Boston Flora

Tag: The Trustees

  • Wednesday, August 4, 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Keep Growing: Summer Garden Maintenance ( In Person) or Thursday, August 5, 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm (Online)

    Want to keep your vegetable garden thriving and producing througout summer and into fall? Come to the Lenox Kendall Community Garden on Tremont Street between Lenox & Kendall Streets in Boston on August 4 at 6 pm learn some tips from the Boston Community Gardens staff. We’ll cover weeding, harvesting, watering, fertilizing, scouting for pests & diseases, and planting for fall harvest. This free registration is for the in-person event. Masks and social distancing required. Click HERE. The program repeats via Zoom on August 5 – to register for the webinar, click HERE.

  • Saturday, July 17, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm – You Can Grow Better! Underused Plants for Northeast Gardens

    The Trustees are excited to present Andrew Keys Pepper, live and in person, on July 17 at 4 pm at Long Hill, 572 Essex Street in Beverly. Why plant the same old thing as the neighbors? Long Hill features dozens of exceptionally beautiful but inexplicably underused plants, many of which you can grow. Join Andrew Keys Pepper, author of Growing the Northeast Garden, for a presentation on old favorites at the garden and elsewhere that have fallen out of fashion, as well as newer introductions that deserve your attention.

    Andrew Keys Pepper is an artist, writer, plantsman, and lifelong gardener. He is the author of two books published by Timber Press: Growing the Northeast Garden (2015) and Why Grow That When You Can Grow This?: 255 Extraordinary Alternatives to Everyday Problem Plants (2012). He received a Master of Fine Arts from San Francisco Art Institute in 2019, focusing on sculpture and photography. Prior to that, he also served as web manager at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

    Andrew produces and hosts the podcast Artists Looking At Animals, and created podcasts for both Fine Gardening and Horticulture magazines. His written work has appeared in This Old House magazine, Fine Gardening, and others. Though he lives outside Boston, Andrew grew up in the American South, in a family of cotton farmers, gardeners, and outdoorsmen. Andrew is trained as an organic land care professional through the Northeast Organic Farming Association.

    Space is limited; pre-registration required by clicking HERE.
    Trustee Member: $24 Nonmember: $30

  • Sunday, July 11, 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm – Eastie Eco-Fest

    Kick off Eastie Week with a fun, family-friendly event uplifting the work of Eastie environmental justice organizations. The event takes place July 11 from 4 – 6 at the Joe Ciampa Community Garden, 124 Marginal Street in East Boston. Free and open to all, including free elote for the first 75 people from the Veronica Robles Cultural Center’s Elotes Locos–a bike-powered, youth-run elote cart. Plus music, gardening activities for all ages, a mindfulness class in Piers Park, an “ask a garden expert” session, and opportunities to get involved with green space and food access work in the neighborhood.

    The Trustees Boston Community Gardens team is proud to partner with Eastie Farm, GreenRoots, and the Veronica Robles Cultural Center for this event. We’re grateful for TD Bank’s support of this and many other events in our gardens this summer. You may register HERE.

  • Thursday, July 8, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm – Water Gardens: The Voice of the Landscape, Online

    Water is the reason for all life on this planet. If Nature laughs in flowers, she speaks to us through water. Water gardens, no matter what size, are so much more than just beautiful. Water gardens open a whole new plant pallet to the avid gardener. We all know the sound of water relieves stress but did you know the sound of water is one of the best ways to drown out traffic noise? The sound of water also calls all types of birds to your yard. Beyond the obvious beauty a water feature brings to our landscape, water gardens, when properly constructed, are a way of replacing our diminishing wetlands.

    Trevor Smith is an award winning regenerative landscape designer, specializing in Green Infrastructure, soil reclamation, native plant design, habitat creation and nutrient dense urban crop production. Smith will teach you about all types of water gardens as well as how to “Tune a stream” which is how to design a stream to create all the different pitches found in nature. Water gardens are a perfect addition to every garden, find out which one is right for you.

    This July 8 program, sponsored by The Trustees, takes place on Zoom. Registered participants will be sent the Zoom link the day before the workshop.

    Program participants may also opt for an in-person tour of the wetlands garden onsite at Stevens-Coolidge House & Gardens at 10am on Saturday 7/10.

