Boston Flora

Tag: Garden Design magazine

  • Wednesday, October 17, 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm – Landscaping for Bird Diversity

    This Landscaping for Bird Diversity workshop, to be held Wednesday, October 17 from 5:30 – 7:30 at Great Hall Lodge at Cedar Hill, 265 Beaver Street in Waltham, is organized by Grow Native Massachusetts, and taught by Claudia Thompson, the founder of Grow Native.

    Do you aspire to create landscapes with genuine ecological value for a wide array of avian species from songbirds, to raptors, owls, woodpeckers, and more? Claudia will lead an in-depth exploration of the principles and practices for achieving this objective, based on understanding the essential habitat requirements for bird survival.

    Our examination starts, of course, with the importance of native plants. Then we will take a deeper look at the value of different canopy layers, preferred planting strategies, techniques for providing water, and the critical role of active ecological systems to avian survival. We finish by considering our human interactions with birds. What are the pros and cons of feeding birds directly, through seed and suet? Do nest boxes really help our native songbirds to breed? And given the threats from both human activity and non-native bird species, how can we tilt the balance in favor of our native songbirds?

    Claudia Thompson founded Grow Native Massachusetts in 2010. She is nationally recognized as a leader in the native plant movement, and was featured as one of the Wild Ones in Garden Design magazine along with Doug Tallamy, Darrel Morrison, and others. She has had an extensive career as an ecologist and environmental educator. Claudia’s happiest moments are spent in her own garden where she has recorded 77 species of birds including woodpeckers, migrating songbirds, and even rare woodcocks, all using the habitat she and her husband have created on their small urban parcel in Cambridge.

    $28 for members of Grow Native Massachusetts, $38 for nonmembers. Sign up at www.grownativemass.org, or email mgallogly@grownativemass.org.

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  • Wednesday, August 15, 7:00 pm – Grow What You Love: Twelve Food Plant Families to Change Your Life

    Grow What You Love is designed to be a simple guide to growing vegetables, herbs and more that will add to the flavor and variety of fresh produce choices throughout the year. Aimed at novice and experienced gardeners alike it will be an image-driven, how-to adventure from an expert gardener and communicator with an enthusiasm for an authentic life.

    The colorful book begins with an exploration of author Emily Murphy’s approach to gardening and how it can fit into modern life with little time and effort. She goes on to give advice on how best to choose food plants that readers love, or can discover, and follows with simple methods for garden-to-table growing, including a selection of her favorite seasonal recipes. The result for readers is a garden-fresh bounty for any time of the year.

    Emily Murphy is the author of the foodie-centric garden blog Pass The Pistil, and one of Garden Design Magazine’s “most loved” blogs of 2015. Emily is a web series host, a contributor to Better Homes and Gardens, a garden design and organic gardening consultant, and a teacher of organic gardening. Emily holds a degree in Ethnobotanical Resources from Humboldt State University where she also studied botany and environmental science. She will appear at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge, on Wednesday, August 15 at 7 pm. More information may be found at www.portersquarebooks.com.

  • Tuesday, March 27, 7:00 pm – One Writer’s Garden: Eudora Welty’s Home Place

    By the time she reached her late twenties, Eudora Welty (1909-2001) was launching a distinguished literary career. She was also becoming a capable gardener under the tutelage of her mother, Chestina Welty, who designed their modest garden in Jackson, Mississippi. From the beginning, Eudora wove images of southern flora and gardens into her writing, yet few outside her personal circle knew that the images were drawn directly from her passionate connection to and abiding knowledge of her own garden. Jane Roy Brown’s book One Writer’s Garden: Eudora Welty’s Home Place contains many previously unpublished writings, including literary passages and excerpts from Welty’s private correspondence about the garden.  Ms. Brown will speak at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge on Tuesday, March 27, beginning at 7 pm.

    Brown is a freelance travel and garden writer with a focus on historic gardens and landscapes. She is also director of educational outreach for the Library of American Landscape History. She has published in Horticulture, Preservation, Garden Design, and the Boston Globe, and she serves as a contributing editor to Landscape Architecture.  Call 617-491-2220, or visit www.portersquarebooks.com for more information.

  • Sunday, June 27, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program in Marblehead

    On Sunday, June 27th, explore three private gardens in Marblehead, open to the public through The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program. Admission to each private garden is $5. Open Days are rain or shine, and no reservations are required. Call 1-888-842-2442, or visit www.opendaysprogram.org for more information.

