Boston Flora

Tag: workshop

  • Wednesday, March 16 – Thursday, March 17 – Conservation in a New Nation Workshop

    This two-day intensive workshop helps conservationists strengthen the practice of conservation by ensuring future innovation and responsiveness to present-day challenges. It is a chance to talk openly and safely about how to diversify in order to maintain competitive edge and leadership and how to collaborate with facets of the larger community, thereby broadening bases of support, developing meaningful new relationships and engaging more public citizens on the issues. Today, 40% of all Americans under the age of 16 are people of color. These changes within our nation are to be celebrated because they bring new ideas and vigor and because people of color have traditionally been strong supporters of conservation. But, today, conservation and environmentalism includes far fewer people of color. How can conservation groups adapt? What needs to evolve within conservation so that more people of color see themselves within the story of conservation? This workshop will explore all of these themes and spend time on specific tools and skills needed to implement change. The faculty will include Peter Forbes, founder of the Center for Whole Communities, and Mohamed Chakaki, who holds a Masters of Environmental Management with a focus on Urban Ecology and Environmental Design from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. The workshop, to be held March 16 and 17 at the Essex Conference Center in Essex, Massachusetts, is sponsored by the Center for Whole Communities, and you may register on line ($525 tuition, $105 room and board optional) at www.wholecommunities.org.  Feel free to call Lauren Oleet, Program Manager, at 802-496-5690 with any questions, or email her at Lauren@wholecommunities.org.

  • Saturday, September 25, 10:00 am – 11:30 am – Cement Hosta Leaf Stepping Stone Workshop

    This is a HANDS-ON WORKSHOP. Join Weston Nurseries’ resident artists Deb Mastrangelo and Diane Lulek in creating stepping stones from hosta leaves and cement. These impressions are realistic, functional and winter hardy. All materials and instructions are included in the price of the workshop. Please wear old clothes and shoes and be prepared to get dirty! Pre-registration by Thursday, Sept. 23 is required. Please RSVP by calling Customer Care at 508-293-8091.  Cost: $15 per leaf/ 3 leaf maximum.  Log on to www.westonnurseries.com for directions.

  • Saturday, October 9, 3:30 pm – 6:30 pm, and Sunday, October 10, 1:00 pm – 6:30 pm – Soapmaking

    Cold-process soap is made from scratch using vegetable oils and lye.  Learn the basics while making a batch of honey-oatmeal soap, then experiment with colors and fragrances.  Soap made in class can be picked up the next day or next week.  Glycerin soap is already made, but can be personalized with scents, colors, pearlescent powders, flowers or embedded items.  Soap will be ready by the end of class.  Both classes, taught by instructor Kymberlee Keckler at the Eliot School  of Fine and Applied Arts, 24 Eliot Street in Jamaica Plain, include written instructions and resource guides for venturing out on your own.  Take one workshop or both – all materials are supplied.  Easy Glycerin Soap will take place Saturday, October 9 from 3:30 – 6:30, and Cold-process Soap will be held Sunday, October 10, from 1 – 6:30.  The cost for Easy Glycerin Soap is $30 plus $10 materials fee payable in class, and for Cold-process Soap, $50 plus $10 materials fee payable in class.  Take both sessions for $70.  To register, and for complete information and directions, log on to www.eliotschool.org.

  • Saturday, September 25, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm – Pruning Shrubs and Small Trees

    Autumn is a great time to assess your woody plants for shape and structure. This demonstration/workshop at Berkshire Botanical Garden on Saturday, September 25 from 10 – 1, will focus on pruning, including: when, why and how to shape, renovate, train or rejuvenate your woody plants. Learn about pruning tools, timing, and specific techniques available to the home gardener. Pruning techniques specifically for both evergreen and deciduous hedges will be covered.

    Ken Gooch Massachusetts Certified Arborist, is the Department of Environmental Management’s Forest Health Specialist for Berkshire County. He is an educator and lectures widely on a variety of topics including forest health, pruning, and arboriculture. Wear waterproof outerwear, boots, and bring pruners. $30 BBG members, $35 non-members. Log on to www.berkshirebotanical.org to register, or call 413-298-3926.