    Space is limited; pre-registration required. Trustees members $12, nonmembers $20. Register at https://thetrustees.org/event/65114/

  • Through June 1, 2022 – Jeffrey Gibson: Because Once You Enter My House, It Becomes Our House

    The Trustees announce a large scale exhibit at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum beginning this June and running through June 1, 2022. A monumental sculpture by renowned artist Jeffrey Gibson (Mississippi Choctaw-Cherokee), the title, Because Once You Enter My House, It Becomes Our House, comes from a song Gibson associates with nightclubs that have provided haven and community especially for LGBTQ+ people and BIPOC.

    The ziggurat form references the earthen architecture of the ancient Mississippian city of Cahokia, which flourished in the seventh through fourteenth centuries, well before European contact. The installation will be adorned with phrases advocating for Indigenous space and culture and wheat-pasted posters co-created by Gibson and artists Eric-Paul Riege (Diné), Luzene Hill (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians), and Dana Claxton (Hunkpapa Lakota).

    Gibson has invited Riege and Hill to stage performances on and around the installation. Additionally, he invited Claxton to adapt one of her photographs, titled Lasso, to a monumental scale as a billboard which will be on view in the Sculpture Park by June 1. The installation opens with Riege’s performance on Friday June 4th from 12-4pm. Click here to learn more.

    Learn more about the past programs and performances for Because Once You Enter My House, It Becomes Our House while it was on view at Socrates Sculpture Park.

    About the Artist

    Jeffrey Gibson’s vibrantly patterned work addresses his Choctaw-Cherokee heritage as well as his queer identity, and the aesthetics and biases associated with those identity markers. He works across painting, sculpture, video, performance, and installation art. He draws on Indigenous process and materials, and queer histories that use camp aesthetics as a critical strategy to deny any romanticizing of Indigenous cultures. By exaggerating these aesthetics Gibson forges conversations that transcend binary thinking. Merging styles and historical references, Gibson states, “I have continued to think about my practice as encompassing the past and present while considering the future.”

    Gibson (b. 1972) earned a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MA from the Royal College of Art, London. His work has been featured in recent solo exhibitions at the Denver Art Museum and the New Museum, New York, and was included in the 2019 Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial, as well as more recently at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. A 2019 MacArthur Fellowship recipient, Gibson is a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.

    This project was originally commissioned by Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City. VIA Art Fund is the commissioning sponsor. For more information and hours, visit www.thetrustees.org

  • Wednesday, June 2, 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm – Trellising 101 Workshop, Online

    During this free online Boston Community Gardens workshop on June 2 from 5 – 6:30, we will review a variety of trellising techniques for tomatoes, peas, beans, cucumbers, and squash. We will discuss recommended materials and have a live demonstration how to construct them yourself! There will be time for questions at the end. Sponsored by the Trustees of Reservations, please sign up at https://thetrustees.org/event/61950/ If you’re able, consider supporting our gardens through the optional program fee.

  • Through Sunday, September 12 – Sonya Clark: Monumental Cloth, The Flag We Should Know

    Through large-scale textile pieces, interactive experiences, and performance, this exhibition, on view at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln through September 12, proposes a shift in the national discussion around race and remembrance. The Confederate Flag of Truce is a simple dishcloth employed as the South’s flag of surrender at the end of the Civil War in 1865. Yet, as Clark shows, propaganda continues to make the more familiar Confederate Battle Flag into the enduring symbol of this history. The exhibition asks: what was surrendered and who had the privilege of surrendering? Did the truce hold? Clark’s works explore the color, texture, and ideology of the Truce Flag, offering avenues for reevaluating foundational American narratives of truce and surrender.

    DeCordova is pleased to present two concurrent exhibitions and a full slate of public programs relating to the art of Sonya Clark. A multidisciplinary textile artist and Professor at Amherst College, Clark’s work offers a profound encounter with race and the enduring effects of slavery in the United States. Click here to read about the companion exhibition, Sonya Clark: Heavenly Bound.

    Sonya Clark: Monumental Cloth, The Flag We Should Know is organized by the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia. DeCordova’s presentation is coordinated by Sam Adams, Curatorial Fellow.

    The exhibition is supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Amherst College, Agnes Gund, the National Endowment for the Arts, Goya Contemporary Gallery & Goya-Girl Press, Rotasa Fund, the John Meyerhoff & Lenel Srochi-Meyerhoff Fund at the Baltimore Community Foundation, and Judith S. Weisman.

