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Leaflet eNewsletter
March 2015 Edition
In This Issue
How Will All this Snow Affect my Plants?!!
Minuteman Tech Lends a Helping Hand with Flower Show Prep
Barbara Pierson of White Flower Farm to Speak at the Flower Show
Flower Shows, Past and Present
Redeem the Globe Grant Voucher With Mass Hort's Name
Catching up on the Last Half Century
Book Review
March Hort Hints
Essay: I'm Ready for a Dose of Spring
Conserving Our Works on Paper
Elm Bank: Living up to Olmstead Principles
Notes from the Vegetable Garden
Growing from our Roots
Upcoming Events

 

Thu Mar 19 @ 7:00PM - 08:30PM
Cold Frame Gardening

 

Thu Mar 26 @ 7:00PM - 08:30PM
Vegetable Gardening for Everyone

 

Sat Mar 28 @10:00AM - 12:00PM

Build Your Own Cold Frame


Thu Apr 1 @
7:00PM - 08:30PM
Sustainable Edible Landscapes
 
Tue Apr 07 @ 6:30PM - 08:00PM
Fundamentals of Landscape Design

Wed Apr 15 @ 7:00PM - 08:30PM
Introduction to Asian Greens

Thu Apr 16 @ 7:00PM - 08:30PM
Color Gardens: Beautiful Perennial Combinations for Spring through Frost

Thu Apr 23 @ 7:00PM - 08:30PM
Improving Your Garden Soil Sustainably: Get the Most Out of Your Plants

Thu Apr 30 @ 7:00PM - 08:30PM
Passing Along the Passion: Sowing the Seeds for Lifelong Horticultural Appreciation
 

 


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 Letter from the President

 

 

Snow weary?

We have just the solution.

 

Join Mass Hort at the Flower Show next week! The Boston Flower & Garden Show begins on Wednesday, March 11 and runs though Sunday, March 15.

 

Thank you to all the volunteers who help make Mass Hort's exhibit and the amateur competitions possible. Enjoy the Season of Enchantment theme at the show and don't forget to stop by the membership booth and say "hello."

 

Happy March!

 

Kathy

 

 

How Will All this Snow Affect My Plants?!! 
R. Wayne Mezitt,

Chairman of the Board, Mass Hort and Chairman of Weston Nurseries 

 

On the positive side, the amount and duration of this winter's snow is providing superb insulation, minimizing the depth of frozen ground and protecting our trees and shrubs from the coldest temperatures we've seen in years. Unfortunately, winter conditions like this typically cause serious damage to many trees and shrubs, both from snow and ice, and also from animals large and small.

 

The built-up weight of repeated snowfalls weighs down branches, especially those improperly pruned to handle snow loads. Snow dropping off roofs, along with compacted layering caused by repeated shoveling and plowing, amplifies the problem. Wind, sand, salt and sun reflecting off the snow can cause leaf injury to shrubs like holly, rhododendron and other evergreens.

 

Survival of deer and rabbits is seriously challenged by a persistent, deep-snow winter. No longer able to find sufficient food on the ground, they modify their eating habits, expanding their diet to avoid starvation. This year's tenacious snow cover is forcing deer to browse on virtually any foliage, buds and stems they can reach, and many plants will be completely defoliated.

 

When it persists for more than a few weeks, deep snow provides an ideal environment for rodents like voles and field mice to thrive: hidden from normal predators, they seek nourishment by chewing through the cambium layer of trunks, branches and stems, causing damage that only becomes evident when the snow cover recedes. Maples and fruit trees are particularly susceptible to this girdling.

 

Wait to evaluate physical damage until most snow has gone. Many shrubs and trees will recover from snow-load stress when their splayed branches spring back naturally as snow and ice melt away. Some may need their branches tied-up or pruned-back to regrow normally, and this should be done before new growth begins. Prune branches to form a wide "A-shaped" form to strengthen plant structure.

 

For those shrubs or trees with split or torn branches, it's advisable to cut-back and remove their damaged parts. Plants with serious branch breakage recover better if they are pruned more radically. In some cases it's wise to consider cutting back even uninjured branches, enabling latent buds to form a stronger structure and regrow into a more balanced shape than they would with a major section removed.

 

Heavily-browsed foliage isn't always fatal to the plant, and leaves discolored by stress and reflected sunlight don't always indicate the plant is dead. Scratch the stem, and if the tissue under the bark (the cambium) is bright green, your plant should start to grow when the weather warms. Even if the foliage on your plant looks badly damaged, it may be in better condition than it initially appears, so wait until late spring to see if new growth appears.

