Boston Flora

Tag: Garden Design

  • Thursdays, October 2 – October 23, 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm – New England Native Plant Design

    This Berkshire Botanical Garden four-week course, held on Thursdays, October 2 – 23, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., will help students better understand the principles and practices of ecological gardening with a focus on native plant communities. Students will learn the native plant palette, resources needed to identify these communities, and habitats and methods of introducing native plants into gardens. Identifying and controlling invasive plant species, in addition to restoring areas that have been impacted by invasives, will also be highlighted. Gardeners will learn how to enhance garden spaces with native plants that create sustainable and low maintenance gardens. This course will be taught by Bridghe McCracken of Helia Land Design.

    Three years ago, HNN was founded by horticulturalist and landscape designer Bridghe McCracken, after the sale of Project Native, a non-profit where she was Chief Landscape Designer for ten years. The founding of HNN was a solution to continue her and Project Native’s mission to save unique Berkshire native plant seed and propagate plants from those seeds, to be sold to landscape design clients and the public, part of an effort to restore and expand the strained ecosystem in the Berkshires.

    BBG members $215, nonmembers $240. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/new-england-native-plant-design-0

  • Friday, April 12, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm Eastern – Garden Design: Color, Texture, Shapes, and Layers, Online

    The excitement and wonder of a colorful garden grab our attention and imprints its beauty on our memory. While color attracts us and stimulates our imagination, it also confounds many of us. We will explore our relationship to color, the garden dynamics that affect it, and how creating successful color combinations is strengthened by incorporating texture and shape throughout the layers of our gardens. This American Horticultural Society online talk will take place April 12 from 1 – 3. $30 AHS members, $40 nonmembers. Register at ahsgardening.org

    Cheryl Salatino is a New England based landscape designer, educator, and native plant enthusiast.  She started Dancing Shadows Garden Design twenty years ago to offer clients a more thoughtful and purposeful design aesthetic.  What continues to inspire this designer is how the beauty and value of nature endlessly challenge, surprise, and teach us. Salatino received her certificate in landscape design from the Radcliffe Seminars Landscape Design Program of Harvard University.  She has earned the status of Massachusetts Certified Horticulturist by the MA Nursery & Landscape Association and completed the UMASS Green School program in Landscape Management.  She has also earned an Advanced Certificate in Horticulture and Design as part of the Native Plant Trust educational certificate program. 

  • Tuesdays, January 24 & 31, and Wednesday, January 25, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm Eastern – Winter Garden Design, Online and In-Person

    In this three-session Massachusetts Horticultural Society workshop, you’ll be introduced to how to create a winter garden for your front entry gardens or other borders. You’ll learn how to use drifts, masses, and individual plants to create garden layouts.  Discover how to use shrubs and trees scaled to the home landscape. You’ll discover the role the Winter Garden plays throughout the seasons. And, how to create a garden color palette that will apply to later seasons.

    If you’re redesigning an existing garden, we’ll start with a “decluttering exercise” to help you select the plants you love and thrive in your existing garden. Or if starting a new garden, a wish list of favorite plants. Then we’ll focus on designing the winter landscape of shrubs and trees—using conifers, deciduous, and broad-leafed plants.  You’ll practice creating a small Winter Garden using your own pre-measured small garden (no larger 20 x 8’—bring photos too).

    A Tutorial Walk in person at MHS’s Bressingham Garden will inspire our winter garden designs. Workshop complete with hand-outs, worksheets, and instructor review of your in-class work will get you started on learning the art of creating the Winter Garden.

    Virtual via Zoom: January, 24 & 31, 2024. Tutorial Garden Walk Jan 25, 2024 (February 1st snow day) $135 for Mass Hort members, $170 for nonmembers. Register at www.masshort.org

    Maria von Brincken, principal of Maria von Brincken Landscape Garden Design, is an award-winning certified designer (APLD and LI) celebrating over 30 years in professional practice. Maria specializes in landscape plans and coaching that creates beautiful spaces and colorful flower gardens designed for you. A certified landscape designer by profession and an artist and gardener by obsession. 

