On Saturday, May 16, from 10 – 2, come learn about Tower Hill’s program that invites dogs and their owners to take advantage of Tower Hill’s wonderful system of wooded trails and carriage paths. The event is free with admission at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive in Boylston. For more information visit www.towerhillbg.org.
Grow your own vegetables on your porch, patio or balcony all season long. Fresh, delicious and available when you are ready for them, many of our favorite veggies grow happily and productively in small spaces. Learn where to order seed suitable for small spaces, which containers to use, and how to plant, care for and harvest your favorites, then begin your own potted vegetable garden.
Each student enrolled in this Tower Hill Botanic Garden class on Saturday, May 16, from 10 – 12:30, will receive a Veggie for Small Spaces Garden Kit: vegetable seed catalogs from New England growers, detailed handouts, 2 packets of vegetable seed easily grown in containers, a 14 inch plastic pot, a bag of soil, a tomato plant suitable for a pot and support stakes and ties for the tomato. We’ll plant the tomato in class. All materials included. Please bring an apron and flower scissors to class.
Betsy Williams teaches, lectures and writes about living with herbs and flowers. A gardener and herb grower since 1972, Betsy trained as a florist in Boston and England. She combines her floral and gardening skills with an extensive knowledge of history, plant lore and seasonal celebrations. Betsy is the author of several books on the uses and stories of herbs and flowers. She has appeared on the Discovery Channel and greater Boston cable stations as well as local and national radio talk shows. Betsy lectures and teaches locally and nationally. THBG members $65, non-members $80. Register online at www.towerhillbg.org, or call 508-869-6111.
Green roofs have a wide array of benefits ranging from environmental to social to economic. Learn from Mark Winterer of Recover Green Roofs how to make buildings last longer and reduce long-term costs through green roofs. This Tower Hill Botanic Garden lecture will take place Wednesday, May 13 from 7 – 8, and is free with admission to the garden.
Recover Green Roofs, LLC is a Design/Build/Maintenance firm specializing in vegetated roofs, rooftop farms, and living walls. Recover designed and installed a practical and efficient rooftop farm for the Whole Foods Market in Lynnfield, which supplies the market with thousands of pounds of hyper-local produce each year. Mark is an accredited Green Roof Professional (GRP), a licensed General Contractor, and Recover’s co-owner and Director of Operations.
Sogetsu Ikebana is an internationally recognized school of Japanese flower arranging known for creative self expression. Garden Club of the Back Bay member Kaye Vosburgh is a Master Judge and Design Instructor for the National Garden Club as well as a Sogetsu Ikebana teacher of the highest rank, Riji. Kaye provides the flowers for each class and will have supplies and equipment for purchase. The Tower Hill Botanic Garden will sponsor this Thursday, May 14 class, from 9:30 – 12. THBG member fee is $35, non-members $50. Register online at www.towerhillbg.org, or call 508-869-6111.
Andrew Keys, author of Growing the Northeast Garden, discusses underused and overlooked plants for gardens specifically for our region. The event will take place Sunday, May 17 from 1 – 3 at Tower Hill Botanic Garden. He’ll include plants from his book that are widely available but tend to be overlooked by gardeners, as well as “b-sides”–botanical outtakes from the book, rarer in nurseries, but sure to interest the horticulturally curious. An illustrated lecture will be followed by a walk to view many of these plants in Tower Hill’s gardens. $20 for THBG members, $30 for non-members. Register online at www.towerhillbg.org, or call 508-869-6111.
The Hudson Valley Seed Library is a small, farm-based seed company celebrating heirloom and open-pollinated garden seeds and garden-themed contemporary art. Each year artists are commissioned to create designs for the seed packets. The original art for the 2015 packets was first exhibited at the New York Botanical Garden and profiled in The New York Times, and now continues on to Tower Hill Botanic Garden. Hudson Valley Seed Library packets are available for purchase at the Shop at Tower Hill. Exhibit free with admission to the Garden. For directions visit www.towerhillbg.org. Below: Blue Jade Sweet Corn, by Daniel Baxter, credit Hudson Valley Seed Library Catalog/Courtesy of The New York Botanical Garden.
