than 20 years on public radio stations  and distributed by Public Radio International (PRI) since 2006.

    The cost of the lecture and luncheon is $50, lecture only $25. Please make your check payable to The Boston Committee of the GCA and mail to Jensie Shipley, 40 Dunster Road, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467 before April 19, 2012, and note on the memo portion of your check your Garden Club affiliation. All reservations will be held at the door. Garden Club of the Back Bay members will receive written invitations and a car pool notice in the mail.