The Garden Club of the Back Bay

The 2012 New England Rose Society Convention will take place Friday, March 23 through Sunday, March 25 at the Best Western Mainstay Inn in Newport, Rhode Island.  This year’s convention will be hosted by the Rhode Island Rose Society.  Enjoy workshops, a rose show, educational programs, and receptions.  For complete information, visit www.arsyankee.org.  Ruby Celebration rose from Apuldram Roses (www.apuldramroses.co.uk)

Powerful Vistas/Powerful Views: New Perspectives in Historic Landscape Preservation, the Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation 2012 Conference, will be held in Victoria, BC, April 25-28, 2012.

The 34th annual gathering of the Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation will discuss new perspectives in historic landscape preservation when it convenes in Victoria, British Columbia in April 2012. Suggested topics for discussion papers include challenges and approaches to the identification, sustainability and protection of historic landscapes and issues of cultural diversity, identity and meaning in landscape preservation. Our vistas will be Canada’s powerful, awe-inspiring West Coast landscape. The First Nations people knew it intimately. Emily Carr lovingly interpreted it in her paintings. Now you can see it for yourself.And Vancouver Island beckons you to engage in this kaleidoscope of ideas. The City of Victoria promotes itself as being “full of life” and we intend to inject as much of that into your conference experience as we can. Centered at the venerable Empress Hotel puts us alongside the Inner Harbour and in the heart of the city both convenient for exploring by foot or as a launching off point for bus tours. Field visits will look at aboriginal, colonial and multicultural engagements with the powerful landscapes of the Canadian west coast.And, as always, while we are not able to accommodate all that the Victoria region has to offer in the short time that we will be together, we’ll provide some ideas about interesting places that you might explore either before/after the conference (including Vancouver across the Georgia Strait or Seattle, if you are coming Stateside).

Learn more about the conference on the Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation website, www.ahlp.org.

For complete information, visit www.ecolandscaping.org.

The February meeting of The Garden Club of the Back Bay will take place Thursday, February 16, beginning at 10:00 am at The College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. Lee Schneller Sligh will present an illustrated lecture entitled Historic Gardens of Japan. Lee Schneller Sligh is a Master Gardener volunteer and has designed and built more than 200 gardens in Maine since 1995 as owner of Lee Schneller Fine Gardens. Her revolutionary perennial garden design system is the subject of her new book, The Ever-Blooming Flower Garden: A Blueprint for Continuous Color (Storey Publishing, March 2009), which has been a continuous bestseller in independent bookstores and on Amazon.com. She lectures frequently and offers four-hour workshops teaching her design method. In addition to continuously blooming gardens, Lee specializes in Japanese-inspired and naturalistic gardens. She lived in Japan for four years, earned degrees in Chinese language and literature and in Asian history and worked for ten years as a Japanese technical translator before starting her gardening business.
Illustrated with striking photos from her travels throughout Japan over thirty years, this talk and slide show introduces very old gardens, some brought to light only recently through the efforts of archaeologists. The oldest Japanese garden discovered so far is a little-known stream garden in rural Mie Prefecture dating from the 4th century A.D., which was just discovered and excavated in the 1990s.  Japanese gardens are widely admired for the sense of intimacy and inner stillness they convey to the viewer, an effect achieved through the sensitive and simple arrangement of elements. These qualities seem ever more precious, both to the Japanese and to foreigner visitors, and make the Japanese garden a timeless refuge from our complicated and fast-paced modern lives.  Lee specializes in creating Japanese-inspired gardens with native New England plants, and travels frequently to Japan to tour and research gardens. Examples of her work can be seen at www.LeeSchneller.com.

Garden Club members will receive written notice of this meeting in the mail.  Non-members are cordially invited to attend ($10 meeting only, $25 with lunch following the meeting) with reservations.  Email info@gardenclubbackbay.org, or telephone 617-859-8865.

