Boston Flora

Tag: Ecological Landscaping Association

  • Monday, November 8, 8:00 am – 4:30 pm – Season’s End Summit: Taking Stock and Looking Forward

    Join Ecological Landscaping Association on Monday, November 8, from 8 am – 4 pm for a full day of “Taking Stock and Looking Forward.” The day will include morning and afternoon panel discussions with industry leaders in sustainable landscaping practices. Lunch is included and will feature Keynote speaker Laura Solano, from Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, with over twenty years of designing, building, and restoring award-winning landscapes for for public, private, and corporate clients.  The seminar will be held at the Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary, 10 Juniper Road, Belmont (sumac field pictured below,)  and you may register for $55 if an ELA member, or $75 if a non-member.  For more information, log on to www.ecolandscaping.org.

  • Thursday, October 21, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm – Plymouth Restoration: Renewed Health for Two Rivers

    Offered in conjunction with the Division of Ecological Restoration and the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER), Ecological Landscaping Association takes you on this professionally led waterfront tour of two Plymouth river restoration projects at Eel and Town Brooks. Join project managers on Thursday, October 21, from 9 – 4 for this behind the scenes tour of successful restoration that included: dam removals, wetlands reconstruction, river channel restoration, culvert installations, habitat creation, and much more.  The cost to participate is $25 for ELA and SER members, $30 for non-members. For more information, log on to www.ecolandscaping.org.

  • Saturday, September 18, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Sustainable Landscapes: Planning for Large-Scale Construction

    The Ecological Landscaping Association will present a program on Saturday, September 18, from 10 – noon, at the Perkins School, 175 North Beacon Street in Watertown. Join Eco-Tour guide, Sonia Baerhuk, for a tour and presentation of large-scale construction projects at the Perkins School. Sonia will discuss proven techniques for successfully navigating the challenges of large-scale construction while creating and preserving ecological landscapes. This tour will include procedures for protecting trees and shrubs during construction and will discuss transplanting using the air-spading method.  $20 for ELA members, $25 for non-members. Walk-ins also welcome. For more information: ela.info@comcast.net or (617) 436-5838.

  • Sunday, September 26, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Boston’s Community Gardens

    Enjoy this Ecological Landscaping Association walking tour through  eleven diverse and plentiful community gardens with our host, Betsy Johnson. Gardens include a wide range of sizes, designs, and plant material and are excellent examples of successful vacant lot restoration. The Sunday, September 26 tour will begin at 1 pm at the Berkeley Community Gardens on East Berkeley Street, between Tremont and Shawmut Streets in Boston.  The cost is $15 for ELA members and $20 for non-members.  Walk ins also welcome.  For more information, email ela.info@comcast.net, or call 617- 436-5838.

  • Saturday, August 28, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm – Edible Landscape Design and Maintenance, A Walking Tour

    The Ecological Landscaping Association will sponsor Edible Landscape Design & Maintenance, A Walking Tour, on Saturday, August 28, from 10:00 am – 12:30 pm, beginning at 493 Centre Street in Jamaica Plain.  Join tour guide Benjamin Crouch for a walking tour of EarthWorks urban orchards in Jamaica Plain.  Earthworks urban orchards are publicly accessible sites that grow fruit for community consumption (ranging from a handful to over 30 trees at a given site.)  The tour will begin at the Curley School in JP and will highlight five different sites, covering approximately 1 1/2 miles.  Each site will present a different application of edible landscaping.  Sites include two schoolyards, a pastoral pocket park, a community garden and an urban-wild park. The workshop is geared toward professionals and avid gardeners who would like to learn more about the various applications of fruit trees in the landscape.  You will look at the ecological functions of the sites, design and planting choices, innovations in and challenges to maintenance, and get to sample some of the fruit, including both antique and modern cultivars of apples, pears, plums, and peaches.  Registrations are limited.  For more information, call 617-436-5838, or email ela.info@comcast.net.

    http://farm1.static.flickr.com/33/54070471_1f5ffba40a.jpg

  • Thursday, July 15, 2:00 pm – 6:00 pm – UNH Stormwater Center and Land Planning

    The Ecological Landscaping Association, in collaboration with the Thompson School of Applied Science. offers this professionally guided tour at the University of New Hampshire in Durham on Thursday, July 15, from 2 – 6.  The tour will include the BMP solutions at the UNH Stormwater Center, a national research site for the effects of stormwater runoff on downstream ecosystems.  The tour will also include review and site visits of the UNH Master Plan, a model of sustainable planning for New England.  As The Garden Club of the Back Bay begins its year of the examination of water issues, we felt this program would be of special interest.   $20 ELA Member, $25 Non-Member.  To register, email ela.info@comcast.net, or call 617-436-5838.  On line registration is available.

    http://www.furbishco.com/products/roofs/images/stormwatersm.jpg

  • Thursday, June 10, 6:30 pm – An Evening with National Expert Douglas Tallamy

    Douglas Tallamy’s book, Bringing Nature Home, has captured the nation’s attention since it was first released two years ago. Since then, he has been in demand all over the country, speaking to more than 600 different audiences—at venues ranging from the American Society of Landscape Architects National Conference, to the Hummingbird Festival in Mississippi, to the Tyler Arboretum in Pennsylvania, and many more. He also has been featured on National Public Radio’s Science Friday and on other media programs.

