Herbalist Steph Zabel demonstrates practical ways to gather and use medicinal herbs in this Wellesley College Botanic Garden course for adults and teens age 16 and up in the WCBG’s Edible Ecosystem Teaching Garden. Seven Wednesdays, June 7 – 28 and July 12 – 26, from 2 – 4. Friends price $225, nonmembers $275. Registration online at http://wellesley.edu/wcbg/learn.
The Ecological Landscaping Association will sponsor The Edible Landscape at Wellesley College with tour guide Tricia Diggins on Monday, August 18, from 5 – 7 on campus in Wellesley. $20 for ELA and Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Garden members, $25 for nonmembers, free for Wellesley College students.
Join Tricia to explore three main components of the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens edible landscape. As part of its collection policy, the WCBG is collecting and interpreting plants as food for humans and other organisms. The tour will start in the kitchen garden courtyard that includes an herb garden, a vegetable garden, and other small fruit and nut plants. The design for the vegetable garden changes each year and this year will be modeled after a Russian dacha garden.
You will then move on to the Edible Ecosystem Teaching Garden and check on the progress of the garden started in 2010 and a new outdoor classroom. The garden was designed by forest and permaculture specialists Dave Jacke and Keith Zaltzberg. The garden features fruit and nut trees planted in association with herbaceous polycultures to maximize ecological functions using a wide diversity of pants.
Lastly, you will walk to the nut tree collection in the Alexandra Botanic Garden and see a variety of native nut trees (and a few non-native as well), along with a 9 year old grove of paw paws (see picture of cluster below.)Â Register on line at https://www.eventville.com/catalog/eventregistration1.asp?eventid=1010983.
The Wellesley College Botanic Gardens have some exciting new research gardens that are engaging students in multiple ways. On Tuesday, October 15, from 1 – 3, journey along with Kristina Jones, Director of the Botanic Gardens, and explore through the eyes of an ecologist the Creighton Educational Garden, the green roof planted with native species, the Climate Change Monitoring Garden, and the in-progress Edible Ecosystem Teaching Garden, all within a short walk from the starting point at the Greenhouse Visitor Center. The tour is offered in collaboration with New England Wild Flower Society and Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens. WCBG members $24, non-members $28. Sign up at www.wellesley.edu/wcbgfriends, or call 781-283-3094.
Looking for a way to get a bigger bang from your garden, be it a small or large space? Struggle no more. Follow nature’s lead by combining plants into guilds – diverse assemblages of plants growing in healthy, self-sufficient communities in nature. Wellesley College Botanic Gardens Director Kristina Jones will explore the functions and interrelationships of organisms in natural plant communities, and how they can be applied to our gardens. A primary example will be the Edible Ecosystem Teaching Garden at Wellesley College, where the understory communities are designed to support the needs of focal fruit and nut trees. Following the lecture, if the weather cooperates, join us for a late winter tour of the Edible Ecosystem Teaching Garden and a spot of tea. Offered in collaboration with Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Boston Junior League Garden Club, New England Wild Flower Society, and Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens. Members $10, non-members $15.