Join fellow conservation professionals, volunteers and board members for a morning of free topical workshops on Saturday, February 11, from 8:30 – noon at the Canal Club Facility, Trowbridge Road (off the Bourne Bridge Rotary), Quality Inn Hotel in Bourne, Massachusetts. Come hear about: * How to deal with property violations and fund stewardship * The new Massachusetts tax credit incentive for conservation donations * Developing good governance policies for your organization * Using new media to reach out to your members and others. Funding for the Convocation is provided by The Island Foundation of Marion, MA. Co-sponsored by The Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts, Inc, Coalition for Buzzards Bay, Inc, & the Massachusetts Land Trust Coalition, Inc.  For more information, visit www.thecompact.net.

On Valentine’s Day, The Cambridge Entomological Club will host Christian Rabeling, Junior Fellow at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, as the speaker for its February meeting.  Christian’s studies include the evolutionary biology of social insects, genetic evolution and speciation of social parasites, and the natural history of ants.  CEC meetings are held the second Tuesday of the month from October through May. The evening schedule typically includes an informal dinner (6:15 to 7:15 PM) followed by our formal meeting (7:30 – 9:00 PM) in MCZ 101, 26 Oxford Street, Harvard University. The latter begins with club business and is followed by a 50 minute entomology related presentation. Membership is open to amateur and professional entomologists.  For more information, email CEC President Jessica Walden-Gray at jessisoutside@gmail.com.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino, the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), and the Mayor’s Office of Food Initiatives are launching a new project to update the Boston Zoning Code to support Urban Agriculture (UA) city wide. UA is small scale farming that makes healthy, fresh food more accessible and empowers Bostonians by creating economic opportunity. Examples of urban farming include rooftop greenhouse agriculture, aquaponics (fish farming), community farms, farm stands, composting, and other fresh food-producing endeavors. The kickoff and “visioning” meeting will take place Monday, January 30, from 6 – 8:30 pm at Suffolk University, 73 Tremont Street, 9th floor. The keynote speaker is Will Allen, Founder and CEO of Growing Power Inc. Will is a former pro athlete and 2008 McArthur Foundation Genius Grant recipient for his work on urban farming and sustainable food productions.

Please bring some form of ID (drivers license, credit card) to clear building security, or you may send your full name prior to January 27 to john.read.BRA@cityofboston.gov. You may call Tad Read, Senior Planner, at 617-918-4264 for more information.

For all those interested in improving and expanding Boston’s Urban Forest. Become a part of a resident based stewardship and advocacy group whose goals are to plant trees and educate the public about the benefits of trees. The meeting will take place Tuesday, January 24, from 6:30 – 7:30 at the BNAN offices, 62 Summer Street in downtown Boston. Please RSVP to reserve your spot at 617-542-7696 ext 20 or email mathew@bostonnatural.org.

Groundscapes Express has worked on many ecosystem restoration projects throughout the region. Groundscapes’ approach treats the whole site as an ecosystem or a sub-watershed for greatest success. Projects implement best practices for improved water quality, soil compaction, invasive species, and erosion control. At this Roundtable presentation on Thursday, January 19, from 1 – 3:30 pm at the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens’ Visitors Center, 106 Central Street in Wellesley,, John Engwer will describe ecosystem restoration projects at sites including Wellesley College, Kent Hospital, the Rose Kennedy Greenway, Mount Auburn Cemetery, and Fresh Pond Reservation.  Though the sites differ widely, the issues of soil compaction, stormwater management, and invasive species control are common to all.  Registrations are limited – call 617-436-5838, or email ela.info@comcast.net.  $20 ELA or Wellesley Friends of Horticulture member price, $25 for nonmembers.

There will be a free joint program of the North Shore Community Health Network and the NCHC Northeast Prevention Institute on Thursday, January 12, from 8:30 am – noon at the Peabody Marriott, 8 Centennial Drive in Peabody, entitled Creating Healthy, Safe and Livable Communities: Bridging the Gap Between Public Health and Community Development.  What does it mean to “design” a healthy community? Why is it important? Where do you start? A panel of experts from community development and public health will share their knowledge and experience in developing projects and policy-making that make community and regional health a priority. The morning will begin with breakfast and networking within and across sectors. Local case studies will be presented by the panel followed by roundtable discussions to encourage new ideas, concepts and the building of knowledge in this area. You will walk away with: – greater understanding of the impact planning and policy (inherent in community development, housing, transportation, etc.) can have on public health – strategies for creating partnerships and strengthening role of public health in planning – concrete tools and resources that can be used to achieve effective outcomes – ideas for reprogramming and leveraging existing funds to support integration of public health and community development This workshop is funded in part by the North Shore Community Health Network (NSCHN).