 

When a stem is slightly chewed by rodents, it should heal by itself; but if it is girdled more than 2/3 of its diameter, the part above the damage will have difficulty recovering and should be removed. There may also be hidden damage from girdling at the root crown, below the soil surface.

 

All our trees and shrubs are being challenged by this winter's unusual weather. Some plants may need to be replaced, opening opportunities for new plants. But overall, I find it rather inspiring to realize that, despite winter's damage, nature's rejuvenation will make next spring's garden just as welcome, even if it's somewhat different than anticipated.

 

 

Minuteman Tech
 
Minuteman Tech Lends a Helping Hand with Flower Show Prep!

Thank you to the students at Minuteman Technical School for their help painting structures for the Flower Show- March 11-15, 2015.

 


Barbara Pierson of White Flower Farm to Speak at the Flower Show

Save the date of Sunday, March 15 at 2:30pm to hear Barbara Pierson's lecture at the Boston Flower and Garden Show.

Keepsake Annuals - Learn the best old-fashioned annuals for beds and containers and the new versions of some our favorites. Whether you like fragrant heliotrope or self-sowing verbena, we will cover the A-Zs of easy care heirloom types and showcase combinations that work. 

Flower Shows, Past and Present                

John Forti, age 8

John Forti, Director of Education and Horticulture


 

I would guess that I attended my first Boston Flower Show at age 8. I was taken by the neighboring family who had cultivated my passion for gardening from an early age.  They collected rare and unusual plants and maintained extensive gardens that put their arts & crafts shingle mansion into context with the woodland landscape we shared along the North River in Norwell Mass. Within a few years I was a proud member of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and I awaited my member tickets in the mail with as much excitement as I would a special birthday gift.  

 

Eventually my parents began to take my whole family to the show. Our pilgrimage to the flower show quickly became an annual tradition. As soon as we entered the great hall, we would inhale our first breath of spring air. My mother was always one to comment on the "feast of color" her eyes would take in after the bleak winter months. 

 

Even at my young age, I was "shopping" the exhibits for ideas that we could incorporate into our own yard. We would wrap up our plants with extra care and run the heat in our enormous family car so that the plants could weather the cold while we enjoyed the family dinner that would follow at the "No-Name" or the old "Pier 4." Each year, I would come home with a new treasure for my windowsill or some new seeds, roots or tubers for the season ahead. From a small packet of seeds, or a new houseplant, a world of wonder and months of patient anticipation sprang forth from my imagination. I would often use some of my savings to bring back a treasure to share with my gardening neighbors so they could see what they had cultivated in me. 

 

This year, as I work on my first Mass Hort Flower Show exhibit design, I do so as an adult profoundly affected by the generations before me that took the time to teach me a love of horticulture. The 2015 theme for the Boston show is a "Season of Enchantment." Playing off of that theme, I have entitled our Mass Hort exhibit "An Enchanted New England Woodland Walk".  I have had the privilege to work with a wonderful team of designers: Suzanne Higham (Chair), Piera Sassaroli, and Bill Cuddy. 


We have created an exhibit intended to remind each of us about the joy that can be found in a seed, the sense of wonder that we enjoy as new spring green emerges, and the world of wonders that we find when we engage in the natural world around us.

 

Our exhibit is divided into three parts. A modern day backyard landscape complete with rustic furnishings, a "kid built" fairy house just beyond a farm wall and ruins of an old bridge that beckons us to follow the woodland trail toward a vernal pool where native plants and remnants of an earlier farm landscape can be found. The sound of spring peepers, and the spring smell of pine needles on an old forest path entice us to explore with a child's eyes as we come upon an "enchanted woodland" that causes us to wonder whom else we might share this habitat with! 


 

 

 

2015 is the "Year of Kids and Families" at Mass Hort. In that spirit, we hope you will take your children and grandchildren to the flower show this year. We have even created a free, fun family discovery guide for you to share with your family in order to help navigate a world of natural wonders that can be found when we look closely into a hollow log, a pool of water or behind a fairy mound.  

 

 

Please download and print the discovery guide from home, or pick one up at the show.  

  

 

Each child that fills out a discovery guide will win a free heirloom SeedD with dinosaur kale seed paper to grow, eat and enjoy throughout the year. This includes links to planting instructions, kid friendly recipes for dinosaur kale chips, and fun seed inspired music to help the whole family come together in the garden and around the table. 