In this intermediate level Tower Hill Botanic Garden photography class on Saturday, May 9, from 10 – 2, Steve McGrath will show the various camera settings appropriate for Landscape Photography, utilizing your Shutter and Aperture settings for the best exposure. The class will also cover composition, focal length, depth of field, filters and the use of natural light. Tripods are a plus but not mandatory. After a presentation, we will head out into the Gardens to photograph and end the class with a critique of your work.
Steve McGrath is a professional freelance photographer and photography teacher who has been creating images for 20 years. Steve first began by shooting sports photography for local high schools, then weddings, and stock agencies. Then his love of the outdoors led him to focusing more on his true passion, “nature photography”. Steve was an active member of the Gateway Camera Club for many years, and has won many ribbons and awards at fairs and competitions through the group and on his own. Several of his images have been published in school text books. His favorite places to shoot are Acadia National Park in Maine, the Green Mountains of Vermont, and the Cape Cod National Seashore. $40 for THBG members, $50 for nonmembers. Register online at www.towerhillbg.org, or call 508-869-6111.
Plant societies strut their stuff on Saturday, May 2 and Sunday, May 3 at Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, Massachusetts. See judged shows, hear talks, and buy specimens for your collections. The schedule is as follows:
Saturday
Primrose Show 10-5.
Rock Garden Show 10-5.
Art of Growing Food 10-11:30.
Garden Design Workshop 1-4.
Daffodil Show 1-5.
Sunday
Daffodil Show 9-4.
Primrose Show 9-4.
Potted Herb Garden Workshop 1-3:30.
Garden Tour at 2 pm.
For complete information visit www.towerhillbg.org.
Learn how to stretch your garden budget by taking advantage of nature’s generosity. Kristin Green, Blithewold horticulturist and author of Plantiful: Start Small, Grow Big with 150 Plants that Spread, Self-Sow, and Overwinter, will present a gardener’s guide to opportunism followed by a demonstration on how to root tip cuttings using a Forsythe pot—a propagation tool that is simpler than an expensive greenhouse mist system, more reliable than glasses of water on the windowsill, and can be easily made from stuff stashed in the potting shed. The event will take place Saturday, May 9, from 1 – 2 at Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston.
Kristin Green is an interpretive horticulturist at Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum, a 33 acre non-profit public garden on the Narragansett Bay shore in Bristol, RI. Working as a part of a small staff and with a group of 25-30 volunteers, she helps plan, design, propagate, plant and maintain their five main garden areas, and has been author and photographer of Blithewold’s garden blog since 2007. Kristin is also head-gardener and curator of plants for her own tiny estate in Bristol. She writes a regular column called Down to Earth for area newspapers, her own blog at trenchmanicure.com, and has contributed articles and photographs to Fine Gardening and other magazines. Kristin will be available to sign her book, carried in Tower Hill’s gift shop, after the presentation.
Tower Hill members – $20, non-members – $35. Register online at www.towerhillbg.org, or call 508-869-6111.
Grow your own culinary herbs, available for snipping from May to November. Nothing enhances meals like the taste of fresh herbs. Create an herb garden that can be moved from place to place to take full advantage of available sunlight. Plant 6 classic culinary herbs in a 14″ container to grow on a sunny porch, patio or doorstep. Plants, pot, soil and a copy of instructor Betsy Williams’s cookbook, Mrs. Thrift Cooks, are included. Tastings of a selection of herb butters, pestos, vinegars and salts, as well as rosemary walnuts, are also included. Please bring an apron and flower scissors to class.
Betsy teaches, lectures and writes about living with herbs and flowers. A gardener and herb grower since 1972, Betsy trained as a florist in Boston and England. She combines her floral and gardening skills with an extensive knowledge of history, plant lore and seasonal celebrations. Betsy is the author of several books on the uses and stories of herbs and flowers. She has appeared on the Discovery Channel and greater Boston cable stations as well as local and national radio talk shows. Betsy lectures and teaches locally and nationally. $75 for THBG members, $90 for non-members. Register online at www.towerhillbg.org or call 508-869-6111. Image from www.revmodern.com.
