Boston Flora

Tag: Landscape Design

  • Thursday, November 5, 6:00 – 8:00 pm – Conservation By Design

    The Conway School of Landscape Design, The Trustees of Reservations, the North County Land Trust and Leominster Land Trust present Randall Arendt in a free public lecture at the Doyle Conservation Center in Leominster, Mass.

    Thursday, November 5: 6:00 – Reception; 6:45 – 8:00 PM – Lecture
    The talk is free and open to the public, but space is limited. RSVP to 413.853.3034 or events@csld.edu.

    Conservation by Design: A Practical Strategy for Preserving Town-wide Open Space Networks will stress practical techniques that enable developers and local officials to work together to accomplish their different objectives in a way that helps preserve natural assets and rural character.

    Mr. Arendt will share numerous examples of designs that achieve both economic and environmental goals. He has designed conservation subdivisions in various landscapes and regions in 21 states, and his designs have been featured in publications of the American Planning Association, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Association of Home Builders, and the National Association of Realtors.

    For more information, please visit http://www.csld.edu/whatsnew.htm.

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  • Wednesday, November 11, 10:00 am – Low Impact Landscaping

    The November meeting of The Garden Club of the Back Bay will take place Wednesday, November 11, beginning at 10:00 am at The College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston.  We welcome  Paul Marquis, who will speak on  Low Impact Landscaping.  Paul Marquis, of Green Home Solutions in Arlington, MA and former “Green House Doctor” for The Green Roundtable, will be our guest speaker for the November meeting.

    The objective of this talk is to introduce concepts of resource-conserving and environmentally-friendly landscape design and maintenance practices. Conventional residential landscapes are often resource-intensive, and some of the maintenance products and practices typically employed have been associated with adverse long-term health consequences and environmental impact. Topics covered will include low-water landscaping or xeriscaping, rainwater collection and use, advantages of using native plants, more-effective storm water management, and organic turf and landscape management practices. The talk will include a brief discussion of Low Impact Development, green roofs, and “hardscaping” options.

    The Green Roundtable, Inc. (GRT) is an independent non-profit organization whose mission is to mainstream green building and sustainable design and become obsolete.  It works toward this goal by promoting and supporting healthy and environmentally integrated building projects through strategic outreach, education, policy advocacy and technical assistance.  The Green Roundtable envisions a world in which green building is business as usual. For more information on The Green Roundtable, log on to www.greenroundtable.org.

    Reservations are required for this meeting, which will be followed by an optional luncheon with our speaker ($20) at The College Club.  The public is invited.  For more information, and to register, email info@bostonflora.com. Club members will receive written notice of this meeting with a response slip.

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  • Thursday, October 29, 5:30 pm – Landscapes for Art with Ann Kearsley

    Come to The Landscape Institute, 30 Chauncy Street, Cambridge, MA on Thursday, October 29 to hear Ann Kearsley speak about her exhibition of landscape design work, including drawings and photographs that document the process from foundations to cranes to finished installation of built landscapes and of sculpture installations.  Ann Kearsley MLA, MLAUD, principal/owner of Ann Kearsley Design, has been designing landscapes for art since 1996. Her lecture will discuss the challenges of designing landscapes for modern sculpture, using examples of her work that include sculpture by Tony Smith, Mark di Suvero, Willem de Kooning and others. Sculpture has been placed in landscapes for millennia. For centuries, figurative forms in public landscapes and private gardens communicated specific meanings through formal expressions of shared cultural iconographies. In the 20th century, as the imagery of abstract art moved away from mainstream culture, the role of sculpture in designed landscapes began to change as well, creating an opportunity for our consideration of the relationship between sculptural and landscape forms.

    This lecture is free and open to the public.  The exhibition will continue through December 3, 2009.  The reception begins at 5:30, the lecture at 6:00.  Please rsvp to landscape@arnarb.harvard.edu, since seating is limited.  For directions and parking information, log on to www.arboretum.harvard.edu.

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  • Friday, October 30, 6:30 – 9:00 pm – Spirit of Stonehurst

    Visit the hallowed halls of Stonehurst, an icon of American architecture, on Friday, October 30, from 6:30 – 9:00 pm.  Enjoy food, brew, and a bit of magic, too!

    Designed by Henry Hobson Richardson and Frederick Law Olmsted, Stonehurst, the Robert Treat Paine Estate, is the only museum devoted to these two pioneering figures in American architectural and landscape design history. At Stonehurst, these close friends and collaborators forged a uniquely American architecture by focusing on the intimate, almost seamless integration of the natural and man-made worlds. Richardson and Olmsted, like Winslow Homer, Emily Dickinson and Mark Twain, were among the great artists of the post-Civil War era who asserted cultural independence from Europe by cultivating an aesthetic deeply rooted in the American landscape.

