The Garden Club of the Back Bay

This is The Japan Year for The Garden Club of the Back Bay.  The Peabody Essex Museum will host a Japanese New Year event on Friday, January 27 from 6 – 9, including hands-on art activities for kids of all ages.  Supper by the bite.  Special performances and interactive storytelling will be part of the celebration.  To learn more, call 978-542-1539, or email elisabeth_buell@pem.org.

Instructor Sandra Tosches will lead a Tower Hill Botanic Garden class on Saturday, February 11, from 12:30 – 3:30 on gluten free baking.  Frosted nut brownies, cheesecake that makes its own crust, gingerbread with whipped cream, and peanut butter penuche fudge will become part of your repertory just in time for Valentine’s Day.  All recipes are tried and true favorites, even with non gluten free friends.  Bring your sweet tooth to taste all the goodies.  THBG member price $35, nonmembers $40.  Register at www.towerhillbg.org.

Garden Club of the Back Bay member Susan Ashbrook brought this Copley Square competition to our attention. SHIFTBoston is asking artists, architects, urban planners, sculptors, lighting designers, and landscape architects around the world to envision a new approach to activating Copley Square in Boston with a lighting installation. In their GLOW Competition, SHIFT is looking for proposals which will make the space one of the greatest squares in the world to visit at night. Teams are invited to enter, and winners will be given two months to work with a professional from Boston Light Source to develop lighting specifications for their proposal. In April, a jury will review the three final proposals and select the one that is most technically feasible and suitable to the overall program goal. The winning proposal will be featured as part of the upcoming Fairmont Copley Plaza Anniversary celebration and planned for installation in 2013. Entries are due by February 3, 2012. All eligible entries will be promoted on the SHIFTboston blog and website and will become part of the SHIFTboston GLOW book in 2012. The international jury includes the following:

- Ana Bassat: Architect, Principal of b720; Barcelona, Spain
- Helmut Bien: Director of Luminale and Luminapolis.com; Germany
- Bill Kenney: General Manager of Copley Place Simon Property Group; Boston, MA
- Mark Loeffler: Lighting Designer, Director of Atelier Ten; New Haven CT
- Otto Piene: Painter, Artist, Lighting sculptor; Groton MA
- Nader Tehrani: Principal of NADAAA, Boston MA
- Paul Zaferiou: Lighting Designer, Principal of Lam Partners; Boston MA

The Garden Club of the Back Bay has taken no official position on the appropriateness of additional lighting in Copley Square, but is in conversation with The Friends of Copley Square, The Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay, and local government officials reviewing the proposed competition.

No discussion of The Garden Club of the Back Bay’s wreath project would be complete without discussing the clean up.  We need to leave The First Lutheran Church of Boston space neat and tidy, and after four days of decorating with live greens, paint and wire, you can imagine what a task that can be.  All materials which are to be saved are sorted and boxed back into stackable plastic containers destined for our storage facility.  Tables and easels are broken down, leftover greens are bagged for recycling, garbage is collected by a neighborhood maintenance company, and our members sweep and wash.  The painting tent is broken down, and a human “bucket brigade” sends our materials up the kitchen steps and into the backs of members’ cars.  This isn’t the most enjoyable part of the process, although some members find satisfaction seeing everything tidied up, but it is critical.  Sweeping and trash removal do take place constantly throughout the week, but no matter how much is done, Thursday afternoon and evening is arduous.  The next day finds members traveling to the storage facility, to basements, to barns, and to numerous closets, tucking away materials until next season.  The design below was inspired by the edgy sheer black and gold bow, which the decorator enhanced with silver and gold glittery balls, painted white pine, magnolia leaves, pine cones, and lotus pods embellished with more glittery elements – a powerhouse.

We’ve told you how we make our bows, but some Garden Club of the Back Bay wreaths are send out, by special request, without ribbon.  A few customers keep their wreaths up well into late winter and don’t want an especially holiday look to the decoration.  Some just prefer our designs without the added splash of color.  As we’ve said before, we aim to please.  There is a bit more work involved with wreaths without bows, since more of the surface of the wreath must be covered.  While an average fully decorated standard wreath might take between an hour to two hours to make, one without ribbon easily stretches the process an extra half hour.

The City of Boston composts Christmas trees.  Pick up in the Back Bay is the week of January 9, 2012.  Please remove all decorations and plastic bags and place out for collection on your recycling day, which is Monday for Arlington Street to Massachusetts Avenue, and Tuesday for Massachusetts Avenue to Charlesgate.

The Friends of Hayes Park invite you to Caroling in the Park Sunday, December 18th at 4 pm.  Enjoy hot mulled cider and holiday treats.  Please bring canned goods for SNAP’s Emergency Food Pantry, if you are able.  For more information, visit www.HayesPark.org.

