Boston Flora

Tag: Elm Bank

Thursday, April 3, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Organic Lawn Care

Whether your concerns are about family members, pets, or the environment the trend is toward a greener style of property management and for many this includes your lawn. This no nonsense approach to having a chemical free lawn can clear up much of the rhetoric involved in decision making when it comes to using or not using chemicals.

In this Massachusetts Horticultural Society presentation, taking place Thursday, April 3 from 7 – 8:30 at Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street, Wellesley, Bruce Wenning will cover the cultural practices that promote turfgrass germination, growth and establishment, reduce turfgrass insect and disease problems and conserve water. Organic versus inorganic methods will be contrasted to emphasize the real difference between the two methods. You don’t need inorganic chemical inputs to have a healthy lawn.

Bruce Wenning has thirty years of horticultural experience working with organic lawns and gardens and their pests. With university degrees in plant pathology and entomology he has taught organic lawn care for twenty years. Bruce is currently the horticulturalist at The Country Club in Brookline where he manages the formal gardens and greenhouse.

Lecture Fee $10 Mass Hort members; $15 non-members. Register on line at www.masshort.org.

March 26, 2014
Friday, April 4, 9:30 am – 10:45 am – Yoga in the Garden

Enjoy yoga in a peaceful, verdant setting at Elm Bank as the gardening season begins.

Instructor Cory Halaby has been practicing yoga and meditation for more than ten years. Her classes are designed to lift the spirit, clear the mind, and cultivate strength, flexibility, and balance on and off the mat. A trained life coach and Reiki practitioner, Cory draws from a powerful mix of mind/body skills to help students tap into their own vast capacity for wisdom, joy, and wonder.

All levels welcome and encouraged! Join The Massachusetts Horticultural Society for a single class beginning Friday, April 4, from 9:30 – 10:45, ($15.00 members, $18.00 non-members) or the full eight week series ($105.00 Mass Hort members, $130.00 non-members). Email lkamer@masshort.org for more information. Image from www.tylerarboretum.org.

March 24, 2014
Thursday, March 13, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Seed Starting Indoors

Get a jump on the season by starting your plants from seedsâ€”it’s cheaper than buying transplants, offers a much broader variety of plants, and can be quite addictive. On Thursday, March 13, beginning at 7 pm at Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street, Wellesley, Gretel Anspach will discuss seed choices, what to start and when to start it as well as growing methods including windowsill versus grow light gardening. Whether you are interested in annuals, perennials, edibles, or even shrubs and trees, this lecture will give you the information you need to go from starting a seed to planting in the ground.

Gretel Anspach is a Trustee of Mass Hort, a Lifetime Master Gardener, past-president of the Massachusetts Master Gardener Association and a systems engineer for Raytheon. Gretel is also a member of the Garden to Table committee at Mass Hort and helped to establish and maintain a food production garden at Raytheon that has provided fresh produce to the Marlboro Food Pantry for five years.

Lecture Fee $10 Massachusetts Horticultural Society members; $15 non-members. Sign up at www.masshort.org, or call 617-933-4973.

March 3, 2014
Thursday, March 6, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Extending the Garden Season

Cold frames, hot beds and hoop houses are great season extenders, allowing vegetables to be planted 2-4 weeks earlier than unprotected plants as well as extending the growing season in the fall. They can also play a key role in the transition of seedlings of all kinds from the sheltered windowsill / greenhouse environment to the outdoors. How do they work and what factors do you need to consider when acquiring or building one. Learn how, where and when to use these interesting tools in your own garden, at this Thursdays at the Hort lecture to be held Thursday, March 6 from 7 – 8:30 at Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street in Wellesley.

Gretel Anspach is a Trustee of Mass Hort, a Lifetime Master Gardener, past-president of the Massachusetts Master Gardener Association and a systems engineer for Raytheon. Gretel is also a member of the Garden to Table committee at Mass Hort and helped to establish and maintain a food production garden at Raytheon that has provided fresh produce to the Marlboro Food Pantry for five years.

Lecture Fee $10 Mass Hort members; $15 non-members. Register at www.masshort.org or call 617-933-4973.Â Image from www.gardeningtoolsblog.com.