 

 


 

I look forward to seeing you at the show! 


 

John 

 

  

 
 Help Support Mass Hort - By Redeeming the Globe Grant Voucher with Mass Hort's Name

The Boston Globe GRANT (Globe Readers And Non-profits Together) program is back, giving subscribers an easy, no-cost way to support the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. With your continued support, help Mass Hort be one of New England's non-profits recognized this year!


Here's how it works:

 

* For all Globe subscribers, this month, be on the lookout for your GRANT recipient voucher in the mail or by email.


* Specify "Massachusetts Horticultural Society" as your 501(c)(3) charity of choice, and mail or submit it online no later than April 30 - all at no cost to you.


* Or don't wait - simply fill out the online grant voucher now using your subscriber number, email, or phone number.

 

Globe GRANT recognition comes with free advertising space for organizations with the highest voucher donations, helping to promote Mass Hort's mission.

 

 Thank you for choosing Mass Hort as your favorite non-profit!

 

Catching Up on the Last Half Century

The Wandering Flower Show                             

Maureen Horn, Librarian

      

Anyone reading Massachusetts Horticultural Society's history covering the late 1950's would be struck by the emphasis on the success or disappointment resulting from the popularity of the Spring Flower Show. It seemed to affect the health of the whole Society, in spite of steady success with lectures and courses, publications and exhibits. In 1957 the magazine Horticulture boasted 90,000 subscriptions and to acquaint people with the work of the Society, an exhibit of pictures, books and medals was placed in the Merchant National Bank in South Station. The Committee on Exhibitions managed nine specialized shows, besides the Spring Show, and showed healthy attendance records, but in spite of more than 121,000 visitors in the spring, the deficit for the year was a cause for worry. Arno H. Nehrling, the Executive Secretary, was thanked for his efforts, but the Society was urged to do better. The count of 17,194 members was impressive, but according to President John S. Ames, the goal was 20,000.    Three blizzards within nine days, starting on March 16, 1956, affected the growing season, and still the Children's Gardens Committee accepted 1,382 entries. 

     

According to President Oliver Wolcott in 1958, the profit on the Show was even less. He was happy that modern improvements to the library had continued and that the class offerings had broadened. He was pleased to report that a list had been compiled of gardens to which the Society gave awards during the past five years, and members could now visit them. Executive Secretary Nehrling reported that, in spite of the membership dues having been raised from $5.00 to $8.00, membership had grown. Annual field trips to the Arnold Arboretum on busses continued to be popular.

     

In 1959, after the business recession of 1958, the Society lost 2,000 members and also the Mechanics Building as the Spring Show's venue. It was planned for Horticultural Hall and Symphony Hall for the next year. That turned out to be a huge disappointment because of overcrowding, and attendance was down 50%, but hope was placed in the Wonderland race track. The hope was well placed, the public liked the nearly uniform sizes of the spaces, and were inspired to enter exhibits of their own. Sincere thanks was extended to the Revere Racing Association because the Society bore the lowest cost in many years and looked forward to putting a stop to the show's wandering for a while.

 

 

Book Review                              
By Pamela Hartford
The Living Landscape: Designing for Beauty and Biodiversity in the Home Landscape

By Rick Darke and Doug Tallamy

Timber Press 2014

 

How much positive impact can one home landscape have on our rapidly altering environment?

 

Beyond conserving water, composting and abstaining from the use of chemicals, it is also important to provide the lures that support and encourage wildlife. I've experienced the effects.

 

A few years ago, a septic system 'disturbance' provided an opportunity for me to transform the lawn/asphalt/privet hedge landscape at my mother-in-law's house to a xeriscape meadow and bog garden. After several seasons, our focus shifted from admiring the flora to fauna spotting. Suddenly, we had so many dragonflies of astonishing variety, it seemed as though an air traffic controller would soon be needed. Same with the butterflies and the bees. It was rush hour all the time in our little landscape.

 

Advancing into our woods to reclaim the invasive infested hillside, and shading the house, will provide more opportunities to populate our landscape with native plants. But since reading Darke & Tallamy's book, I now realize how much impact one single plant choice can have on both the biomass and the atmosphere.

 

Doug Tallamy, an entomologist and behavioral ecologist, defines a 'native' plant as having "developed complex and essential relationships with the physical environment and other organisms in a given ecological community." These relationships between flora and fauna operate at every layer - the canopy, the understory, the shrub and the ground cover level. While natives contribute substantially over non-natives, they do not all contribute equally.