  • Saturdays, February 5 – February 26, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm – Garden Design Basics, Online

    Capturing your ideas in an easy to understand plan is essential when creating a landscape design. This online Tower Hill Botanic Garden interactive workshop with Cheryl Salatino gets you focused on the methods and tools required to develop your design approach. We will use a common residential project as the foundation for sparking new ideas for what is possible. Each week you will evolve your design and present your work for feedback and questions. Our collaborative sessions will provide the skills you need to take the next step in designing your own personal garden. The sessions will be from 9:30 – 12:30, and are $125 for Tower Hill members, $150 for nonmembers. Register at www.towerhillbg.org.

    Goals of the Workshop
    1. Understanding existing site conditions, general measurements and reading a plot plan
    2. Capturing your ideas on paper
    3. Understanding key design principles
    4. Applying your design knowledge on a residential project (instructor will provide)

    Material List (Not provided W/ Course)
    1. Pencil & Eraser
    2. Engineering Scale
    3. Circle template
    4. Straight edge (ruler or triangle)
    5. Tracing paper
    6. Sketch paper
    7. 10′ or greater tape measure

    Cheryl is the principal designer and owner of Dancing Shadows Garden Design, a residential landscape design and services firm. She has been designing gardens across Massachusetts since 2002. Cheryl is a Certified Landscape Designer and a Massachusetts Certified Horticulturist (MCH). She received her certificate in landscape design from the Radcliffe Seminars Landscape Design Program of Harvard University. She was awarded the status of Massachusetts Certified Horticulturist by the Massachusetts Nursery & Landscape Association (MNLA) as evidence of achieving the industry’s highest standards in nursery and landscape professionalism. Cheryl has also earned an Advanced Certificate in Horticulture and Design as part of the New England Wildflower Society’s Native Plant Studies Program.

  • Friday, July 16, 10:30 am – 12:00 noon – Hydrangeas: Garden Design Series, Online

    How do you design a fabulous garden around a signature plant? That’s the question that Heritage Museums & Garden’s Director of Horticulture, Les Lutz, will tackle in this second of three virtual webinars centered on garden design. Heritage is known for its amazing display of hydrangeas in July, and now you can learn how to achieve similar results at home!

    In this webinar, Les will cover the basics of how to care for these woody ornamentals – including best practices for pruning, plant siting, watering, and fertilizing – before giving program participants the building blocks for designing their home garden around these lovely perennial shrubs.

    Learn how color, texture, size, and shape influence the aesthetic appeal and health of the plants in your garden, along with which types of plants make the perfect companions for your hydrangeas. Armed with this information, you just might achieve a prize-worthy oasis in your own backyard!

    The live webinar will include time for questions, as well as a PDF of the slides for your reference. All program registrants will receive a link to the video recording, available for 72 hours after the event. Advance registration is required. $17 for Heritage members, $27 for nonmembers. Register HERE.

  • Thursday, March 25, 11:00 am – 12:00 noon – Larry Weaner: Music Composition and Landscape Design, Online

    For landscape designer and composer Larry Weaner, garden design and music composition have much in common. While one may be visual and the other sonic, both look to explore freedom of expression within formal constraints. Both are endlessly engaging pursuits, where no matter how much you know, there is always more to discover. Working with plants—like playing jazz—is a give and take, a call and response, where every action stimulates a reaction—with sometimes unexpected consequences. Weaner believes that understanding the principles and techniques of composition can help designers create “musical” landscapes that can evoke powerfully direct emotional responses, reveal themselves gracefully over time and the seasons, and incorporate elements of improvisation.

    Larry Weaner is a leading figure in North American landscape design and restoration. His award-winning work has been profiled in The New York Times, Garden Design, and Landscape Architecture Magazine, among other publications. His Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes Can Be a Source of Environmental Change received the 2017 Book Award from the American Horticultural Society.

    Available CEUs include: APLD and LA CES. To register, visit www.nybg.org.
    This New York Botanical Garden lecture on March 25 from 11 – 12 is funded in part by the Barbara Cushing Paley Fund. Live captioning will be provided.

