Boston Flora

Tag: Designing Gardens

  • Mondays, February 8, 22, and March 1, 6:30 – 8:30 pm – Landscaping with Native Plants

    Join Michael Lance, owner and designer with Wild Regeneration, at the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum on three Mondays, February 8, February 22, and March 1, from 6:30 – 8:30 pm, for this native plant design class.  Gardeners, smitten by a display of natives at a garden center, erroneously infer all sorts of attributes from the word “native,”such as “hardy,”“resilient,”“tough,”or even “better.”All of these traits may indeed apply to any native plant; however, this is dependent on the conditions in which the plant is grown. For example, a tough native wetland plant won’t be resilient when planted along the hot, dry edge of a driveway. In this class with designer Michael Lance you will learn about native plants that would be most suitable to your garden site. Michael will present some of the plants that he incorporates when designing gardens for clients, with class sessions about native trees, shrubs, and perennials. He’ll emphasize edible and medicinal plants, trees and shrubs that exhibit ornamental characteristics, and perennials that can withstand and thrive in urban and suburban New England conditions. Throughout the class Michael will incorporate organic techniques and his philosophy for developing healthy and beneficial garden habitats.
    Fee $70 Arnold Arboretum member, $85 nonmember. To register, log on to www.arboretum.harvard.edu.

    http://www.newfs.org/images/visit/visit%20crop%20GITW%20spring.jpg/image_preview

  • Saturday, November 7, 10 am – 12 noon – Impressionist in the Garden

    Gardening became a popular pastime in nineteenth-century France when exotic plants began arriving in quantity and rapid advances were made in hybridizing.  At the same time, vast renovations to its boulevards and parks turned Paris into an urban garden. The Impressionist painters recognized and appreciated the new interest in horticulture and hastened to picture it, as this lecture at the Berkshire Botanical Garden in West Stockbridge will show, as a sign of their modernity.  Colta Ives is Curator Emeritus of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York where she has prepared exhibitions on Manet, Degas, Gauguin, Bonnard, and Van Gogh (see catalog cover below).  She has cultivated a woodland garden in Monterey, Massachusetts for more than thirty years and holds an M.S. in Landscape Design from Columbia University.  She is currently designing gardens in the Berkshires, Westchester County, and New York City. The date is Saturday, November 7, from 10 – noon, and the cost for BBG members is $16, non-members $21.  For more information, log on to www.berkshirebotanical.org.

    http://rgr-static1.tangentlabs.co.uk/media/9780300107203/vincent-van-gogh-the-drawings.jpg

  • Friday, October 23, 6:30 pm – Kyoto: City of Gardens

    For more than 1200 years, the gardens of Kyoto have reflected the cultural characteristics of each successive era of Japanese history.  In this talk on Friday, October 23, beginning at 6:30 pm,  MARC PETER KEANE, landscape designer and historian of Japanese gardens, will discuss the cultural forces — social, religious, economic, artistic, and architectural – that have shaped the gardens of Kyoto from the time of the Tale of Genji (10th century) to the present.  1200 years ago, the Emperor of Japan settled his court in a newly-built city, Heian-kyô, now known as Kyôto. Gardens were built at the residences of the imperial courtiers, and have been built in that city ever since, their design changing over time as the ebb and flow of society replaced one culture with another. Marc Peter Keane, garden historian and specialist in Japanese gardens, will discuss those cultural changes — social, religious, economic, artistic, architectural — and how each new form of Kyoto garden reflects the cultural environment of its time. His talk will include: pond gardens at courtier residences in the Heian-period, medieval gardens of raked sand and stones, tea gardens, and courtyard gardens of urban merchant houses.  Marc Peter Keane lived in Kyoto for 18 years, designing gardens for private individuals, companies and temples, and continues that work now from his studio in Ithaca, New York. His books include Japanese Garden Design (an introduction to the culture and aesthetics of Japanese gardens), Sakuteiki (a translation of the Japan’s oldest gardening treatise), The Art of Setting Stones (eight essays on the meaning of gardens), and the soon-to-be-published, Japanese Tea Gardens.This talk is part of  the Kyoto-Boston 50th Anniversary celebration.  Please rsvp at www.us-japan.org.

    The Japan Society of Boston
    at Showa Boston Institute
    420 Pond St., Boston MA
    Free and open to the public

    http://www.mpkeane.com/sakuteikimd.jpg

  • Wednesday, August 5, 7:30 p.m. – Designing Gardens and Landscapes: 25 Years on Martha’s Vineyard

    A beautiful and dynamic landscape results from a design responsive to the natural environment, history, and social context of the site, as well as the user’s needs.  Join the Polly Hill Arboretum staff for an illustrated presentation of Vineyard landscapes designed by summer resident and award-winning landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh.  From his first Island garden in 1984, to public projects like Ag Hall and the Polly Hill Arboretum parking lot, to a contemporary green roof, Van Valkenburgh will take the audience through a variety of Island landscapes.  Discover how practical issues like soil, micro-climate, and functionality are integrated with cultural history to create successful gardens and landscapes. $10 admission ($5 PHA members). Sponsored by Middletown Nursery.  For more information, call Karin Stanley at 508-693-9426, or email her at karin@pollyhillarboretum.org.