  • Saturday, July 10, 9:00 am – 6:00 pm – NOFA/Mass Backyard Poultry Day

    NOFA/Mass presents its first annual Statewide Backyard Poultry Workshop Day. On July 10, there will workshops in every region of the state to inform you on how to raise chickens for eggs and/or meat right in your own backyard. NOFA/Mass is a community of farmers and educators striving for greater self-reliance and freedom in feeding our families and communities. This is a great opportunity to learn skills needed to shape your food future. These workshops are intended to meet the resurgence of interest in backyard poultry. They all take place in the field of actual chicken raising operations. Some are commercial scale and other are just for home-use. They are all led by experienced poultry raisers who also know how to teach. Each workshop presenter will explain and demonstrate some key steps that can empower you to start raising poultry or improve what you are already doing. Please bring your questions. The workshops take place outdoors. Be prepared for sunny or for rainy weather. Wear proper footwear for being in the field. Bring a water bottle & protect skin from the sun. You may also want to bring a camera and a notebook. To prevent the possible spread of disease from farm to farm, host farms may ask you to do a foot bath if you currently own poultry. Registration for these workshops goes from $30-$40. NOFA membership discount: $5. Early registration (by June 26) discount: $5. Contact: Ben Grosscup, 413-658-5374. By email, ben.grosscup@nofamass.org; put “Backyard Poultry” in subject.  For more information, log on to www.nofamass.org/programs/extensionevents/backyardpoultry.php.

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  • Friday, June 18, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Growing Plants Hydroponically

    Take the guesswork out of watering your plants. Learn about hydroponic culture: which plants to grow, what products you need, and how to set up and maintain your system.  The course, sponsored by Historic New England, will take place at the Lyman Estate Greenhouses in Waltham on Friday, June 18, from 10 – 12, and the fee is $20 for Garden and Landscape members, $25 for HNE members, and $35 for nonmembers.  Registration is required at www.historicnewengland.org, or call 781-891-1985.

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  • Sunday, May 30, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm – Garden Float Balls

    Along the coast of the Pacific Northwest, beautiful glass balls washed up on the shores. People began collecting the curious balls and putting them in their homes and gardens. It turns out these balls had escaped from Japanese fishing nets, handmade before the age of Styrofoam. This one-day workshop on Sunday, May 30, from 10 – 2,  sponsored by  The Cambridge Center for Adult Education, will teach you the basic skills needed to design and create your own original garden float ball for home, garden, or koi pond.

    The class is taught by Jesse Rasid of NOCA Glass School. Originally hailing from the rural wilderness of western Massachusetts, Jesse Rasid is a glassblower that has been in the field for fifteen years. He graduated from Mass Art in 2003 with a BFA in Sculpture-Glass. He started his company, UpperCut Glass, in 2005 shortly after his retirement from competitive amateur boxing. He has since worked for various other glass artists as a mercenary-type glassblower for hire, and more recently designed and fabricated a hot glass shop for another successful young glass artist. Most recently he has started his own glassblowing school, NOCA Glass School, in North Cambridge where he keeps a studio. Jesse resides in a flamingo pink house in Cambridge with his girlfriend, cat, puppy dog, and garden, in a state of domestic bliss  The Cambridge location of the workshop will be sent to registrants.  Students will leave with two float balls and at least one other glass object. Limited to 6. $150.  To register, log on to www.ccae.org.

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  • Saturday, April 24, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Create a Mini Bog

    Instructor Priscilla Purinton of the New England Carnivorous Plant Society will conduct a hands-on workshop at Tower Hill Botanic Garden on Saturday, April 24, from 1 – 3 pm.  Priscilla will be a featured speaker of The Garden Club of the Back Bay in November, 2010, and here is a chance to get down and dirty with her! Create a miniature bog habitat for your garden or patio with rare and interesting plants.  Bogs are unique habitats saturated with acidic, low nutrient water that would spell death for most plants.  However, they support a surprising diversity of unique flora that can grow nowhere else.  Wow your friends with this most unusual container garden filled with carnivorous plants, rushes and other bog endemics.  Participants will be provided with all materials and plants, and will learn how to create a good soil mix, what plants do well (and why) in bog situations, and will also learn how to keep the mini bog flourishing for years.  Tower Hill member price $40, non-members $43.  To register, log on to www.towerhillbg.org.

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  • Saturday, April 10, 12:30 pm – Bog Rebuild

    New England Carnivorous Plant Society members will be rebuilding the two carnivorous plant bogs in the greenhouse at Roger Williams Park Botanical Center (www.providenceri.com/botanical-center/ on Saturday, April 10, beginning at 12:30 pm.  Visitors are most welcome – find out how simple and fun it is to set up and maintain a carnivorous plant bog.  The workshop will run for approximately three hours, and is free and open to the public.

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  • Saturday, March 20, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm – Boston Natural Areas Network 35th Annual Gardeners Gathering

    On Saturday, March 20, from 11 – 5, the Boston Natural Areas Network will hold its signature event at the Curry Student Center, Northeastern University, Boston (pictured below).  Join over 300 community and backyard gardeners for plenary sessions, workshops, community gardener awards, information gallery, door prizes, and much more.  Contact Jo Ann Whitehead at joann@bostonnatural.org, or call 617-542-7696, x 15 for more information.  This event is free.  To see a map of the event location, log on to www.bostonnatural.org.

    http://www.northeastern.edu/campustour/images/currycenter178.jpg