Join Erin Hammes, Plant Records and Production Horticulturist at Native Plant Trust on December 7 from 1 – 2:30 for this native seed sowing workshop. Learn about our native seeds and then get your hands in the soil to sow some seeds that you can take home. The class will be held at Long Hill in Beverly, a Trustees of Reservations property. $26 for NPT members, $30 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/native-seed-sowing-workshop-12072024/
October can be the most beautiful time of year for exploring the local forests of New England. We have carefully chosen the best scenic Trustees of Reservations properties for optimal foliage viewing. This hike will take place October 12 beginning at 10 am in lovely Chesterfield. Go on an adventure with a knowledgeable guide who can help you identify all the wild wonders of our local forests. Time spent in nature has been proven to improve cognitive and mental health benefits, as well as improvements in mood and emotional well-being. Equipped with the proper gear, our guides will help you safely navigate in the natural world. Let’s go on an adventure and reconnect with nature! Trustees members receive a 20% discount, please email aduquette@thetrustees.org for the discount code to be entered on the Adventure East website. $35.
Age Level: 10+ Skill Level: Beginner Fitness Level: Basic
What’s included: • 2-hour guided hike with experienced naturalist
What To Bring: • Layers appropriate to the weather • Plenty of drinking water • Sturdy comfortable hiking footwear
Now in its twenty-seventh year, MUG has long been a forum where both novice and experienced gardeners come to build their skills, sharing innovative and best practices for growing anywhere from the front porch to the community garden plot. MUG is an intensive, skill-building training for community and home gardeners from Greater Boston and beyond. Whether you’re just getting started or have been gardening for decades, MUG covers everything you need know to thrive in a community garden: soil science, botany for gardeners, organic pest and disease management, edible native perennials, garden planning, starting a community garden, preserving the harvest, composting, and more. MUG is not an official Master Gardener training—it requires fewer class and volunteer hours and focuses on small-space growing of edible crops. Master Urban Gardener is open to any community and residential gardeners who demonstrate a commitment to sharing skills with others. The program content is tailored to the climate and resources of Greater Boston but is open to gardeners from farther afield. We will have Spanish translation available upon request.
MUG consists of weekly in person and virtual sessions followed by at least 10 hours of volunteer service for the Trustees Boston Community Gardens–and/or another approved food access/open space project–over the course of the next year. The course will take place at our downtown Boston office 10-3 PM Saturdays with occasional Zoom lectures on weekday evenings. Apply at https://thetrustees.org/content/master-urban-gardener/ The course fee is on an income-based sliding scale, ranging from $0 – $350. Email arabiyah@thetrustees.org to learn more.
This winter season, give a gift from the sea. From seaweed pressings to shell collages, beach treasures make beautiful greetings and keepsakes. Join this Trustees workshop on February 4 from 10 – 1 at Castle Hill on the Crane Estate, 290 Argilla Road in Ipswich, to learn fun craft ideas and make marine art with our coastal educators. This program will start with a beach walk to collect coastal treasures, and then we will head inside for crafting. Craft supplies, extra beach treasures, and inspiration provided. $35. Register at www.thetrustees.org
Melvin Edwards: Brighter Days showcases six monumental, abstract sculptures by the acclaimed contemporary African American artist Melvin Edwards (b. 1937). This traveling exhibition, first organized by the New York City based nonprofit Public Art Fund for City Hall Park in 2021 constitutes Edwards’ first thematic survey of outdoor sculptures and deCordova’s first outdoor solo exhibition in many years. Brighter Days, a title chosen by the artist, brings forth conversations on Black history and identity, and evokes Edwards’ optimistic view of our shared future.
Brighter Days offers a focused look at Edwards’ accomplishments in large-scale sculpture and public art through five sculptures from 1970 to 1996, and a sixth commissioned in 2020 for Brighter Days. These six works elaborate on his examination of race, labor, and the African Diaspora, and feature his signature use of abstract, representational icons like chains. To the artist, the chain possesses numerous meanings, ranging from its function as a “welded rope” for pulling, its use for bondage and constraints, and its more metaphorical association to linkage and connectivity. By fragmenting and breaking the links, Edwards creates nuanced interpretations of the chain, including its allusions to slavery and violence, as well as liberation and connection. All at once, Brighter Days encourages mindfulness of the past, while inspiring resiliency, overcoming, and connection.
A pioneer of abstract sculpture, Houston-born Melvin Edwards began his career in the 1960s after studying at the University of Southern California. Edwards gained notoriety from his first solo exhibition at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in 1965, where he uniquely blurred abstraction and symbolism to comment on social justice issues – an approach distinct from his Minimalist and Post-Modernist contemporaries. At this time, he initiated his renowned, ongoing body of work Lynch Fragments, a sculpture series investigating themes of racial violence, anti-war protest, and Edwards’ connections to Africa. Shortly thereafter, he exhibited at the Studio Museum of Harlem in 1969, and by 1970, became the first African American sculptor with a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Edwards has produced over 20 public works throughout his career for universities, public housing projects, and museums. Now living and working across multiple studios in two states and Senegal, Melvin Edwards continues to be a leading voice in sculpture, exhibiting nationally and internationally.
The gardens at Naumkeag are recognized world-wide for their iconic blue steps and grove of white birches. The property is run as a public garden by The Trustees of Reservations, who have been gifted with remarkable cultural resources that continue to connect people to place, and art to nature across iconic properties in Massachusetts, USA. A recent four-year restoration of Mabel Choate and Fletcher Steele’s masterpiece, Naumkeag, overlooking the Berkshire hills, ‘polished’ their 1926-1956 garden. Steele believed that garden making should be considered one of the fine arts. His fine attention to line, colour and texture, and Choate’s pursuit of the best horticultural selections drove the restoration. Fuelled by new programmes and events, and a business planning model based on the English National Trust, Naumkeag is now opened from early spring to late December drawing record crowds as the carefully preserved garden sparkles in every season. This lecture outlines the development of Naumkeag through its creators’ own words and engages the audience with its remarkable restoration discoveries, as The Trustees continue to polish this masterpiece garden.
