Boston Flora

Tag: Monarch waystation

  • Tuesday, December 4, 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm – Backyard Carbon Sequestration: How You Can Help Webinar

    Landscapers and gardeners have long known that soil is not simply the stuff that props up plants. But not everyone knows that organic and native plant gardening practices can help mitigate climate change by building and protecting soil health.

    In this December 4 Ecological Landscape Alliance free webinar presentation at 1:30 pm, Adrian Ayres Fisher will review the characteristics of healthy soil, how plants and soil life work together to store carbon below ground, and how gardeners and landscapers can make a difference in the fight against climate change.

    Adrian Ayres Fisher, a Chicago-area native, is Sustainability Coordinator at Triton College in River Grove, Illinois. Among other duties, she is in charge of two large rain gardens and a small prairie area that is certified as a Monarch Waystation. She is active in Chicago Wilderness initiatives, the West Cook Chapter of Wild Ones, and volunteers with the Plants of Concern rare-plant-monitoring program in Cook County Forest Preserves. She has trained and volunteered as a University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener and was the native plant buyer for an independent nursery. Her backyard pollinator reserve has been included in local garden walks. Ms. Ayres blogs at http://ecologicalgardening.net and is a featured writer at http://Resilience.org.

    To register, visit https://www.ecolandscaping.org/event/webinar-backyard-carbon-sequestration-how-you-can-help/

  • Thursday, April 12, 10:00 am – The Green Garden: Earth-Friendly Gardening in New England

    Ellen Sousa, whose book, The Green Garden, offers a step-by-step way to make your garden more ecologically friendly, will speak at Elm Bank on Thursday, April 12, at 10:00 a.m. She will offer an illustrated talk on earth-friendly gardening in New England.

    Ellen enjoys a reputation as a renowned garden coach, working with homeowners who want to make their gardens more natural and welcoming to a variety of inhabitants. Many of those techniques are explained in her book, The Green Garden: a New England Guide to Planning, Planting and Maintaining the Eco-Friendly Habitat Garden, which was reviewed in the January Leaflet. Her ideas are put into practice at her central Massachusetts property, Turkey Hill Brook Farm, where she works with her husband, Robert.

    Ellen sets a high but reasonable threshold for her gardens; namely, that they must be sustainable for enjoyment by future generations. They should be beneficial in that they attract the animals and insects that were indigenous to our area before European settlement. Her goal is to gradually reverse the missteps made over a period of centuries. She acknowledges that doing so takes hard work, but that it can be done in small, manageable steps.

    But the results are both tangible and rewarding: Turkey Hill Brook Farm won the 2011 New England Wildflower Society’s Katherine T. Taylor Award for Private Gardens. The farm is also a certified Monarch Waystation.

    Everyone is welcome to attend the talk. There is no fee and light refreshments will be served. Copies of The Green Garden will be for sale. While no reservation is required, Librarian Maureen Horn says it would be helpful to have an idea of how many people to expect. You can call or email her at 617-933-4912 or MHorn@Masshort.org.