The Garden Club of the Back Bay

Celebrate John W. Trexler’s 25th Anniversary as Tower Hill’s founding Executive Director, showcasing the best of Tower Hill.  Fun activities for all ages, multiple garden tours, demonstrations on organic gardening and Italian slow food cooking demonstrations, wildlife exhibits from the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, live birds of prey, hawk watching, wildlife photography, lectures on the interaction of plants and animals, videos, and at 2 pm, a special tree dedication in John’s honor.  For more information log on to www.towerhillbg.org.  Free admission all day.

Boston’s newest park, the Rose F. Kennedy Greenway, is blooming thanks to careful organic maintenance by the park’s stewards, the Rose F. Kennedy Greenway Conservancy. Learn how you can take these practices and methods home to your garden.  This one hour outdoor presentation and walk will take place Wednesday, September 9, beginning at 5 pm, and the starting location will be determined soon.  To learn more, contact www.hellogreenway.org, or www.rosekennedygreenway.org.

The final installment of The Mall at Chestnut Hill’s 2009 Organic Garden Series will take place Saturday, September 12 with “Native Plants.”  Hear a presentation on winterizing gardens, and best of all, there will be a tomato tasting and a lecture on how to preserve food (canning, freezing, fermenting) with results from June’s seedlings.  Also, there will be an opportunity to purchase from a vegetable and fruit stand.  For more information, log on to www.simon.com and click @Your Mall Now!, or call 617-965-3037.

Come to Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive, Boylston, Massachusetts on Saturday or Sunday, September 12 or 13, from 10 – 5, and enjoy Bonsai Weekend, The Art of the Potted Plant.  The exhibit will be in the Stoddard Education and Visitors Center, and is sponsored by The New England Bonsai Society.  Gorgeous displays of specimen bonsai plants, with guided tours, lectures, and programs on bonsai culture will be part of the celebration.  Discover the world of bonsai – the art of growing trees in miniature.  Free admission on Saturday, Regular admission on Sunday.  For more information, log on to www.towerhillbg.org, email thgb@towerhillbg.org, or call 508-869-6111, ext 146.

Learn botany from dedicated instructor and plant nomenclature specialist Kanchi Gandhi. Among the topics to be explored: plant cells and tissues, anatomy and morphology, reproduction, nutrition, growth and development, plant diversity, evolution, classification, and nomenclature. This course, offering both lecture and laboratory activities, introduces botany to new students or serves as a refresher course. Required text: Botany for Gardeners by Brian Capon. Contact the Arboretum’s bookstore (617.384.5209) for book availability. Sessions continue Tuesdays September 29, October 6, 13, 20, 27, November 3 and 10, all 6:30 – 8:30 at the Arnold Arboretum.  Fee $180 for members of Arnold Arboretum or New England Wild Flower Society, $215 for nonmembers. Register now! Fee will increase to $225 member, $270 nonmember on September 1.  Log on to www.arboretum.harvard.edu to sign up.

The Trustees of Reservations is sponsoring an illustrated lecture and workshop at Long Hill Horticultural Center in Beverly, Massachusetts on Tuesday, September 15, from 6:30 – 8:30 pm.  You’ll learn how to artfully combine shrubs and small trees with a selection of perennial and annual herbaceous plants, and to create a border garden with four seasons of beauty.  Horticulturist and landscape designer Laura Eisner will illustrate basic design principles you can apply to planning and planting a mixed border of any size and shape.  Also covered will be a range of native North American plants that thrive in borders.  Along with plant attributes and drawbacks, Laura will talk about those difficult areas where your plants never seem to thrive and she will discuss which plants will do well there.  Co-sponsored with the New England Wild Flower Society.  Members of the Trusees or NEWFS $25, nonmembers $30.  Registration required.  Contact bzschau@ttor.org.  Log on to www.thetrustees.org for directions.

The Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services and Boston Bikes invite you to a

COMMUNITY MEETING

Monday, August 31, 2009
6:00 PM
Boston Public Library Central Branch
Mezzanine Conference Room
700 Boylston Street

As part of Mayor Menino’s Boston Bikes Initiative, the City of Boston is creating bike lanes on major roadways to improve access and safety for all users.  The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the proposed installation of bike lanes on Commonwealth Avenue.

For more information, please contact:
Will Onuoha, Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services
(617) 635-3485
Nicole Freedman, Boston Bikes
(617) 918-4456

Boston Bikes is part of Mayor Menino’s plan for a vibrant and healthy city that benefits all its citizens. It seeks to make Boston a world-class bicycling city by creating safe and inviting conditions for all residents and visitors.  The Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay supports a public process but has some reservations about the plan as proposed, and encourages us to attend this first public meeting.

Grasses are all around us in great beauty and abundance, yet – lacking bright colors and distinctive shapes – they can be difficult to identify.  This workshop will demystify the identification process by pointing out common species and, most importantly, explaining the key characteristics to look for.  The workshop, at Lockwood Farm Cottage in Hamden, Connecticut, will focus on naked-eye field ID, not detailed flower morphology.  If we see them, we will touch briefly on common sedges and rushes as well.

Field trips are a long standing tradition of the Connecticut Botanical Society.  They provide an opportunity to learn about plants and habitats from some the area’s most knowledgeable botanists, and an opportunity to share your own knowledge with others.  The trips also add to the bank of knowledge of New England flora.  On each field trip. a list is made of all plant species identified, and this list becomes part of the Society’s records.  This workshop will be led by Lauren Brown, author of Grasses: A Simplified Identification Guide, published by Houghton Mifflin. For field trips, wear sturdy footwear and bring a lunch.  Sunscreen and insect repellant are also recommended.  For plant identification, you may wish to bring a field guide(s), a hand lens, and a small notebook.  Familiarity with plant taxonomy is helpful, but not required.  No pre-registration is required.  Free to CBS members.  Non-members must pay a $15 fee, which includes a one-year membership in CBS, and entitles you to join future trips this season at no additional cost.  For more information and directions, call 203-481-0377, or log on to www.ct-botanical-society.org.

Join the folks from Russell’s Garden Center at the Damon-Kominz Garden in Weston for tea, a tour, and a talk! This charming and whimsical garden has been created by an avid gardener and her husband with a wonderfully eclectic collection of perennials, trees, and shrubs. Fred Dabney, from Quansett Nurseries, will discuss Fall Perennial Gardening at 2:30 p.m. while tea and scones are served. Fred will also be available for questions and suggestions regarding your garden. Please pre-register as this event is limited to 50 participants. $7.00 fee due at registration. Please call 508-358-2283. For more information, log on to www.russellsgardencenter.com .

The Country Fair at Hancock Shaker Village celebrates the bounty of the harvest with agricultural demonstrations, wagon rides, a fabulous Farmers Market, and huge tents full of the work of the best local and regional crafters and artisans. Come out to the farm and see all the Country Fair has to offer! At the Country Fair, vendors fill the Village with delightful fresh produce, finished farm products, and crafts of all sorts. The Farmers Market tents boast vegetables, flowers, maple sugar treats and hand-made cheeses. Artisans have furniture, Shaker style oval boxes, original paintings, candles and hand-woven textiles available for purchase. Plan plenty of browsing time for this amazing marketplace! Don’t miss the Food Tent with area restaurants and brews! Try your hand as a Shaker Baker in our Country Fair Pie Contest! We have both professional and amateur categories, with judging held on Saturday afternoon, September 26th, 2009. Warm up your rolling pins! A display of quilts in the Round Stone Barn ell has become an integral part of the Country Fair each year. About 45 antique and newly made quilts are displayed in this juried show, fine examples of craftsmanship and tradition. You can submit a quilt for exhibition! Daily demonstrations of quilting techniques as well as a hands-on chance for visitors to contribute to a “Linus” quilt that will be donated to those in need.  Adults – $16, Children 13 – 17 – $8, Children under 12 and Hancock Shaker Village Members Free.  For directions and more information, log on to www.hancockshakervillage.org.

