Boston Flora

Tag: The Kitchen Garden

  • Tuesday, September 22, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Eastern – The Kitchen Garden, Online

    The Kitchen Garden is dedicated to one of gardening’s oldest yet often overlooked forms of gardening. For over 12,000 years, humankind has domesticated and cultivated edible plants, yet the kitchen garden has long stood in the shadow of its ornamental counterparts. Recently, growing one’s own produce has seen a surge in popularity, propelled by renewed interest in organic food, self-sufficiency, and sustainable living, bringing this historic, practical, and increasingly influential garden type back into the spotlight. Toby Musgrave’s Garden Conservancy online presentation on September 22 at 2 pm Eastern will celebrate the art of the kitchen garden and provide attendees with inspiration and ideas for what to grow in gardens of all shapes and sizes. He will highlight the work of such renowned contemporary garden designers as Patrice Taravella of Babylonstoren in South Africa, Arne Maynard of Gordon Castle in the UK, Charles Dowding of Homeacres in the UK, and Charles Stick of Sleepy Cat Farm in the United States. He is an international authority on gardens and plant history, on which he has been widely published. His books for Phaidon include The Gardens: Elements and Styles and Green Escapes. He is also a garden designer, has presented on numerous television programs and is faculty lecturer at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad. $5 Garden Conservancy members, $15 non members. Register at https://www.gardenconservancy.org/events/web26-the-kitchen-garden-webinar-only

    SPECIAL OFFER: If you’d like to purchase the book, The Kitchen Garden by Toby Musgrave, you will be provided with complimentary admission to the webinar. Price includes book, free shipping, and webinar admission. To take advantage of this offer, register here. $50.

  • Thursday, March 30, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Eastern – Standen and the Beales: an Expression of Arts and Crafts, Online

    Standen’s garden was created around the house designed by Philip Webb for the Beale family in 1894. Webb laid out the garden in keeping with the arts and crafts ethos of the house, but the planting reflects the middle-class artistic taste of Margaret Beale, an amateur gardener who recorded her successes and failures over nearly fifty years in her garden diary. This March 30 Sussex Gardens Trust talk will examine the origins of the garden and its development in the context of arts and crafts principles, and will consider the recent restoration of the garden by the National Trust.

    Dr Caroline Ikin is a Curator at the National Trust with a specialism in garden history. She has previously worked in museums and for the Gardens Trust and her research interest is in nineteenth century art, architecture and gardens. Caroline is author of The Victorian Garden (Shire, 2012), The Victorian Gardener (Shire, 2014), The Kitchen Garden (Amberley, 2017), and is currently working on a new survey of Victorian gardens to be published by Bloomsbury and the National Trust. Caroline has written for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Garden History, the National Trust Cultural Heritage Magazine, Museums Journal and various other publications, and was awarded the Mavis Batey Essay Prize in 2022. She has lectured widely, including for the Gardens Trust, V&A, Watts Gallery, Sussex Gardens Trust, Oxford University, and Furniture History Society, as well as presenting conference papers. Her PhD thesis, titled ‘Reading Ruskin in the Garden: the designed landscape at Brantwood 1871-1900’, explored John Ruskin’s garden through the lens of his late published works.

    The lecture will be presented on Zoom. Registrants will receive a Zoom link ahead of the lecture, and a recording will be available for one week following the talk. £5.00 Register HERE.

  • Saturday, December 5 – Sunday, December 6 – Country Roads Christmas

    On December 5th and 6th 2009, a number of local country stores in the Quabbin Reservoir area are teaming again for the annual Christmas in the Country Weekend. Each offer the area’s seasonal products and flavors in an authentic, friendly, and relaxing atmosphere.  Feel the holiday warmth and charm of local shops where folks are truly glad you came by!  Complimentary light refreshments are available at each stop.

    Local participants with a horticultural bent include The Kitchen Garden, 268 Baldwinville Road in Templeton, Whiting Farm on Route 2A in Phillipston, Down to Earth Nursery, 450 Royalston Road in Phillipston, Popple Camp Alpacas, Route 101, Phillipston, Carter & Stevens Farm, 500 West Street, Route 122 in Barre, and Hartman’s Herb Farm, 1026 Old Dana Road in Barre.  If you are not familiar with this historic part of central Massachusetts, you are in for a treat.

    For complete information, email Jessie at jjdcdug@comcast.net, or log on to www.countryroadschristmas.com.