Panel Presenters: – Lea Susan Ojamaa, Division of Prevention and Wellness, MA Department of Public Health – Stephen Winslow, Senior Project Manager, City of Gloucester Mass in Motion – Mariana Arcaya, Public Health Manager, Metropolitan Area Planning Council – Eric Halvorsen, Transit Manager, Metropolitan Area Planning Council – Heather McMann, Executive Director, Groundwork Lawrence.  For more information, contact Kirsten Doherty at 978-722-2861, or email her at kdoherty@glfhc.org.

The New England Landscape Design & History Association (NELDHA) cordially invites you to its first meeting of 2012, featuring a “Slide Slam” focusing on the theme Designing Paradise.  Share garden and landscape photos – from a recent trip or completed project – with fellow members.  Choose 8 – 10 slides (we still use these?) or PowerPoint visuals of a garden or landscape you would like to share and save to a portable memory stick.  AV equipment will be provided.  The event will take place Thursday, January 26, from 3 – 5 at the Fishbowl, The Boston Architectural College, 320 Newbury Street in Boston.  RSVP to Laurie Pazzano at 781-893-7185, or email her at lpazzano@hotmail.com.  Photo below taken in Magnolia, Massachusetts.

Join the New England Carnivorous Plant Society on Saturday, January 14, at 12:30 pm at the Roger Williams Botanical Center in Providence for the Nepenthes (Tropical Pitcher Plant) Cutting Event.  Members will leave with a cutting for propagation, and may bring in overgrown Nepenthes vines and share the fun with other members.  To join, or for more information, visit www.necps.org.

The National Organizers Alliance is planning an Organizers Gathering to bring together social justice organizers to build relationship across a wide spectrum of issues and campaigns on Wednesday,  Jan. 18 (snow date: Thursday, Jan. 19) from 5:30 to 8 pm, with a healthy catered dinner, at MIT, Building 9, 105 Mass Avenue, Rooms 9-450 A and B (note: 105 Mass Ave is right next to the Main Entrance at 77 Mass Ave).

We have found that organizers rarely speak to people outside our own circles or “silos” and therefore don’t develop the relationships that can nurture a broad movement for social justice. Rather than examine the things that divide us, let understand and learn from one another.

SPEED MENTORING We will also have a time for organizers who want to mentor others and for organizers looking for mentors to connect.

Sponsored by the National Organizers Alliance (see: www.noacentral.org) and an organizing committee (in formation).

To sign up for dinner, go to: www.noacentral.org to the “donate” button, and donate $15 for dinner. ($10 for NOA members)

For more information, Contact : Ron Bell, 617 378-1889, email:RonBell400@gmail.com; Michael Jacoby Brown, 617 645 0226 or mjbrown246@gmail.com, Nurys Camargo at nuryscamargo@gmail.com, or Ceasar McDowell, at ceasar@mit.edu.

Welcome new members and greet old friends at The Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay’s 2012 Member Reception, to be held this year at towne stove and spirits, 900 Boylston Street, on Sunday, January 15, from 4:30 – 6:30.  This event is free to members.  Enjoy complimentary hors d’oeuvres, with a cash bar.  An rsvp is requested by January 6.  Email names to info@nabbonline.com, or call 617-247-3961.

Nantucket probably doesn’t need any more visitors, but on Tuesday, January 10, the Cambridge Entomological Club will present Lou Perrotti, Director of Conservation Programs at the Roger Williams Park Zoo, who will present a lecture entitled The 18 Year Effort to Establish the American Burying Beetle to Nantucket Island.  CEC meetings are held the second Tuesday of the month from October through May. The evening schedule typically includes an informal dinner (6:15 to 7:15 PM) followed by our formal meeting (7:30 – 9:00 PM) in MCZ 101, 26 Oxford Street, Harvard University. The latter begins with club business and is followed by a 50 minute entomology related presentation. Membership is open to amateur and professional entomologists.  For more information, email CEC President Jessica Walden-Gray at jessisoutside@gmail.com.

