Boston Flora

Tag: Ornamental Gardens

  • Saturday, March 18, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm – 42nd Annual Gardeners’ Gathering

    The Trustees and Boston Mayor Martin Walsh present the 42nd Annual Gardeners’ Gathering on Saturday, March 18 from 11 – 4 at Northeaster University’s Shillman Hall.  Free and open to all, The Gardeners’ Gathering brings together over 400 gardeners to kick off Boston’s gardening season. The Gardeners’ Gathering is the city’s largest educational forum for urban gardeners, and an opportunity for people to share ideas, network, and learn.

    **Special guest speaker LaDonna Redmond, food justice activist**

    **Over 2 dozen skill building and community organizing workshops**

    **Boston environmental, agricultural, and community exhibitors**

    The Gardeners’ Gathering offers more than two-dozen skill-building workshops for both vegetable and ornamental gardeners, with an emphasis on healthy practices for urban gardens. Topics range from seed starting, composting, fermentation, and urban beekeeping to community and youth organizing. Attendees will also be able to interact with exhibitors from Boston-area agriculture, gardening, and environmental organizations.

    Special guest speaker LaDonna Redmond will address “Food and Justice–feeding ourselves in uncertain times” during the noon plenary and will participate in a roundtable discussion during the workshop sessions about food justice as a movement toward liberation, and ending oppression in our food system and beyond.

    For more information visit http://www.thetrustees.org/things-to-do/greater-boston/event-29688.html

  • Saturday, May 1, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Medieval Gardens Workshop

    This one-day workshop on Saturday, May 1, from 10 – 4, traces the history and evolution of medieval gardens in western Europe, from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance. Topics of discussion include the varieties and influence of monastic gardens, the impact of the water gardens of Islamic Spain, and the exquisite ornamental gardens of the fifteenth century, designed solely for pleasure and sensual delight. Selected slide images of paintings and manuscript illuminations illustrate details of medieval gardeners at work, the tools they used and the surprising views of their garden designs.

    The image below is the re-created medieval garden Commanderie des Templiers de Coulommiers.  The buildings were part of a monastery belonging to the Knights Templar.  The garden design, inspired by paintings of medieval gardens, was designed by Joel Chatain, a landscape architecture graduate from Versailles, and the work was carried out by young volunteers.  Extensive use is made of wattle fencing.

    The course is taught by Priscilla Baumann, Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from Boston University, and is part of the Lesley University/Art Institute of Boston’s  Spring Seminar Series in the Arts.  The cost of this workshop is $100, and it will take place at University Hall, Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Room 4-040.  To register, or for more information, log on to www.lesley.edu/aib/EXTRA/courses.html, or email darcadip@aiboston.edu.

    http://www.gardenvisit.com/assets/madge/coulommiers_medieval_garden_2061_jpg/600x/coulommiers_medieval_garden_2061_jpg_600x.jpg