    As Chair of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, he has done groundbreaking work on the role of insects as intermediaries in the food web, discovering the extent to which exotic plants, even if they are not invasive, host relatively few insects. His work reveals how important it is to restore native plant communities, if we are to reverse the declines in migrating songbirds, butterfly populations, and biodiversity as a whole. Tallamy makes an urgent plea about the importance of native plants to our landscapes, and indeed, to our survival. And he embraces the importance of land stewardship throughout urban and suburban America as critical components of this effort.

    This event, taking place Thursday, June 10,  is co-sponsored by the Cambridge Plant & Garden Club, the Ecological Landscaping Association, and the Friends of the Cambridge Public Library. The talk will begin at 6:30 at the Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway in Cambridge, and will be followed by a reception at 8 pm with book signing. The event is free and open to all. For more information, log on to www.grownativecambridge.org.

    http://www.plantanative.com/images/douglas-tallamy.jpg

  • Saturday, June 12, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – “Alternative” Lawns

    The Ecological Landscaping Association, in conjunction with Green Decade, sponsors a tour of four residential Newton properties on Saturday, June 12, from 1 – 4 pm.  Are you looking for alternatives to traditional, monoculture lawns that require a lot of water, chemicals, and time?  There are many alternatives to a resource-intensive, chemically-maintained lawn.  Visit four beautiful and successful properties in Newton to see organic lawns, meadow gardens, and edible landscapes.  Each location that you visit will have a professional on-site to discuss the project design, maintenance, answer your questions, and help you understand the options that you have this season to move to more sustainable and organic practices.  All of the sites will be open during the entire tour, so you may choose how much time to spend at each location.

    Perennial and Meadow Gardens:  Elaine Bresnick is a technology entrepreneur.  A few years ago, her gardens, which she called “the final frontier,” were rescued from over 25 years of neglect by Risa Edelstein, a local landscape designer, who designed and installed the lovely, indigenous and drought tolerant organic plantings which thrive there today.  The design was inspired by Elaine’s neighbor, Virginia Inglis, who adopted the notion of no lawn, years before.  Virginia’s backyard garden, terraced with billows of grasses and perennials, is a wildlife sanctuary in the middle of Newton.  Risa will be on hand to guide you through these gardens and answer your questions.

    Edible Garden: Ted Chapman, another local landscape designer, is opeing his own property for this unique opportunity to tour a successful example of an edible landscape.  Sustainability and energy efficiency are hallmarks of this property.  Using a permaculture model, Ted began designing this edible landscape in 1983.  The mature plantings are both beautiful and productive and are a testament to sustainable maiintenance practices.  Ted’s property also features a 1983 passive solar retrofit of an 1880 working class Victorian home.

    Organic Lawn: This private property will demonstrate a successful organic lawn installation that has been managed sustainably for a few years.  Frank Koll, an organic lawn care professional, will be on hand to answer your questions about organic fertilizers, compost tea, watering, and organic lawn care.

    $15 for ELA or Green Decade Members, $20 for non-members.  Registration is limited.  Call 617-436-5838, or email ela.info@comcast.net.

    http://www.ithaca.edu/alternativelandscaping/images/full/garden1.jpg

  • Thursday, May 20, 4:30 pm – 8:00 pm – Rain Gardens in Successful Stormwater Management

    A program entitled Rain Gardens in Successful Stormwater Management, co-sponsored by the Ecological Landscaping Association and the Massachusetts Watershed Coalition will take place Thursday, May 20, from 4:30 – 8 pm, at the Doyle Conservation Center. 325 Lindell Avenue, in Leominster.  The participation fee is $20 for ELA Members, and $25 for non-members.

    Explore the possibilities of improved water quality through collaborative efforts at storm water management.  Partnerships among city officials, community groups, businesses, state and federal agencies, and the Massachusetts Watershed Coalition are restoring Monoosnoc Brook in Leominster.  Rapid runoff had increased frequent flooding that erodes stream banks, and dirty, oily storm water deposited into the brook created lethal conditions for stream life.  Thirty-two rain gardens, tree box filters and bio-retention areas are now helping to cleanse runoff from streets and parking lots.  Designs for additional treatment practices, including a constructed storm water wetland, will be installed and continue to improve Monoosnoc Brook and the North Nashua River.

    Starting at the Doyle Conservation Center and then traveling out to a variety of installation sites, tour guides Ed Himlan, Bob Levite, and others will discuss and demonstrate the successful installations of a variety of storm water management techniques.  For more information, call 617-436-5838, or email ela.info@comcast.net.  Walk ins welcome.

    http://www.thetrustees.org/assets/images/prop/central-ma/Photo%20Gallery/C_DR_girlonbridge_TKates.jpg

  • Tuesday, May 11, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm – Organic Landscaping at Harvard University

    Join Eco-Tour guide Wayne Carbone on Tuesday, May 11, from 11am – 12:30pm, for a “behind the scenes” view of Harvard University’s land care program and learn how to transition from traditional landscaping practices to organic landscaping from the professionals at Harvard.  Tour highlights will include a walking tour of the Harvard University landscape, a detailed explanation about the development of Harvard’s sustainable landscape program, a discussion of large brewers used for making compost tea, a discussion of equipment used to spread compost tea over Harvard Yard, and a demonstration of the improved root growth realized through the organic landscaping program.  Meet at the Philips Brooks House, Harvard Yard in Cambridge.  The cost is $15 for Ecological Landscaping Association members, and $20 for non-members.   Registrations are limited.  Visit www.ecolandscaping.org, or www.arboretum.harvard.edu to register on line, or call 617-436-5838.

    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0e/HarvardYard.jpg/300px-HarvardYard.jpg