The Third Rhode Island Compost Conference and Trade Show, organized by the Environment Council of Rhode Island’s Compost Initiative and the Greater Providence Urban Agriculture Task Force, will take place Monday, February 27, from 9 – 3 at Hope Artiste Village on Main Street in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. For more information visit www.ECORI.org.
Renowned horticultural business consultant Frank Crandall will host the 8th two-day intensive GEM (Growth, Effectiveness, Management) Horticultural Business Seminar on Wednesday, Jan. 18 and Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, from 8am to 5pm at the Kettle Pond Visitor’s Center at 50 Bend Road in Charlestown, RI (snow date Friday, Jan. 20).
Crandall, a Rhode Island Certified Horticulturist, Arborist and NOFA Accredited Organic Land Care Professional, will share methods and techniques he mastered during 38 years of experience running an award-winning landscape firm with $3 million in sales and 30 employees at its peak. Over two days, the seminar will cover the following topics: Estimating, Job Costing, Overhead Calculation, Company Finances (budgets, cash flow, and financial statements), Sales Techniques, Employees (attracting, hiring, retaining, firing, and evaluating), Management Tips, Marketing, Importance of a Handbook, Business Insurance, Contracts and Legal Agreements, Getting Small Business Loans and Accounting Mistakes to Avoid.
The text for the seminar is Crandall’s newly published book, The Essential Horticultural Business Handbook, which each participant will receive. Daily lunches are also included. The seminar is approved for NOFA Organic Land Care Program re-accreditation credits for accredited professionals. The cost is $395 per person; $375 early bird registration (by Jan. 3, 2012); $375 each for two or more employees from the same company. Checks should be made payable to Frank Crandall, GEM and mailed to: PO Box 451, Wakefield, RI 02880.
For more information or to register, contact Frank Crandall at FrankCrandall3@gmail.com or (401) 742-7619.
Join the Ecological Landscaping Association and University of Rhode Island Research Associate Kate Venturini for a unique insider tour of the Roger Williams Park Botanical Center complex in Providence, Rhode Island, an urban oasis nestled in the heart of the 427 acre park designed by Horace Cleveland in 1878. Through a partnership between the URI Outreach Center and the Providence Parks Department, the Botanical Center complex is being transformed both inside and out as a model for sustainable urban horticulture. Located on an island surrounded by man-made ponds, the complex features a newly designed and installed rain garden to capture greenhouse roof runoff, Rhode Island’s largest community garden, the future site of a permaculture food forest, extensive outdoor display gardens featuring native and sustainable plants, and the largest public indoor display gardens in New England. This Tuesday, June 28 tour will cost $20 if you are an ELA member or $25 for non-members. Please call 617-436-5838 to register, or visit https://www.eventville.com/catalog/eventregistration1.asp?eventid=1008073.
The Rhode Island Dahlia Society announces its Annual Tuber Auction and Plant Sale, to be held Sunday, May 15, from 1 – 4:30 at the Cold Spring Community Center, Beach Street, Wickford, North Kingston, Rhode Island. Many Greater Boston Area residents are members and will be attending. Most of the varieties offered at this sale are exhibition quality dahlias and are not available at your local garden center. The tubers and plants are donated by local growers and Society members who hail from Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut. From giants to miniatures, there is something for everyone. Representative varieties of the 19 different forms of dahlias in an array of colors will be available. Free admission. For more information, call 781-769-3854 or visit http://www.RhodeIslandDahliaSociety.org.
The Rhode Island Dahlia Society generally meets the first Sunday of the month at 2:00 PM at the Cold Spring Community Center in North Kingstown, RI. The Society welcomes new members and invites the public to visit Green Animals Topiary Garden in Portsmouth, RI to view the dahlia garden it supports in collaboration with the Preservation Society of Newport County.
Spend an afternoon from 2 – 4 on Tuesday, April 19 side-by-side with Historic New England’s Casey Farm’s experienced and knowledgeable vegetable farmers to learn the tricks of the trade while helping the greenhouse team prepare for the popular Mother’s Day plant sale. As you plant, you’ll discuss the proper ways to start seedlings and get answers to your garden questions. Space is limited to 15. Free, but open only to Historic New England members. Casey Farm is located at 2325 Boston Neck Road, Saunderstown, Rhode Island. Registration is required. Please call 401-295-1030 for more information.
Come to Blithewold, 101 Ferry Road (Route 114) in Bristol, Rhode Island beginning April 9, continuing through May 1, for its annual celebration of the daffodil, Daffodil Days. Members free, Adults $10, senior and student discounts available. For directions and more information, log on to www.blithewold.org.
Don’t let cooler temperatures and shorter days outside stop you from growing fresh flowers indoors! Join Blithewold Mansion’s Director of Horticulture Julie Morris on Wednesday, October 20 at 10:30 am for an interactive session that demonstrates how to force bulbs and create striking container arrangements. Each participant will design and plant three pots containing a variety of bulbs such as iris, tulips, and daffodils to enjoy at home or to give as a special gift. Pre-registration is required. Price: $30 Blithewold Members, $35 Non-members. Location: Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum, 101 Ferry Road (Route 114), Bristol , Rhode Island. For directions, and to register, call 401-253-2707, or log on to www.blithewold.org.
Blithewold invites you beyond the garden gate to tour this charming local property on Sunday, September 5, from 2 – 4 pm. As part of a small and informal group, discover a Summer Home’s story and distinct collection of plants. See the landscape through the eyes of the designer and come away with new ideas and a fresh perspective.
Each Intimate Garden Tour is unique, but all afford the opportunity to explore and ask questions. This seaside project of Louis Raymond’s is a study in Summer interest. It’s all about what’s glorious from June through November.
