Boston Flora

Tag: Garden Technology

  • Tuesday, March 28, 6:00 am – 7:30 am (but recorded) – Garden Technology: What Made Our Garden Grow? A History of Poo, Online

    This is the last lecture in a six-week series of lectures which will look at the history and development of garden technology from Medieval times right up to the present day. The ‘technology’ of gardening has developed enormously over the past centuries due to mechanization, automation, advances in science – and we can now grow plants without soil, we have automated watering systems for our greenhouses and we can watch while the robot mower, controlled from our smartphones, trims our lawns to perfection. But although we may approach them differently, the tasks and challenges that face gardeners today are much the same as they were back in Tudor times and earlier: preparing the soil, planting, protecting, composting, propagating and so on and so on. The rise in the organic movement over the past few decades has reminded us that the gardeners of old knew at least as much about gardening and working in harmony with nature as we do now, so how have new technologies developed and progressed our gardening knowledge, practice, and techniques?

    The Gardens Trust has engaged a series of expert speakers to examine this question, including the renowned garden writer and designer, Noel Kingsbury, National Trust curator James Rothwell, expert on lawnmowers through the ages Keith Wootton, as well as regular Gardens Trust lecturers Jill Francis and our very own David Marsh; who will take a different technology in turn – tools, fertilizers, pest control, glasshouses, lawnmowers and plant breeding – and explore their history and development in relation to gardening. Tickets £24 or £5 each. Register through Eventbrite HERE. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk (If you do not receive this link please contact them). A link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week.

    On March 28, David Marsh will expound on A History of Poo. David Marsh is one of my favorite presenters, and the talk is sure to be a delight. As he writes:

    “If you asked me to think of a title that would turn most people off buying a ticket for a lecture I’d guess the History of Fertilizer would be near the top of the list… but be prepared to be surprised. It isn’t as boring as it sounds, and in fact there’s are laughs and gasps a-plenty as we explore the smelly, messy and often unpleasant story of what made your garden grow- from dinosaurs to Victorian plutocrats, from cholera to fossil fir-cones and from Thames barges to the collapse of the Spanish Empire, via with words of wisdom from Samuel Pepys, Shirley Hibberd and Humphry Davy. In fact, so sure am I that you won’t find hearing about recycled excrement and superphosphates dull that you can have your money back if I can’t convince you that it isn’t!”

    David Marsh is a garden historian, lecturer and writer. He obtained a PhD in Garden History from Birkbeck College in 2005. Since 2011 he has been co-convener of the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, London University. He leads the Gardens Trust’s team who organize online courses and lectures, and also writes the Gardens Trust’s weekly blog.

  • Tuesday, March 21, 5:00 am – 6:30 am (but recorded) – Garden Technology: Scythes to Cyber, 150 Years of the Mower, Online

    This is the fifth lecture in a six-week series of lectures which will look at the history and development of garden technology from Medieval times right up to the present day. The ‘technology’ of gardening has developed enormously over the past centuries due to mechanization, automation, advances in science – and we can now grow plants without soil, we have automated watering systems for our greenhouses and we can watch while the robot mower, controlled from our smartphones, trims our lawns to perfection. But although we may approach them differently, the tasks and challenges that face gardeners today are much the same as they were back in Tudor times and earlier: preparing the soil, planting, protecting, composting, propagating and so on and so on. The rise in the organic movement over the past few decades has reminded us that the gardeners of old knew at least as much about gardening and working in harmony with nature as we do now, so how have new technologies developed and progressed our gardening knowledge, practice, and techniques?

    The Gardens Trust has engaged a series of expert speakers to examine this question, including the renowned garden writer and designer, Noel Kingsbury, National Trust curator James Rothwell, expert on lawnmowers through the ages Keith Wootton, as well as regular Gardens Trust lecturers Jill Francis and our very own David Marsh; who will take a different technology in turn – tools, fertilizers, pest control, glasshouses, lawnmowers and plant breeding – and explore their history and development in relation to gardening. Tickets £24 or £5 each. Register through Eventbrite HERE. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us). A link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week.

    The invention of the lawn mower just before the dawn of the Victorian era helped to transform our landscapes. For the first time it was possible to manage large areas of grass efficiently and economically. The growth of urban parks, organized sport, and gardening as a leisure activity among others were all aided by this simple invention. It is possible that the inventor of the mower would recognize some features of modern machines. But in reality, the lawn mower has undergone significant changes in the last 190 years. From the original design, through animal, steam, petrol, and electric power to the autonomous “cyber mowers” of today this talk will touch upon the key innovations and developments.

    Keith Wootton founded The Old Lawnmower Club in 1990 with a small group of like-minded enthusiasts. The club now has almost 700 members around the world, mostly in the UK but also from many commonwealth and EU countries. Its simple objective is to promote the collection, preservation, and display of old mowers. Members of the club attend garden shows, museum events, and vintage rallies throughout the UK to support these aims. Now President of the club, Keith has over the years presented on the history of the lawn mower to numerous clubs and societies and taken part in several TV and radio shows.