    Additional support for deCordova’s presentation comes from the Coby Foundation, Ltd., the Lenore G. Tawney Foundation, the Nathaniel Saltonstall Arts Fund, and the Roy A. Hunt Foundation. The exhibition is aligned with the Feminist Art Coalition. For complete information visit www.thetrustees.org.

    Credit: Carlos Avedaño

  • Thursdays and Saturdays, May 6 – May 22 – City Natives Plant Sale

    Pre-order vegetable seedlings and native plants sustainably grown in Boston. All purchases directly benefit our 56 community gardens in Boston. Members of The Trustees save 10% on all orders. Choose from items at https://shopthetrustees.org/pages/city-natives-plant-sale and add to cart. Select in person pickup at checkout, and City Natives (30 Edgewater Drive, Mattapan) as your pick-up location. Select a corresponding pick up time on Thursdays and Saturdays, May 6 – 22, 9:00 am – 3:00 pm.

  • Rejuvenation of The Stevens-Coolidge House and Gardens

    The Trustees of Reservations (Trustees) is pleased to announce a multi-year rejuvenation at The Stevens-Coolidge House & Gardens (formerly Stevens-Coolidge Place) in North Andover. The gardens and house are currently undergoing work to create new garden rooms which complement the core historic gardens and house while also providing new experiences for visitors. The project also reorients the site with a new entrance on Chickering Road removing the need for pedestrians to cross Andover Street in order to enter the site. The Trustees created a master plan with Mikyoung Kim Design landscape architects and Maryann Thompson Architects for the historic garden site. The major features of the new plan includes a Gateway to the Garden from Chickering Road, landscaping which makes the historic house more accessible, and garden designs.  

    The plan builds upon the work done on this 91-acre property in recent years first by volunteers and more recently by a dedicated staff.  The previously restored gardens—including the rose garden, greenhouse, potager, perennial garden, and cutting garden—provide the estate’s primary link to the past. The plan preserves the overall architectural structure and American Country Place style, while adding new and expanded display garden spaces—featuring plantings of the latest ornamental species, varieties, and cultivars in contemporary designs—as well as creating native shrub and wildflower displays, and nature trails through the woodlands, fields, and meadows of the historic Ashdale Farm property. 

    As visitors approach the property twenty-two American lindens (Tilia americana ‘Redmond’) will flank the new entry lane, eventually lending shade to this now open expanse. In keeping with the flavor and feel of the historic gardens The Trustees is incorporating hedges as a space defining feature in new garden spaces. Between the wetland garden and the Cutting Garden a hedge of Winterberry (Ilex verticillata ‘Sparkleberry’). This small, but prolific, fruited cultivar will be maintained as a hedge of 4-5’ tall providing a backdrop for the wetland garden and a sense of enclosure for the Cutting Garden. Additionally, this hedge will provide both winter interest and repast for overwintering birds. 

    The new entrance and visitor orientation and the expanded garden displays will improve the Stevens-Coolidge House & Gardens as a gathering garden space for North Andover and surrounding communities. For history lovers, the spaces will also reveal more of the importance of the Stevens and Coolidge families in local and regional history.  

    A Spring Spectacular, running April 21 – May 16, 2021, launches the rejuvenation celebration. More than 165,000 bulbs will light nine display gardens with the exuberant colors of spring. In addition to the display gardens, visitors will enjoy a series of programs and events staged amidst the garden’s beauty.

  • Saturday, March 20, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Spring Bulb Floral Arrangement Workshop, Online

    Don’t wait for April showers. Join the Trustees and Stevens-Coolidge House & Gardens in a virtual spring bulb arrangement class on March 20 from 10 – noon.

    Each participant will be introduced to different spring flower varieties, learn how to create a thoughtful garden-inspired floral arrangement in a light and vibrant color palette using basic floral design fundamentals and unique ingredients. Perfect for gift-giving or bring spring into your home after the long winter!

    Call to arrange floral pick-up for the Friday before the workshop.

    Space is limited. Pre-registration required via https://thetrustees.org/event/59398/ and will close 5 days before workshop date.

    Workshop will be on Zoom. Participants will receive Zoom link and login info the morning of the program.

    Trustees Member $60 / Non-Member $75