    At The Fettyplace-Bowden House (15 Waldron Court, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) local stone, ancient cut granite, and bluestone were used to create raised and sunken planting beds, a patio, and paths. Colonies of many prized and unusual perennials, edibles, over-wintered annuals, shrubs, and trees cover every available piece of ground as well as the roof of a wood storage alcove. The gardens at Grey Gulls (429 Ocean Avenue, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) feature sinuous beds mirroring the surrounding curves of shore and sea, hundreds of unusual annuals, perennials, and bulbs thrive, and a whimsical vegetable garden includes heirloom varieties, climbing vines, and delectable berries. At The Parable – Ellen Cool’s Garden (19 Circle Street, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.), the landscape represents a gathering of the longest blooming and otherwise most pleasing hardy perennials, dwarf and unusual trees, shrubs, and vines, chosen for foliage and/or other reliable attributes to keep the garden freshly lovely from May through October. This is the working space as well as the display garden of a landscape designer, so there are stone features, garden buildings, tools, books, and working systems that may provide some added ideas for your own garden work.

    These Open Days gardens are featured in the 2010 Open Days Directory; a soft-cover book that includes detailed driving directions and vivid descriptions written by their owners.  The directory includes garden listings in 21 states and costs $21.95 including shipping. Visit www.opendaysprogram.org or call the Garden Conservancy toll-free at 1-888-842-2442 to order with a Visa, MasterCard or American Express, or send a check or money order to: the Garden Conservancy, P.O. Box 219, Cold Spring, NY 10516.  Discount admission tickets are available as well through advanced mail order.

    The 2010 Open Days Program is generously sponsored by Garden Design Magazine as its National Media Sponsor.  The Garden Conservancy introduced the Open Days Program in 1995 as a means of introducing the public to gardening, providing easy access to outstanding examples of design and horticultural practice, and proving that exceptional American gardens are still being created. The Open Days Program is America’s only national private garden-visiting program, and is made possible by the work of hundreds of volunteers nationwide.

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  • Garden Design 2010 Green Awards – Call For Entries

    The second annual awards program sponsored by Garden Design magazine reveals the exciting moment when great design meets ecological responsibility.  Smart water and energy use, repurposing, recyclables, natives and organics, and other earth friendly innovations will be recognized.  Designers and companies owning designs are eligible to enter.  Entries must highlight key “green” components and should not have previously appeared in national publication.  Your entry should include a completed entry form (print at www.gdgreenawards.com), ten uploaded images with captions showing all parts of the completed project, and a single paragraph summary of the project.  There is a $50 fee per entry.  Winners will be published in the January/February 2011 issue of Garden Design.  Deadline for entry is May 1, 2010.

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  • Landslide 2010 – Every Tree Tells a Story

    Sentinel and specimen trees, allees and boulevards, hedgerows and urban forests – they surround us and are living reminders of our heritage.  In order to honor and help preserve our country’s heritage of trees, The Cultural Landscape Foundation and Garden Design Magazine are teaming up with The Davey Tree Expert Company for the 2010 Landslide: Every Tree Tells a Story.

    Since its inception in 2003, the landslide initiative has spotlighted more than 150 significant at-risk parks, gardens, horticultural features, and working landscapes.  The goal of Landslide is to draw immediate and lasting attention to these threatened landscapes and unique features, revealing the value of everyday places and encouraging informed community-based stewardship decisions. Through web features, traveling exhibits, and print publications, Landslide reveals the value of these forgotten places.

    An example of an at- risk garden selected by Landslide is The Italian Garden designed by Winthrop Ames at Queset, in North Easton, Massachusetts (pictured below circa 1920). Abandoned for generations, this ruined garden is a silent testament to Edwardian era bon vivants and the Golden Age of American gardens,   This year’s theme calls attention to the places that embody our shared landscape heritage.  Nominate or learn more by visiting www.tclf.org/landslide.  Deadline for nominations is March 31, 2010.

    Queset

  • Wednesday, September 23, 10 am – 12 noon – Four Centuries of Garden History at Strawbery Banke

    Take a special Curator’s tour through New England garden history on Wednesday, September 23 beginning at 10:00 a.m. as the New England Wildflower Society explores the site that Garden Design magazine recognized as one of four sites in the world teaching about change over time in an original landscape. Gardens range from native landscapes and 17th century raised-bed kitchen gardens to high Victorian gardens/hothouse, immigrant gardens, a 100 year-old Colonial  Revival garden, and a Victory Garden from World War II.  The tour focuses on garden trends and historic design as well as heirloom plants and historic use.  Teaching gardens include a Victorian Children’s Garden, Herb garden and heritage orchards. Participants have access to heirloom seeds from the gardens as we progress through the historic and cultural landscapes.  Tour does not include admission to the museum, but participants are encouraged to stay for lunch and an afternoon visit to the site. John Forti will lead the group, limited to 20 participants, and the fee is $18 for NEWFS members and $22 for nonmembers.  To register, and get directions, log on to www.newfs.org or call 508-877-7630.

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