Spring (and Winter) are irrelevant, so there are no rhodies, daffodils, wisteria or azaleas. Instead, traditional high-summer perennials are joined by huge swathes of the full variety of Summer-interest shrubs and trees, many of which are hard-pruned to maximize their colorful foliage.
The immense scale of the property called for immense plantings, too. The smaller double borders are 20 feet deep; the BIG double borders are twice as deep, and almost 200 feet wide. The cutting garden is one of the newer projects, with 1,200 square feet in raised beds. Thrilling horticulture partners with a dramatic Bayside setting, for an intense landscape so unusual that it was on the cover of House & Garden magazine.
Check out pictures of this garden here at www.renaissancegardening.com/garden.htm
*In the case of heavy rain, participants will be notified of cancellations by phone. If you do not hear from us a few hours before the program start, the program will run as scheduled.
Directions to the site will be mailed a few weeks prior to the tour. Light refreshments will be available. Registration is limited and required in advance.$30 Blithewold members, $35 non-members. For more information, call 401-253-2707, or email jmurphyedu@blithewold.org.
Three beautiful gardens will be open for viewing in Little Compton, Rhode Island on Saturday, September 11, from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm. For more information, log on to www.gardenconservancy.org.
The Atwater Garden (pictured below) is a country garden with the ocean glimmering in the distance, displaying the unique horticultural skills and knowledge of its owners. Nate Atwater tends the vegetable garden and Berta Atwater, a judge of rhododendrons and Garden Club of America judge of horticulture, has designed and executed the other gardens, which are notable for their carefully pruned trees and shrubs. Two rock gardens by Lloyd Lawton are surrounded by a collection of rhododendrons, azaleas, ilex, hostas, dwarf conifers, grasses and Japanese maples. The garden also contains rare plants not yet on the market.
Gioia Browne and Jim Marsh’s Garden, at 79 Peckham Road in Little Compton, features towering American elms and stonewalls framing the 17th century farmhouse on three acres. The owners have enhanced the mature landscape by adding gardens and planting more than 150 trees and shrubs. The woodland garden surrounding the 19th century barn is planted with ferns, jack-in-the-pulpits and hostas. The enchanting summer house, used for tools and casual dining, overlooks the dianthus, gentians, ferns and dwarf conifers in the rock garden. In the 75 foot perennial border, foxgloves, phlox, old roses, clematis, daylilies, dahlias, anemones, asters, and others bloom from May through November in shades of pink, purple, and blue. Nearby are the shrub walk, hydrangea bed, and the geometric, cutting, and white gardens.
Sakonnet is an exotic cottage garden imbedded within a native coastal fields landscape. It is a long-term project of John Gwynne and Mikel Folcarelli, abetted by Addie Kurz (energetic sister), and Ed Bowen of nearby Opus Nursery. All are Rhode Islanders, with John (trained as a landscape architect and involved with the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York), and Mikel with Façonnable in Nice. This garden began in the mid 1970s as a small clearing deep within a naturally grown tangle of local arrowwood and autumn olives. Now slightly larger than an acre, it is a whimsical series of spaces organically shaped within the thickets. Paths and walls were designed and thousands of rarely grown plants were added. Divided into a series of outdoor rooms, each space reflects ongoing experiments with lighting, space, color mixing, and growing rarely seen plants—many semi-hardy. High stone walls and hedges have enabled microclimate modifications that help exclude cold winds and create warm or cool pockets for growing Himalayan plants or southern plants like palmettos. One space, planted with soft yellows often seems to catch the sunlight on a gray, coastal Rhode Island day. A new Mughal treehouse is a centerpiece of “the tropics”. Sakonnet is an experiment in process to see what can be grown in coastal Rhode Island. For a sneak peek, see www.Sakonnetgarden.com).
Admission to each participating private garden is $5 per person; children 12 and under are admitted free. Admission may be paid in cash or check. Tickets are not required to attend Open Days.
Blithewold invites you beyond the garden gate to tour this charming local property on Thursday, July 22, from 5:30 – 7:30 pm. As part of a small and informal group, discover Villa Palona’s story and distinct collection of plants. See the landscape through the eyes of the owner and come away with new ideas and a fresh perspective. Each Intimate Garden Tour is unique, but all afford the opportunity to explore and ask questions.
Villa Palona, the name of the house, is an integral part, and provides inspiration, for this small suburban garden. The house was designed by the Hoppin Brothers of Providence, and completed in 1924. It was built as a prototype for the Portland Cement Company and named by the architects ‘The Providence’ after the capital of Rhode Island.
Thinking the name somewhat pretentious, the name was changed in honor of a large Palonia [sic] Tomentosa tree which, sadly, is no longer part of the landscape.
The house was bought by the owners’ parents in 1946, and the house and garden have had restorations in the last twenty-two years of ownership. A few original specimen trees and shrubs, as well as the garden topography encompass the present plan.
The illusion of being in a much broader, as well as private, landscape has been an objective. The present garden has evolved dramatically over the past several years with the addition of stone walls and steps, a small reclaimed granite fountain, large plant perennial borders, and a surprise birch tree cedar grove. Plant material is ever changing, rich in texture, and rather bold.
*In the case of heavy rain, participants will be notified of cancellations by phone. If you do not hear from us a few hours before the program start, the program will run as scheduled.
Directions to the site will be mailed a few weeks prior to the tour. Light refreshments will be served. Registration is limited and required in advance.$30 Blithewold members, $35 non-members. Email jmurphyedu@blithewold.org, or call 401-253-2707.