  • Thursday, February 25, 11:00 am – 12:00 noon – Leslie Bennett: Gardens of Sanctuary, Online

    Founder and owner of Pine House Edible Gardens, Leslie Bennett designs, builds, and maintains edible and culturally resonant landscapes that are beautiful and productive. The gardens she creates provide visual, physical, and cultural inspiration-along with nourishing organic harvests of food, flowers and medicinal herbs. With degrees from Harvard, Columbia Law School, and University College London in the fields of environmental law,cultural property, and social justice, Bennett brings a rare and important perspective to her landscape designs and her business practices. One effort of Pine House Edible Gardens is the Oakland, CA-based Black Sanctuary Gardens project, founded by Bennett in 2018, which actively works to create garden spaces of refuge and beauty in collaboration with Black women and communities.

    Recently, Leslie Bennett received the American Horticultural Society’s 2020 Great American Gardeners Landscape Design Award. She is co-author of The Beautiful Edible Garden, and has been featured in Better Homes & Gardens, Martha Stewart Living, and Garden Design. Joining Bennett in conversation will be Jennifer Jewell, creator and host of the award-winning public radio program and podcast Cultivating Place.

    This February 25 online program is sponsored by the New York Botanical Garden as part of its Winter Lecture Series, and begins at 11 am Eastern time. To register, or for more information, visit www.nybg.org.

  • Wednesdays, February 17 & 24, 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Design & Native Plant Palette

    This two-part in-person Berkshire Botanical Garden design class led by Bridghe McCracken, the founder of Helia Land Design, will introduce students to native plants and their effective use in the residential garden. Part I of the class will focus on perennials and grasses. Learn about our gorgeous native perennial plant palette from rare beauties to classic stand-bys, as well as what plants to add to your garden to attract pollinators, provide butterfly habitat and enhance visual interest throughout the season. Class two will focus on designing with woody plants and ferns. Learn what shrubs to use for screening, habitat creation and four-season interest. Delve into the world of ferns, how to integrate them into your garden design and which native ferns thrive in our region. Students enrolled in this class are encouraged to also participate in Stewardship in your Gardens and Land. To add your name to the wait list, visit https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/design-native-plant-palette

    Bridghe McCracken, founder of Helia Land Design, has over 20 years of experience in land stewardship and designing landscapes, gardens and beautiful food systems. Bridghe has a BA in biology from Colorado College, is a Certified Organic Landcare Professional from the Northeast Organic Farmers Association, a Certified Horticulturist from MCLA, a Massachusetts Master Gardener and a graduate and advanced practitioner of the Four Winds Society. Photo courtesy of Berkshire Eagle.

  • Saturday, October 24, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm – Eco-restorative Garden Design, Online

    What does it take to create a conservation and restoration landscape project in your own backyard? In this October 24 half-day Native Plant Trust workshop with Staci Jasin, we will explore the principles and specific steps to keep you engaged and confident in small-scale projects. You will learn tips, techniques, and a well-defined process for transforming a small plot of land to a native plant landscape. Topics cover everything from removing invasives to analyzing the site, conserving resources, and enhancing aesthetics and wildlife habitat. $38 for NPT members, $45 for nonmembers. Register at http://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/eco-restorative-garden-design/

  • Wednesdays, September 16 – October 14, 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Drafting for Garden Design

    Led by Steven Foster, this Berkshire Botanical Garden five-week studio intensive is essential for those who would like to take their in-garden planning and design to the next level. Learn basic drafting skills necessary to record and effectively communicate scaled site plans. The course, beginning September 16 from 5:30 – 8:30 pm, will cover reference books, drafting supplies, media/paper types, line weights, lettering and scale reading. Drafting demonstrations will familiarize students with professional drawing techniques, and students will begin to draft basic site plans and explore map-making. During the last half of the course, students will learn to develop a landscape graphic palette to illustrate trees, shrubs, perennials and groundcovers, as well as hardscape materials such as stone terraces. This course is designed for beginner to intermediate students. As with all in person classes scheduled during the pandemic, please reconfirm before the class begins, and pre registration is required. $255 for BBG members, $275 for nonmembers. Sign up at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/drafting-garden-design-0

    Steven Foster, A.S.L.A. is a registered landscape architect in MA with over 30 years of experience. He previously taught at the Landscape Design Institute affiliated with the Arnold Arboretum and Harvard University.