Now in its third year, the American Horticultural Society’s “webinar” program , offered exclusively to members, is a great way to learn from and interact with leading horticultural experts without having to leave home.  Past presenters include Julie Moir Messervy, Norm Lownds, and Scott Calhoun.  On Wednesday, September 9, beginning at 1 pm, Douglas Tallamy, author of the highly aclaimed Bringing Nature Home, will present “Gardening for Wildlife.”  The seminar will consist of an online slide show with the presenter’s voice streamed through your computer’s speakers, or delivered by telephone.

Tallamy takes an obvious observation—wildlife is threatened when suburban development encroaches on once wild lands—and weds it to a novel one: that beneficial insects are being deprived of essential food resources when suburban gardeners exclusively utilize nonnative plant material. Such an imbalance, Tallamy declares, can lead to a weakened food chain that will no longer be able to support birds and other animal life. Once embraced only by members of the counterculture, the idea of gardening with native plants has been landscape design’s poor stepchild, thought to involve weeds and other plants too unattractive for pristine suburban enclaves. Not so, says Tallamy, who presents compelling arguments for aesthetically pleasing, ecologically healthy gardening. With nothing less than the future of North American biodiversity at stake, Tallamy imparts an encouraging message: it’s not too late to save the ecosystem-sustaining matrix of insects and animals, and the solution is as easy as replacing alien plants with natives. After the presentation, which lasts about an hour, the speaker will take questions from participants via a chat box.  Space is limited so registration prior to the event is required.  A high-speed Internet connection is strongly recommended for an optimum viewing experience.  For more information on registering and joining the American Horticultural Society, log on to www.ahs.org.

Students in Smith College’�s Introduction to Architecture: Language and Craft studio, taught by Jim Middlebrook, were asked to reinterpret the spatial language of flowers. Each student chose a flower from the Botanic Garden, then photographed it and analyzed its spatial character. Students built models according to this visual �language.� These forms were used to design a theoretical pavilion for flower display next to Paradise Pond. On display are the photos, models, and pavilion designs. Come to the Smith College Lyman Plant House, Church Exhibition Gallery, 15 College Lane, Northampton, Massachusetts now through October 11 to see the fabulous work created by these very talented students. Admission is free.  For further information, contact Pamela Dods, garden@smith.edu.

Tower Hill Botanic Garden presents the 6th annual Gardeners’ Emporium. The Emporium will feature nonprofit, regional plant societies, specialty nurseries, and purveyors of distinctive garden ornaments. Societies represented include the Begonia, Cactus & Succulent, Daylily, Gesneriad, Hosta, and Rock Garden. This is the ONLY place this fall where you can find all these Societies, with the diversity of their respective offerings, gathered in one sale. Each of these groups offer expertise on their plant specialties, as well as hard-to-find specimen plants for sale. In addition, niche nurseries and garden accessory companies will offer their unique products for sale. Participating nurseries include Broken Arrow, DeRosa Orchids, Greystone Gardens, Pope’s Pots, Stonegate Farm, and more. Finally, Tower Hill’s Gift Shop will provide all kinds of unique gardening supplies and books, and Twigs Café will offer delightful meals, served cafeteria-style.
Fall is an excellent time for planting, and the Gardeners’ Emporium is a perfect opportunity to find just the right plant, or garden statue, to fill in an empty spot in the garden. The cooler days of September and October, give new plants a chance to establish themselves before the onset of winter. September is also a great time to visit Tower Hill, as many of the annuals and perennials are still putting on a fantastic show. A portion of the proceeds from the sale support the ongoing development and maintenance of the Garden.  For directions and more information, log on to www.towerhillbg.org.