February 26, 2014
Thursday, February 13, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Planning a Vegetable Garden from Scratch

Edible landscapes are beautiful and functional interactive spaces that nourish on many levels. Gardeners build soil and arrange plants, but we can’t control the weather. Trial and error is part of the experience for all levels. Everyone can do it! It’s a meditation on life and this Massachusetts Horticultural Society workshop on Thursday, February 13, from 7 – 8:30 at Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street in Wellesley, will give you the tools to get started right. To locate the garden we will discuss solar exposure and microclimates, testing for lead, and plant options for various conditions. Basic soil science will illustrate the importance of compost in correcting poor soil fertility, structure, and pH. Adam Monroy of Home Harvest will present pictures of custom gardens installed by Home Harvest to inspire the imagination. To close we will talk about building resiliency into your garden through intensive cropping patterns, diverse intercropping, cover crops, and other progressive home gardening techniques that will make your garden work for you!

Adam Gray Monroy works as a designer, consultant, and builder for Home Harvest installing custom edible landscapes in Metro Boston. With an extensive background in landscape design/build, Adam has earned degrees in horticulture, sustainable agriculture, and landscape architecture. He is passionate about growing food and integrating it into traditional landscape design.

Fee $15 Mass Hort Members; $20 non-members. Register at www.masshort.org, or call 617-933-4973.

February 6, 2014
Thursday, January 30, 7:00 pm – Trowels and Tomorrow

The beauty of gardens is that they mature. Join Tovah Martin at Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street, Wellesley, on Thursday, January 30 beginning at 7 pm in this lecture about horticultural preservation, stewardship, and how gardeners grapple with change. We address the challenges of bringing landscapes into the next generation.

Whether you have inherited a landscape or created a garden over decades and now face mature trees and shrubs that require preemptive pruning or relocation, we explore issues and answers. We look at woodland gardens and grand estates, we explore gardens great and small. We tackle such sticky wickets as rehabilitating overgrown boxwood hedges and coping with plants that were once considered exotics but have now been unmasked as invasives.

This is a lecture about bringing yesterday’s gardens into tomorrow. But we also talk about plant preservation and heirloom varieties, honoring the people who have worked to preserve vintage ornamentals so those plants with a past can become the superstars of future gardens.

Ms. Martin will have copies of her most recent books available for purchase and signing.Â Fee is $20 for Massachusetts Horticultural Society members, $25 for nonmembers.Â For more information visit www.masshort.org or call 617-933-4973.Â Image below from www.flowermag.com.

January 20, 2014
Saturday, December 7, 10:00 am – Holiday Wreath Workshop

As part of Elm Bank’s Festival of Trees Celebration, Mass Hort is offering this hands-on workshop on Saturday, December 7, beginning at 10 am, to create beautiful wreaths and swags to take home for the holiday season. Marisa McCoy will lead participants in design, choice of materials, and wreath composition. Through her vast depth of experience and under her gentle guidance you will create a wreath that appeals to your own design and color sense and one which you will be proud to display for the world to see.

Marisa is a Nationally Accredited Master Flower Show Judge, and the current President Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts. Marisa is also a floral design instructor, garden club speaker, active member of the MFA Senior Associates, and a custom wedding and special occasion floral designer. All materials will be provided. $45 for Mass Hort members, $55 for nonmembers. To register or for more information: www.masshort.org. And if you’re too busy to attend, link here before midnight tonight to order a beautiful wreath from The Garden Club of the Back Bay, like the one pictured below, which you can pick up this coming week.

December 1, 2013
Thursday, November 7, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – The Hidden Forest

We all know what the forest looks like. What very few of know are the hidden organisms that nourish, protect, infect and destroy the visible portions of our ecosystems. More than 90% of the world’s plants have fungal partners, without which the world would be a vastly different place. Fungi form an entire kingdom, more closely related to animals than to plants. Like us, they depend on plants for oxygen and carbohydrates. And, like us, they have a complicated relationship with the plant kingdom, acting sometimes as good gardeners and sometimes as destroyers. One lecture is not enough to tell you everything about this relationship but we promise that you’ll never see the forest in quite the same way again.Â Come to Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street in Wellesley, on Thursday, November 7, from 7 – 8:30, and hear Susan Goldhor’s lecture for the Massachusetts Horticultural Society entitled The Hidden Forest.