Join the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy and the North End community for the annual lighting of the great Elm Tree and the illumination of the pergola on Wednesday, December 7, from 6 – 7 pm.  Celebrate the winter season and enjoy bell ringing by the North End Music & Performing Arts Center.  This will all take place in the North End Parks, between Hanover & New Sudbury Streets.

The Friends of Copley Square and Mayor Thomas M. Menino invite you and your family to attend the annual Copley Square Holiday Tree Lighting Festivities on Tuesday, November 29, from 3:00 – 6:00 pm, with WHDH’s Janet Wu.  At 3:00, there will be a Story Hour and Candy Cane Tea at the Boston Public Library, sponsored by the BPL and by Catered Affair (rsvp by November 25 at 617-859-2282), and be sure to bring your little ones for a Parade of Festively Decorated Carriages.  The actual tree lighting will take place at 5:00,with lights courtesy of Normandy RE Partners and Boston Properties,  and there will be a post lighting reception at the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel.  Bring a can and support Boston Can Share. For more information, visit www.friendsofcopleysquare.org, or email friends of copleysquare@gmail.com.

Since 2003, the Mall has been successfully lit without public funds thanks to the efforts of chairperson Mimi La Camera, the lighting committee, and many neighborhood supporters. Following the Boston Common Lighting, the Commonwealth Avenue Mall will be lit.  Picture from www.3rdhouseparty.typepad.com.

Join Mayor Thomas M. Menino, the Province of Nova Scotia, WCVB-TV Channel 5, and MAGIC 106.7 FM for the lighting of Boston Common, the Public Garden, and the City of Boston’s Official Christmas Tree. Acts to be announced, check  at www.cityofboston.gov/parks for updates.

The Maynard Community Gardeners are sponsoring a lecture entitled Planting Ecological Gardens on Thursday, November 17, from 7 – 9, at the Maynard Public Library, 77 Nason Street in Maynard.  The speaker, Maria von Brincken, earned a graduate design certificate from the Radcliffe Seminars Landscape Program, Radcliffe College in 1994 as well as national certification from the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) in 2003 — one of only seven APLD-certified professional landscape designers in Massachusetts. Her work has been featured in Fine Gardening Magazine and Taunton Press’ Front Yard Idea Book.  The lecture is free and open to the public.

Celebrate Halloween at the Clarendon Street Playground on Monday, October 31 (actual date of Halloween!) from 4 – 6, with a magic show (4:45), hayride around the neighborhood, and a spooky good time.  Be sure to wear your favorite costume.  Pizza slices, drinks and glow necklaces will be on sale for $1 each.  Marlborough Street between Berkeley and Fairfield Streets, as well as Clarendon and Dartmouth Streets between Commonwealth and Beacon Streets, will be closed to moving traffic from 5 – 9:30 to ensure safe trick or treating.  The neighborhood safe house list will be distributed at the event.  To add your house to the list, call the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay office at 617-247-3961 or email info@nabbonline.com.  Image from www.sheknows.com.

The next meeting of the Boston Urban Gardening Book Group will take place Tuesday, November 15, from 5:30 – 7:30 in Academic Building Number 3, Room 130, at Roxbury Community College.  Sponsored by the Boston Gardeners Council and The Roxbury Community College Service Learning Garden Project, the discussion will center on The Resilient Gardener by Carol Deppe. ForeWord Reviews says: ” In The Resilient Gardener, scientist and author Carol Deppe offers readers an inspiring approach to gardening. For many, gardening is a hobby-a source of solace and an experiment in self-sufficiency. Gardens are designed to offer up good things during good times-handfuls of bulbous tomatoes after weeks of careful watering, weeding, and monitoring for invading insects, for example. But what happens when gardeners-along with the rest of society-face uncertain times?

Uncertain times, caused by an unstable economy, changing weather patterns, or personal injury, result in an expanse of time when the “garden suffers because people have other priorities.” With this premise in mind, Deppe introduces the concept of resilient gardening. In Deppe’s world, gardening transcends the world of leisurely pursuit and transforms into an act of empowerment.

In twelve intensely detailed chapters, The Resilient Gardener empowers readers with the knowledge they need to design, build, and maintain gardens that can withstand intense hardship and thrive despite periods of complete neglect. The first half of the book marries the practice of gardening with emerging global issues, such as climate change, increasing attention to weight control, and the rise of food allergies. Readers must first achieve a firm grasp of how these issues intersect with the process of gardening in order to fully benefit from the hands-on guidelines provided later in the book. Deppe’s analysis is thorough; her research delves deep. By discussing the interaction between gardening and prevalent world issues, she establishes gardeners as hubs of sustainability and survival, their individual efforts producing movements of resilience that can benefit society as a whole.” For more information contact Stephanie Bostic at sb2178@gmail.com, or Karen Chaffee at karen@bostonnatural.org.