  • Tuesday, March 14, 5:00 am – 6:30 am Eastern (but recorded) – Garden Technology: A Glittering Tale – A History of the Glasshouse in Britain, Online

    This is the fourth lecture in a six-week series of lectures which will look at the history and development of garden technology from Medieval times right up to the present day. The ‘technology’ of gardening has developed enormously over the past centuries due to mechanization, automation, advances in science – and we can now grow plants without soil, we have automated watering systems for our greenhouses and we can watch while the robot mower, controlled from our smartphones, trims our lawns to perfection. But although we may approach them differently, the tasks and challenges that face gardeners today are much the same as they were back in Tudor times and earlier: preparing the soil, planting, protecting, composting, propagating and so on and so on. The rise in the organic movement over the past few decades has reminded us that the gardeners of old knew at least as much about gardening and working in harmony with nature as we do now, so how have new technologies developed and progressed our gardening knowledge, practice, and techniques?

    The Gardens Trust has engaged a series of expert speakers to examine this question, including the renowned garden writer and designer, Noel Kingsbury, National Trust curator James Rothwell, expert on lawnmowers through the ages Keith Wootton, as well as regular Gardens Trust lecturers Jill Francis and our very own David Marsh; who will take a different technology in turn – tools, fertilizers, pest control, glasshouses, lawnmowers and plant breeding – and explore their history and development in relation to gardening. Tickets £24 or £5 each. Register through Eventbrite HERE. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us). A link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week.

    Since Roman times, people have longed to grow fruits and flowering plants from climates warmer than their own. It is from their resulting endeavors that the humble greenhouse of today emerged, bringing with it the ability to experience horticultural and culinary delights from across the globe. This talk on March 14 with James Rothwell will look at the history of the glasshouse in Britain, from the 17th-century orangery at Ham House to the 1920s greenhouse at Mr Straw’s House in Nottinghamshire. It will also look at the supporting acts that are garden sheds and at how innovations in glasshouse technology have informed building design today beyond the garden, including central heating systems, railway stations and even skyscrapers.

    James Rothwell studied architectural and landscape history at the Courtauld Institute of Art, specializing in the Red Books of Humphry Repton. He has been a curator with the National Trust for nearly thirty years. During that time, he has been responsible for a number of estates with important glasshouses, notably Quarry Bank in Cheshire where he oversaw the acquisition and restoration of the kitchen garden, including a range of glass with an early curvilinear iron showhouse.

  • Tuesday, March 7, 5:00 am – 6:30 am (but recorded) – Garden Technology: A History of Pest Control, Online

    This is the third lecture in a six-week series of lectures which will look at the history and development of garden technology from Medieval times right up to the present day. The ‘technology’ of gardening has developed enormously over the past centuries due to mechanization, automation, advances in science – and we can now grow plants without soil, we have automated watering systems for our greenhouses and we can watch while the robot mower, controlled from our smartphones, trims our lawns to perfection. But although we may approach them differently, the tasks and challenges that face gardeners today are much the same as they were back in Tudor times and earlier: preparing the soil, planting, protecting, composting, propagating and so on and so on. The rise in the organic movement over the past few decades has reminded us that the gardeners of old knew at least as much about gardening and working in harmony with nature as we do now, so how have new technologies developed and progressed our gardening knowledge, practice, and techniques?

    The Gardens Trust has engaged a series of expert speakers to examine this question, including the renowned garden writer and designer, Noel Kingsbury, National Trust curator James Rothwell, expert on lawnmowers through the ages Keith Wootton, as well as regular Gardens Trust lecturers Jill Francis and our very own David Marsh; who will take a different technology in turn – tools, fertilizers, pest control, glasshouses, lawnmowers and plant breeding – and explore their history and development in relation to gardening. Tickets £24 or £5 each. Register through Eventbrite HERE. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us). A link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week.

    On March 7, enjoy Things ‘that noye Gardens’ – A History of Pest Control, with Jill Francis. Garden pests and diseases have been with us for as long as we have been making gardens. The first gardening text to be published in English promises to teach us how to dress, sow and set a garden, but at the same time, and equally importantly, offers remedies for ‘beasts, worms, flies and suchlike’ that are harmful to gardens. This talk will look at the many and various ways gardeners have sought to control them, from the downright superstitious, through practical remedies learned through observation and experience to the introduction of revolutionary chemical controls, which we may now wonder whether they have done more harm than good.

    Jill Francis is an early modern historian, specializing in gardens and gardening in the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries. She was awarded her PhD in 2011 by the University of Birmingham and has taught as a visiting lecturer at Birmingham and also the University of Worcester. She also has lectured in a variety of Garden History fora, including the Institute of Historical Research Landscape and Gardens seminar program and most recently, has become increasing involved in the Gardens Trust extensive online provision. She also works at the Shakespeare Institute Library in Stratford-upon-Avon. Her first book, Gardens and Gardening in Early Modern England and Wales, was published by Yale University Press in June 2018.