Susan Goldhor is a biologist who is the President of the Boston Mycological Club, the oldest such club in the nation. Her essays about fungi, which have focused on their roles in ecoystems, have been widely praised for their clarity and style, as well as for popularizing aspects of fungi that have generally been the province of specialists.Â Register at http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e8clee75612ddf48&llr=kzaorjcab.

November 2, 2013
Thursday, September 19, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Preserving the Tastes of Summer Workshop

Enjoy the fragrance and taste of fresh herbs while you create some delightful products that will capture the essence of herbs for your own use. in this Massachusetts Horticultural Society class featuring Karen O’Brien of The Green Woman’s Garden, you will make herb butter, herb vinegar and an herbal liqueur. Handouts with recipes will be provided.

Karen O’Brien runs her herbal business “The Green Woman’s Garden” in the central MA town of Mendon. She has herbs and ornamental flowers for sale, runs workshops on various herbal adventures, and occasionally participates at farmers markets and fairs. She is the Development Chair of The Herb Society of America, currently serves as Chairman of the New England Unit of H.S.A., is Secretary of the International Herb Association, and is President of the Greenleaf Garden Club of Milford. She is the editor and contributing author to the latest Herb of the Year book on elderberry entitled Elder, produced by the IHA.Â The class will take place at Elm Bank on Thursday, September 19, beginning at 7 pm.

Cost – $10.00 for members, $15.00 for non-members. To register, or for more information, visit www.masshort.org.

September 12, 2013
Thursday, September 12, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm, and Friday, September 13, 7:30 am – 12:30 pm – Relax, It’s Only Garden Photography

Starting with an illustrated lecture at Elm Bank on Thursday evening, September 12, from 7 – 8:30 pm, our friend Rich Pomerantz will provide an introduction to and explanation of camera workings, light, composition and technique as it all relates to garden photography. This presentation, illustrated by a digital slideshow, is suitable for beginners, novices, or more advanced photographers. With the fabulous Elm Bank gardens at our disposal, come prepared to be productive and have plenty of opportunities to explore your garden photography fantasies in the field with your camera.

A half-day workshop beginning early Friday morning will explore methods of seeing and of photographing, aimed at improving the way you photograph flowers and gardens. Whether you wish to preserve horticultural and natural beauty for posterity, publication or personal enjoyment, this class will expose you to steps that can help you bring your garden photography to a higher level and produce clear photographic visual imagery. We will learn the proper use of the camera, the true value of the tripod, how to set up a shot and evaluate light using the meter and the eyes. We will explore depth of field, color, light modification and more. Describe order in the chaos, manage changing light, find and convey the emotion and energy in the scene you see. We will critique students’ work at lunch after photographing in the beautiful Elm Bank gardens.

Participants should have a working knowledge of their equipment. Even if you do not have a DSLR and you use a ‘point-and-shoot’ you will benefit from this class. If possible, please bring your own laptop for editing. There are only two things you must bring: a working and open mind, and YOUR CAMERA’s MANUAL.

Fee: Lecture Only – $20 members, $25 non-members; Workshop only – $95 for members: $125 for non-members

Participants who attend both the workshop and the lecture can do both for 1 flat fee: $105 for members: $135 for non-members. Register online at http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e7r2qh0e4a9aabcb&llr=kzaorjcab

Rich Pomerantz is a full time freelance photographer based in Litchfield County, Connecticut. His images have appeared in diverse periodicals ranging from Garden Design, Horticulture, Fine Gardening, Organic Gardening and Outdoor Photographer to Coastal Living, Traditional Home, Berkshire Living, Connecticut Home and Garden, CT Cottages and Gardens, National Geographic for Kids and Ranger Rick. He counts among his clients many corporations, garden designers, landscape architects and individuals.

Rich teaches photography classes and workshops through the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and the NY Botanical Gardens. He has spoken about garden photography at the Boston, Rhode Island and Long Island Flower Shows and at the national Garden Writers Association symposium (and The Garden Club of the Back Bay!)

September 6, 2013