The Friends of Hayes Park invite you to Harvestfest in Hayes Park on Sunday, October 16, from 2 pm – 4 pm.  There will be painting and refreshments.  Hayes Park is located on the corner of West Canton Street and Warren Avenue in the South End.  Everyone is welcome.

Patsy Cannon Boyce, a Past President of The Garden Club of the Back Bay  has passed away at the age of 77 at her winter home in Arizona from congestive heart failure and complications from dementia.

For over twenty years, Patsy Boyce was one of the most active residents in Back Back, instrumental in the founding and growth of The Garden Club of the Back Bay.  Additionally, she served on both the Building Committee and Vestry of Trinity Church in Copley Square, and supported both the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay and  the Boston Public Library.  Her BPL Courtyard design served as a popular urban oasis for many years, prior to the most recent Library renovations.

Born in Bellingham, Washington in 1933 to George Frederick and Carolyn Ruth Cannon, Patsy traveled the world before moving to Boston in 1963. Graduating from Gonzaga University with a degree in Nursing, Patsy was one of the original flight attendants for Pan American Airways, flying on several prestigious routes for the airline, including the first commercial flight over the North Pole and on the airline’s “Royal” charters, which served leaders and monarchs around the world.

After leaving Pan Am, she was the social director on the S.S. Brazil, the same cruise ship that was later re-fitted and served as the model for “The Love Boat.” Immediately prior to marrying her husband Jim Boyce, she was then Vice President Lyndon Johnson’s personal secretary, leaving his employ in August 1963 to be married and move to Massachusetts.

According to her long time friend, Congressman Barney Frank, Patsy was a force for good as Boston’s Back Bay became the neighborhood it is today. In a recent letter, Barney writes “When you look at the revitalization of Back Bay in the 1970s and 1980s, you have to look at people like Patsy, who as the first ‘urban environmentalist’  did so much for this part of Boston.”

Armed with a graduate degree in landscape design from Radcliffe College, Patsy was involved in many of the projects that helped turn the Back Bay into what it is today, including her personal favorite, maintaining the observatory at the Webster-Ames Mansion for  owner/developer Ted Raymond.  Patsy is survived by her son, James Cannon Boyce, her two sisters, Carolyn McKinnon and Neila McNamara, her husband Joseph Sidlovsky,  two beloved grandchildren, Oliver Cannon Boyce and Phoebe Jean Ann Boyce, their mother Paris Ann Boyce and numerous nieces and nephews. A memorial service will be held at Trinity Church in Copley Square at 10:00 am, on October 1, 2011. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to  The Garden Club of the Back Bay.  Contributions may be mailed to Elisabeth Lay, Treasurer, 239 Marlborough Street, Boston, MA 02116, and please note on the check that the contribution is made in memory of Patsy Cannon Boyce.

Patsy Cannon Boyce

Did you know the Arnold Arboretum has been cited as the “mother arboretum” for the flowering crabapple? The Arboretum’s historically significant crabapple collection is getting some much-needed attention. Take a tour with Miles Sax, the Apprentice who is spending his tenure here documenting and renovating the glorious Malus collection on Peters Hill. The tour will take place Tuesday, October 4, from 2 – 3:30 – meet at the Hunnewell Building. In case of inclement weather, contact 617.384.5209. This activity is free, but please register at www.arboretum.harvard.edu.

Penny and Ed Cherubino over at Boston Zest have called our attention to a fabulous on-line service by Yankee Magazine.  Read how you can pinpoint areas of peak color – the map is updated every fifteen minutes! Amazing.  Link to http://www.bostonzest.com/2011/09/tracking-fall-foliage-with-yankee-magazine.html for the full story.

Shirley Nicolai, of Fort Washington, Maryland, has been named the 42nd president of National Garden Clubs, Inc.  The Garden Club of the Back Bay  is affiliated, through its membership in the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts, with the National Garden Clubs.  Quoting from an article published in The Washington Times, Shirley is “a former elementary school teacher who has been deeply involved in NGC-affiliated activities for more than 30 years…also recognized for her environmental activism related to aquatic ecosystems, having successfully submitted one of the first mitigation plans to satisfy Chesapeake Bay Critical Area legislation requirements.”  To read the full article, visit http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/making-change/2011/aug/7/national-garden-clubd-inc-welcomes-new-president/  We welcome Shirley and wish her much success during her two year term.