  • Tuesday, February 28, 5:00 am – 6:30 am Eastern (but recorded) – Garden Technology: Plant Breeding, A Short History, Online

    This is the second lecture in a six-week series of lectures which will look at the history and development of garden technology from Medieval times right up to the present day. The ‘technology’ of gardening has developed enormously over the past centuries due to mechanization, automation, advances in science – and we can now grow plants without soil, we have automated watering systems for our greenhouses and we can watch while the robot mower, controlled from our smartphones, trims our lawns to perfection. But although we may approach them differently, the tasks and challenges that face gardeners today are much the same as they were back in Tudor times and earlier: preparing the soil, planting, protecting, composting, propagating and so on and so on. The rise in the organic movement over the past few decades has reminded us that the gardeners of old knew at least as much about gardening and working in harmony with nature as we do now, so how have new technologies developed and progressed our gardening knowledge, practice, and techniques?

    The Gardens Trust has engaged a series of expert speakers to examine this question, including the renowned garden writer and designer, Noel Kingsbury, National Trust curator James Rothwell, expert on lawnmowers through the ages Keith Wootton, as well as regular Gardens Trust lecturers Jill Francis and our very own David Marsh; who will take a different technology in turn – tools, fertilizers, pest control, glasshouses, lawnmowers and plant breeding – and explore their history and development in relation to gardening.

    Speaker Noel Kingsbury will cover Plant Breeding on February 28. We owe our survival to plant breeding, the ability to produce productive, disease-resistant and resilient crops. This presentation outlines the basics of how we learnt the basics of plant genetics and applied them to the crops that feed us, along the way producing vast numbers of new varieties for our gardens. Although focused on edible crops, we’ll be introduced to some of the key breeders of ornamental garden plants: their plants and their methods. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us). A link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week. Tickets £24 or £5 each through Eventbrite. Register HERE.

    Noel Kingsbury is best-known as a writer on gardens, plants and especially as a promotor of ecological planting design. Along the way he has written about garden plant history and developed unfashionable thoughts about how we feed ourselves, including Hybrid: The History and Science of Plant Breeding (University of Chicago Press, 2009).

  • Tuesday, February 21, 5:00 am Eastern (but recorded) – Garden Technology: The Tools of the Trade, Online

    This is the first lecture in a six-week series of lectures which will look at the history and development of garden technology from Medieval times right up to the present day. The ‘technology’ of gardening has developed enormously over the past centuries due to mechanization, automation, advances in science – and we can now grow plants without soil, we have automated watering systems for our greenhouses and we can watch while the robot mower, controlled from our smartphones, trims our lawns to perfection. But although we may approach them differently, the tasks and challenges that face gardeners today are much the same as they were back in Tudor times and earlier: preparing the soil, planting, protecting, composting, propagating and so on and so on. The rise in the organic movement over the past few decades has reminded us that the gardeners of old knew at least as much about gardening and working in harmony with nature as we do now, so how have new technologies developed and progressed our gardening knowledge, practice, and techniques?

    The Gardens Trust has engaged a series of expert speakers to examine this question, including the renowned garden writer and designer, Noel Kingsbury, National Trust curator James Rothwell, expert on lawnmowers through the ages Keith Wootton, as well as regular Gardens Trust lecturers Jill Francis and our very own David Marsh; who will take a different technology in turn – tools, fertilizers, pest control, glasshouses, lawnmowers and plant breeding – and explore their history and development in relation to gardening.

    On February 21, Jill Francis begins with The Tools of the Trade. Ever since Adam was a boy, people have been using mechanical aids to help with the hard labour of gardening. Spades, mattocks and hoes have been used all over the world for thousands of years, and we still use versions of these tools today, although perhaps surprisingly, there are no records of the garden fork being used until the seventeenth century. Adapted from farming implements, garden tools were repaired, sharpened and cherished, they were listed in inventories, household accounts and passed on in wills, but this essential aspect of our gardening heritage is rarely discussed in garden histories. This talk will offer an overview of the development of garden tools from ancient times into the modern world.

    Jill Francis is an early modern historian, specialising in gardens and gardening in the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries. She was awarded her PhD in 2011 by the University of Birmingham and has taught as a visiting lecturer at Birmingham and also the University of Worcester. She also has lectured in a variety of Garden History fora, including the Institute of Historical Research Landscape and Gardens seminar programme and most recently, has become increasing involved in the Gardens Trust extensive online provision. She also works at the Shakespeare Institute Library in Stratford-upon-Avon. Her first book, Gardens and Gardening in Early Modern England and Wales, was published by Yale University Press in June 2018.

    Register HERE. Tickets £24 or £5 each through Eventbrite. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us). A link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week .