The Arnold Arboretum and Jamaica Plain Open Studios host a juried group exhibition devoted to art inspired by the plants, landscape, and collections of the Arnold Arboretum, in conjunction with the Open Studios weekend. Come to Opening Night on Wednesday, September 16, from 6 – 8 pm.  The Open Studios weekend runs from September 26 – September 27, 11 – 6, and the exhibition in the Hunnewell Building Lecture Hall at the Arnold Arboretum will be on display through October 9, 2009.  For more information, log on to www.arboretum.harvard.edu.

What’s so special about local farmer’s markets?  See for yourself in this hands-on class lunchtime visit to the farmer’s market, where you will discuss the benefits of buying locally grown produce, ways to get the most for your money, and some shopping rules of thumb.  Then, depending on what’s available at the market that day, you’ll return to the BCAE with fruits and vegetables to taste, and learn to cook some dishes with a bounty of farm-fresh ingredients.  Meet at 11 at the Boston Center for Adult Education, 122 Arlington Street.  The instructor is Leah Bloom, and the cost is $45 plus $18 for materials.  BCAE members enjoy a discount on the class cost, paying $39 plus the materials fee.  To register, and for more information, log on to www.bcae.org.

What’s so special about local farmer’s markets?  See for yourself the benefits in this hands-on class.  You will discuss buying locally grown produce, ways to get the most for your money at a farmer’s market, and some shopping rules of thumb.  Then, depending on what’s available in the market that day, you’ll taste unusual fruits and vegetables, and learn to cook several colorful dishes with a bounty of farm fresh ingredients.  A materials fee is included.  Cost $45 (members of the Boston Center for Adult Education $39), and a materials fee of $18.  The instructor is Leah Bloom, and the class, which is held from 6 – 8 pm at the Boston Center for Adult Education, 122 Arlington Street will run from 6 – 8:30 pm.  For more information, and to register, log on to www.bcae.org.

On Monday, August 31, come to a fabulous collaboration between Bay End Farm in Buzzards Bay and The Blue Room in Cambridge.  Know your roots!  Go back to the “farm to table” movement – the Bay End Farm is putting one long table back in the middle of the farm.  Join them amidst the beautiful farm of organic vegetables.  You will be sitting anywhere from just a few feet to a few miles from where your dinner will be sourced and only yards from where it will be prepared.  The hosts will be setting up the table out in the field and under the sun on a gorgeous late afternoon to feast on what the earth has offered. A farm tour begins at 3 pm, and the four course menu paired with organic wines dinner begins at 4.  Cost is $75 per person ($65 if a Bay End Farm CSA member), and please note this is a bring your own plate event.  The Blue Room chef Jorge Lopes will present his best work, and all proceeds from the dinner will facilitate Bay End Farm’s efforts to build their farm stand kitchen.

Click here to make RESERVATIONS online. You will be directed to the Blue Room’s reservation page – book for 3 PM. Or you may call 617-494-9034 for directions and to reserve.

Volante Farms, a farmstand and garden center located at 226 Brookside Road, Needham,  recently redesigned and constructed their garden center featuring a new, state-of-the-art 16,000 square foot gutter-connected greenhouse with rainwater collection, ebb and flood benches, heated floor, shade curtains and more. Join them for pizza and an evening learning about their renovation.
Cosponsored by University of Massachusetts Extension Greenhouse Crops and Floriculture Program and Massachusetts Flower Growers Association.
For more information, contact: Tina Smith 413-545-5306 – tsmith@umext.umass.edu, Paul Lopes 508-295-2212 ext. 24 – lopes@umext.umass.edu or Bob Luczai 781-275-4811 – bluczai@ballseed.com .

Join Clean Water Action for a compelling illustrated lecture by Patrick Lucey, an aquatic biologist from British Columbia, who has been an international leader in advancing new approaches to integrated water and energy management.  The presentation will focus on his work to transform barren, non-functioning landscapes into lush, lucrative enterprises.  The evening will include dessert, a celebration of victories, and a forecast of what is ahead.  Individual tickets are $30 each, and sponsorship opportunities are available. For more information, contact  bostoncwa@cleanwater.org, or call 617-338-8131.