    The 109 acre Stonehurst estate is located nearby at 100 Robert Treat Paine Drive in Waltham, Massachusetts.  Tickets are $150 each, and sponsorship opportunities at higher levels are available. For more information, log on to www.stonehurstwaltham.org, or telephone 781-314-3290.  You may also make a check payable to Friends of Stonehurst and mail it to Stonehurst, 100 Robert Treat Paine Drive, Waltham, MA 02452.

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  • Thursday, September 24, 5 – 7 pm – Get the Scoop!

    The New England Landscape Design and History Association (NELDHA) Student Reception will take place Thursday, September 24, from 5 – 7 pm. Come meet Landscape Institute alumni and students currently enrolled in the program. Gain valuable insight into the practice of landscape history and design and get advice on how to make your studies easier. Refreshments will be served. Location: The Landscape Institute, 30 Chauncy Street, Cambridge, MA.  For more information, log on to www.arboretum.harvard.edu.

  • Wednesday, September 9, 1:00 pm – Gardening For Wildlife

    Now in its third year, the American Horticultural Society’s “webinar” program , offered exclusively to members, is a great way to learn from and interact with leading horticultural experts without having to leave home.  Past presenters include Julie Moir Messervy, Norm Lownds, and Scott Calhoun.  On Wednesday, September 9, beginning at 1 pm, Douglas Tallamy, author of the highly aclaimed Bringing Nature Home, will present “Gardening for Wildlife.”  The seminar will consist of an online slide show with the presenter’s voice streamed through your computer’s speakers, or delivered by telephone.

    Tallamy takes an obvious observation—wildlife is threatened when suburban development encroaches on once wild lands—and weds it to a novel one: that beneficial insects are being deprived of essential food resources when suburban gardeners exclusively utilize nonnative plant material. Such an imbalance, Tallamy declares, can lead to a weakened food chain that will no longer be able to support birds and other animal life. Once embraced only by members of the counterculture, the idea of gardening with native plants has been landscape design’s poor stepchild, thought to involve weeds and other plants too unattractive for pristine suburban enclaves. Not so, says Tallamy, who presents compelling arguments for aesthetically pleasing, ecologically healthy gardening. With nothing less than the future of North American biodiversity at stake, Tallamy imparts an encouraging message: it’s not too late to save the ecosystem-sustaining matrix of insects and animals, and the solution is as easy as replacing alien plants with natives. After the presentation, which lasts about an hour, the speaker will take questions from participants via a chat box.  Space is limited so registration prior to the event is required.  A high-speed Internet connection is strongly recommended for an optimum viewing experience.  For more information on registering and joining the American Horticultural Society, log on to www.ahs.org.

    Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens

  • Saturday, August 29, 2009 – Inaugural USA Diploma Program, Garden Design School

    The Garden Design School is delighted to announce the launch of its US Diploma in Landscape and Garden Design, commencing August 2009. The School aims to bring the very best of UK and US landscape and garden design together in an intensive, exciting, part-time program, the first of its kind in North America. Here is what the School says about the Program:

    Several years in planning, our US Diploma has been carefully constructed, from scratch, to meet the specific needs of the American garden design market. We’ve worked with leading academics and many successful US landscape designers to ensure that every aspect of our program is of genuine, practical relevance. We want all of our US students to be competent, confident garden designers, offering a professional landscape and garden design service.

    Garden Design School was established in 2002 by two of the UK’s leading garden designers, Robin Templar Williams and Moira Farnham. Both run their own, successful, landscape and garden design companies and they have over 32 years international teaching experience between them.

    John DeVore has spent over 35 years in the US garden and landscape design industry and runs a thriving design and build business, DeVore’s Land and Water Gardens Inc.  Jules Bruck is one of the USA’s most respected lecturers in garden design, horticulture and landscape contracting and also a highly accomplished freelance designer. Over 80% of our US Diploma in Landscape and Garden Design is taught by our Program Directors.

    Our Diploma is a carefully structured program which teaches all of the key skills you are likely to need to become a professional landscape and garden designer. You’ll receive plenty of individual attention because the class size never exceeds 18 students and in many lecture/studio sessions the tutor:student ratio is as low as 1:6.

    Students receive plenty of one-to-one support from our Course Tutors
    Students receive plenty of one-to-one
    support from our Program Tutors

    Our students come from all walks of life and, in previous years, have ranged in age from just 22 to 64. Some have chosen garden design as their first career, others join us having worked in another industry (career-changers) or are perhaps returning to work having raised a family. Whatever your background or previous training, our program will equip you to enter the exciting, expanding world of professional landscape and garden design.