The Boston Gardeners Council and The Roxbury Community College Service Learning Garden Project sponsor, with Boston Natural Areas Network, The Boston Urban Gardening Book Group on Monday, December 19, from 10:30 – 12 at Roxbury Community College, Academic Building #3, Room 130, discussing Oran B. Hesterman’s Fair Food: Growing a Healthier Sustainable Food System for All.  A host of books and films in recent years have documented the dangers of our current food system, from chemical runoff to soaring rates of diet-related illness to inhumane treatment of workers and animals. But advice on what to do about it largely begins and ends with the admonition to “eat local or “eat organic.” Fair Food is an enlightening and inspiring guide to changing not only what we eat, but how food is grown, packaged, delivered, marketed, and sold. Oran B. Hesterman shows how our system’s dysfunctions are unintended consequences of our emphasis on efficiency, centralization, higher yields, profit, and convenience–and defines the new principles, as well as the concrete steps, necessary to restructuring it. Along the way, he introduces people and organizations across the country who are already doing this work in a number of creative ways, from bringing fresh food to inner cities to fighting for farm workers’ rights to putting cows back on the pastures where they belong. He provides a wealth of practical information for readers who want to get more involved. For more information contact Stephanie Bostic at sb2178@gmail.com, or Karen Chaffee at karen@bostonnatural.org.

The December meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club will be held Tuesday, December 13, from 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm and will feature Tom Murray, author of a new field guide entitled Insects of New England and New York, who will speak on Amateur Entomologists and Digital Photography.  CEC meetings are held the second Tuesday of the month from October through May. The evening schedule typically includes an informal dinner (6:15 to 7:15 PM) followed by our formal meeting (7:30 – 9:00 PM) in MCZ 101, 26 Oxford Street, Harvard University. The latter begins with club business and is followed by a 50 minute entomology related presentation. Membership is open to amateur and professional entomologists.  For more information, email CEC President Jessica Walden-Gray at jessisoutside@gmail.com.

For all those interested in improving and expanding Boston’s Urban Forest, you are invited to the Boston Urban Forest Council Meeting on Monday, November 21, from 6 – 7 at the Boston Natural Areas Network offices, 62 Summer Street in downtown Boston. Become a part of a citizen based stewardship group whose goals are to plan trees and educate the public about the benefits of trees. Please RSVP to reserve your spot at 617-542-7696 ext 20 or email: mathew@bostonnatural.org.

Somerville Garden Club members will speak and give demonstrations on four garden related topics: raising and re-potting orchids, planting a terrarium or glass Wardian case, making greeting cards with horticultural photos, and creating a garden journal, on Wednesday, November 9, from 7 – 9 pm at the Tufts Administration Building, 167 Holland Street in Somerville.  All Somerville Garden Club meetings are free and the public is invited to attend. Parking is available on site, and the building is a ten-minute walk from the Davis Square MBTA station.  For more information, please visit somervillegardenclub.org.  Image from www.ravengrrl.blogspot.com

On Tuesday, November 8, the Cambridge Entomological Club will present Michael Bohne, Forest Health Group Leader of the US Forest Service, Durham Field Office, who will, improbably, resuscitate the image of the Asian Longhorned Beetle with his lecture entitled The Flipside of Biological Invasions: The Positive Social Impact of Working with the Asian Longhorned Beetle. The talk is free and open to the public. The meeting is readily accessible via public transportation. Parking is available in the Oxford Street Garage with advance arrangement, as described here, or (usually but not always) at spaces on nearby streets. Everyone is also welcome to join us for dinner before the talk (beginning at 6:15 PM) at the Harvard Law School cafeteria, on the second floor of Harkness Commons.

CEC meetings are held the second Tuesday of the month from October through May. The evening schedule typically includes an informal dinner (6:15 to 7:15 PM) followed by our formal meeting (7:30 – 9:00 PM) in MCZ 101, 26 Oxford Street, Harvard University. The latter begins with club business and is followed by a 50 minute entomology related presentation. Membership is open to amateur and professional entomologists.  For more information, email CEC President Jessica Walden-Gray at jessisoutside@gmail.com.