Boston Flora

Tag: The Seed Garden

  • Sunday, October 16, 11:00 am – 1:00 pm – Seed Saving

    Have you ever wanted to collect seed from the garden to create more plants? This Berkshire Botanical Garden workshop on October 16, led by garden writers and horticulturists Lee Buttala and Shanyn Siegel, teaches gardeners everything they need to know in order to harvest and collect seed that they can then sow in the seasons ahead. This half-day workshop begins inside with a presentation on the rudiments of how plants create seed. (Plants set seed all on their own; the gardener only needs to facilitate this process and learn to identify the right moment to collect seed.) The workshop will include a review of basic collecting and cleaning practices for dry- and wet-fruited plants. After the presentation, attendees will head out into the garden to identify and collect ripe seed. The class then heads back inside where attendees will “get seedy” and learn to thresh and winnow dry-fruited species and how to clean and prepare wet-fruited seeds for future use. Participants will walk away from the class not only with seeds in hand, but with a knowledge of how to isolate, identify and collect seed of some of their favorite species and varieties of plants.

    Shanyn Siegel, the co-editor of The Seed Garden who has a nursery focused on growing locally collected ecotypes of native plants in Connecticut. Lee Buttala is the former executive director of Seed Savers Exchange, an heirloom vegetable gene bank that is the only non-governmental organization storing seed at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. He has also worked for BBG and the Garden Conservancy, and currently serves as chair of the Historic Landscapes Committee of the APGA. Lee won an Emmy award for his role as a garden television producer for “Martha Stewart Living” and was the creator of PBS’s “Cultivating Life.” He is the editor of the award-winning book, The Seed Garden: The Art and Practice of Saving Seed, writes a weekly garden column for The Berkshire Edge and serves on the board of Hollister House Garden in Washington, Conn. Lee studied garden design at the Chelsea Physic Garden, the New York Botanical Garden and the Kyoto School of Art and Design. He lives in Ashley Falls, Mass.

    $20 for BBG members, $25 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/seed-saving-1

  • Thursday, October 15, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – The Art and Practice of Saving Seeds

    The time-honored tradition of saving seeds merges botany, history, observation, and experience. On Thursday, October 15, from 7 – 8:30 in the Hunnewell Building at the Arnold Arboretum, Lee Buttala, editor of The Seed Garden, by the Seed Savers Exchange, will provide an overview of plant reproduction and pollination, how to preserve varietal traits, and the many reasons for saving seeds from your favorite heirloom and open-pollinated plants. Even if you don’t have seeds to save, Lee will help you understand the origin of that heirloom tomato that you picked up at the farmers market and share knowledge that has been passed down through generations by farmers and home gardeners for preserving the plants that sustain us. Lee Buttala is an Emmy Award–winning television producer of Martha Stewart Living and was the creator, producer, and director of Cultivating Life, a PBS series on outdoor living and gardening. He has written for The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, New York, and Metropolitan Home. He also served as the preservation program manager for the Garden Conservancy and has studied garden design at the Kyoto University of Art and Design, the Chelsea Physic Garden, and the New York Botanical Garden. Free for Arboretum members, $5 nonmembers. Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.