    Our US Diploma Program is divided into 8 separate teaching blocks, the first starting in late August 2009 and the last ending in mid-May 2010. Each teaching block (with the exception of the first) lasts for four days: Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday. By incorporating a weekend each time, we hope this structure will help people who have existing work commitments on weekdays.

    The dates of our 2009/10 US Diploma are as follows. All classes are taught at our Massachusetts training center (Tower Hill Botanic Garden, details below). Each lecture day runs from 8.30am to 4.30pm, with breaks for lunch and refreshments.

    Block 1 (6 days): 08.29.2009 – 09.03.2009
    Block 2 (4 days): 10.15.2009 – 10.18.2009
    Block 3 (4 days): 12.10.2009 – 12.13.2009
    Block 4 (4 days): 01.07.2010 – 01.10.2010
    Block 5 (4 days): 02.04.2010 – 02.07.2010
    Block 6 (4 days): 02.25.2010 – 02.28.2010
    Block 7 (4 days): 03.25.2010 – 03.28.2010
    Block 8* (4 days): 05.06.2010 – 05.09.2010

    *May be extended to 6 days to compensate for any teaching days lost due to bad weather.

    Our US Diploma Program teaches a comprehensive range of skills, in 4 categories. Lecture days at Tower Hill are usually a mixture of lectures and studio work.

    Design Principles and Drawing
    Principles of design; graphic and drafting skills; printing processes; application of color and rendering; axonometric projection; freehand sketching; plan presentation; single point perspective drawing; fast drawing techniques.

    Hard Landscaping
    Practical surveying with levels; site analysis; elevations and sections; hard landscape materials; detailing the design of hard landscape; project layout; water in the garden; lighting, irrigation and drainage requirements.

    Soft Landscaping
    Basic botany; soil science; classification and identification; planting design; horticultural requirements; establishment; site specific planting; planting plans and schedules.

    Professional Practice
    Running the office; documentation and systems; health and safety; client/designer relationships; contractor/designer relationships; planting specifications and contract management; project costing; business start-up; advertising and promotion.

    Independent Study & Assessment
    To support and extend learning, beyond the formal lectures and studio sessions attended at Tower Hill, students can expect to spend 24-30 hours per week, between each module block, on independent (home) study. This is necessary to ensure that all subjects are covered, and skills mastered, to a high standard.

    Four design projects are undertaken during our program, the final one being a comprehensive scheme, encompassing all of the following elements to produce detailed documentation: survey and site analysis; outline proposals; setting out drawings; visual realization; planting plan and schedule; hard landscape details; planting specification and scope of works. In addition, students compile 2 portfolios throughout the program (hard landscaping and soft landscaping).

    Each student’s progress is assessed at regular intervals throughout the program by means of a series of realistic, practical assignments and projects. There are no exams or essays. Our Diploma is taught in the botanic garden’s Stoddard Education & Visitor Center, a modern, purpose-built training facility. Food and drink can be obtained in the on-site Twigs Café, and parking at the botanic garden is free.

    Enrollment in the Diploma Program of Garden Design School USA is strictly on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. Fees for the 2009/2010 US Diploma Program are $16,995. A deposit of $2000 must accompany your application form to reserve a place on the program. This is non-refundable once The School has written to you confirming acceptance of your application to join the program. Having received this letter of acceptance, your enrollment will not be finalized until you have completed, signed and returned the School’s enrollment contract by the date specified. Once you have received a letter from The School confirming receipt of your enrollment contract, you are obliged to pay the balance of fees to complete your enrollment commitment, whether or not you take up the place accepted.

    Please note that the Application Form should be signed and sent, with the deposit payment, by mail, to:

    Garden Design School USA
    1410 Hogue Road, Hamilton, Ohio 45013, USA.

    Checks should be made payable to ‘Garden Design School USA’. We regret that applications sent by fax or e-mail are not acceptable.

    For an application form, log on to www.gardendesignschool.com/us_course.htm

  • Sunday, July 12, 2 pm – Horticulture Walking Tour of Forest Hills

    Forest Hills’ founder, Henry A.S. Dearborn, was a civic leader with expertise in law and politics, as well as in landscape design and horticulture. The first president of the Massachusetts Horticulture Society, Dearborn, along with others, helped shape the rural garden cemetery movement in the United States. Join Anthony Sammarco, author of more than 50 books on Boston history, for a walking tour celebrating Dearborn and other prominent 19th century horticulturists buried at Forest Hills Cemetery.

    Meet at Main Gate. Wear comfortable shoes and bring water; this is a 2-hour walk (with frequent stops) over varied terrain. Admission: $9.  For more information, and to register, log on to www.foresthillstrust.org.