Lucinda A. Brockway is the Managing Director of Cultural Resources at The Trustees. Brockway leads a team of cultural resource specialists seeking innovative solutions for cultural sites ignited by the unique legacy of each property. Brockway facilitated the curation of landscape research, planning and investments in three National Landmark sites including Naumkeag (Stockbridge, Massachusetts USA) which included rethinking the role of house, collections, landscape, and ruins for public engagement and directed new archival research to unlock the unique spirit of place at each property. A published author and landscape preservation expert, Brockway serves as instructor for the National Preservation Institute (Alexandria VA), and offers lectures nationwide each year on historic preservation, landscape history and design and served as an expert for numerous conference presentations.
The Gardens Trust will present a Zoom illustrated lecture with Ms. Brockway on October 26 at 2 pm as the last installment of October’s Unforgettable Gardens Series. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards. £5 Register HERE through Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/unforgettable-gardens-naumkeags-garden-preservation-as-a-fine-art-tickets-372282245217
Stroll through summer gardens in full bloom! This guided tour sponsored by The Trustees on August 4 will take you to three Dorchester community gardens plus two unique home gardens, and introduce you to some of the gardeners who make these urban green spaces thrive. Along the way, you’ll enjoy a garden mixology demo and tasting, delicious dinner from a local restaurant, and making an infused herbal vinegar to take home.
All proceeds from the tour directly support operations and education in the Trustees’ network of 56 community gardens across Boston, including our 18 gardens in Dorchester.
Sign up for a time slot when you register: 5:00, 5:30, or 6:00pm.
The total walk is under a mile and the pace will be relaxed. The community gardens and walking route are wheelchair accessible; the home gardens vary. Please contact us for additional information about accessibility and any accommodations that might help you or your guests enjoy the tour.
The Trustees of Reservations has renamed Agassiz Rock “The Monoliths” due to Louis Agassiz’s racist teachings being incompatible with The Trustees’ mission of inclusion.
The Trustees’ mission is to protect and share Massachusetts’ iconic places for the simple reason that nature and culture soothes the soul and improves the lives of everyone, not just some of us. While that mission never changes, The Trustees is always seeking to learn and grow to find new ways to live up to it.
It is with this commitment in mind that The Trustees announced its Agassiz Rock property in Manchester-by-the-Sea has been renamed “The Monoliths”—a nod to the site’s two massive, granite boulders. The change comes after more than a year of reflection and deliberation regarding the complex legacy of Louis Agassiz, the 19th century biologist who published works that proposed that non-white human groups are inherently inferior.
After 65 years with the same name, people will want to know why The Trustees’ changed it now and what it hopes to accomplish.
There is no doubt that Agassiz’s theories about the rocks dotting New England’s landscape being shaped and deposited by glaciers and not the biblical flood that floated Noah’s Ark, as believed at the time, were groundbreaking. However, Agassiz also vehemently promoted the theory of polygenism—the view that humans of varying skin color are of different origins and non-white races are inherently inferior—to a degree that was considered extreme even for his time.
After receiving several letters from people in the community who questioned the appropriateness of honoring Agassiz despite his work that denied the humanity of African enslaved people, The Trustees embarked on a journey to research Agassiz the man and Agassiz the property, and to determine how tributes like this one align with its overall mission of inclusivity across its portfolio of 123 properties.
After creating an internal review process and speaking to internal and external stakeholders as well as staff and local historians, The Trustees decided to change the name—the first time that’s happened in its 130-year history. The name change is official on the website, trail maps, and the main sign on-site. In time, interpretive signage will be installed on the property that puts Agassiz’s scientific contributions in perspective while explaining why the name was ultimately changed. The goal is not an erasure of history; it’s a chronicling of change and taking an opportunity to learn and grow.
Kick off the gardening season with the Trustees of Reservations’ annual Gardeners’ Gathering, now in it’s 46th year. The Gathering is free and open to all. This year’s virtual event will feature:
Garden workshops and storytelling
Special guest speaker Kristen Wyman on indigenous food sovereignty
The Annual Community Garden Awards
Program details will be linked here when available. Register and you’ll receive the program and Zoom links when they’re ready. If you’re able, please consider supporting this free event with an optional program fee when you register. You only need to register for one day to get the full program information for the two-day event.
Interested in sponsoring or otherwise supporting the Gathering? Please contact Boston Community Gardens Engagement Manager Michelle de Lima at mdelima@thetrustees.org.
The Trustees are celebrating the Winter Solstice on December 17, 18, and 19 at a number of different venues. Appleton Farms in Hamilton and Ipswich is the site of a Winter Solstice Family Fun, and Fruitlands Solstice Stroll in Harvard features a candlelit walk followed by hot chocolate and s’mores around the outdoor firepit. The deCordova Museum presents a solstice clay candle lanterns workshop. Castle Hill on the Crane Estate in Ipswich is where you’ll get to participate in a Winter Solstice Hike. Powisset Farm in Dover will hold a Winter Solstice Supper, and for those near Governor Hutchinson’s Field in Milton, enjoy a fire dance performance at Solstice Illumination Night. Chestnut Hill Farm in Southborough holds a Solstice Celebration. This is just a sampling, Fees and times vary, so to check them all out visit www.thetrustees.org for details.