 

Eleven varieties of native oak, it turns out, support 557 species of caterpillar; a highbush blueberry, 294; asters, 109. Why care about caterpillars? A pair of chickadees, bringing their clutch to flighthood, require anywhere from 6,240 to 10,260 caterpillars in a breeding season, or between 390 and 570 caterpillars a day, depending on how many fledges there are.  

 

And oaks are among the top carbon sequesters in our temperate zone.

 

The book abounds in facts like these, which dramatically increase one's interest and joy in close observation of the landscape. Rick Darke's exquisite photographs demonstrate the aesthetic possibilities when all layers are considered equally. Tallamy's telephoto lens beams in on caterpillars, birds and butterflies - revealing what plants they have specialized relationships with. The images are captioned in detail, including month, location and Latin identification, and the extensive plant database is keyed by ecological functions (relationships) and landscape functions (aesthetics.)

 

I may elect to pass on the tulip tree I've been fancying (no caterpillars, and its seeds support rodents!) in favor of a scarlet oak. It doesn't matter that I won't live to see it reach fifty feet, it will be beautiful and part of the solution long after I become fertilizer.

 

Pamela Hartford is a landscape historian, writer and preservation consultant living in Salem, Massachusetts

 

 

March Hort Hints

By Betty Sanders
BettyOnGardening.com

 

 

Are your lawn, garden and everything but the trees buried under this year's bounty of snow? Wondering what's happening there? Most perennials and lawns are happily sleeping through this dreadful winter. Any harm they have suffered up to now would have been from the very cold stretch we endured before the snow started falling- and falling. The snow acts as a blanket keeping the roots protected from the cold temperatures and rare warm days. 

 

Trees and shrubs are not always so lucky. Snow accompanied by high winds may bend a tree or shrub and then hold it that way for months. It can bend or even break branches. They will usually regain their shape during the following growing season, though you should be on the lookout for any broken branches to prune away as soon as you can reach them. I am most worried about some very small shrubs, bog rosemary and a pygmy pine, that disappeared in the first storm and which will remain under all that snow until it finally melts.

This is a good time to sharpen your garden tools

 

Inventory your tools. It's going to be a busy spring and having them cleaned, sharpened and ready to go now will save aggravation later. Send mowers and rototillers that weren't tuned up last fall into the shop now and avoid the crush when you (and everyone else) need them.

Before the press of outdoor work starts, repair fences, trellises, arbors and garden furniture. Clean birdhouses and rehang them for returning guests.

 

Do any pruning you can as soon as it is safe to get out to the trees and shrubs. The days are getting longer and slowly the temperatures will get warmer. As the snow starts to melt, work on the shrubs that may be buried right now. 

 

Stay off frozen lawns and away from garden beds as much as possible. Any weight on it now will compact the soil destroying its structure and making it harder for spring bulbs, perennials and even the lawn to get growing again. Do not plow, till or spade soil until it is dry enough to fall apart when gently squeezed. If it stays in a lump, it is too wet to work.

 

If you covered your garden beds with cut evergreen branches begin gently removing them as they reappear. Look for hellebores and early bulbs like snowdrops and winter aconite peeking out from the melting snow.

 

Clean off cold frames and hotbeds and replant now for early crops of spinach, kale, oriental greens like bok choy, and even peas. Some varieties of peas only grow to 18 inches and will do well in a cold frame, but it will probably be well after St. Patrick's Day before most of us get to plant peas this year. If you haven't ordered your vegetable and flower seeds yet, do so immediately!

 

Start your summer bulbs indoors now

Planting summer flowers and bulbs. Get a head start on tender bulbs such as begonias, cannas, colacassia (elephant's ear), dahlia and ranunculus. Started indoors in pots, they will be larger and bloom sooner after you put them outdoors when the weather has warmed sufficiently. Check the details for individual bulbs or corms, but most can be potted now in a lightweight, well drained potting mix. When the shoots appear, move them to a site where they get several hours of sunlight a day. As the temperatures increase, increase their sunlight exposure. Once the danger of frost is past, you will have good sized plants for summer gardens or containers.

 

 

I'm Ready for a Dose of Spring

By Neal Sanders
Leaflet Contributor

I don't know about you, but I'm more than ready for spring. I'm not talking about waiting until May for some perfect day. I mean I want it now. And, while I'm making these impossible demands, I have no intention of spending a thousand bucks and three hours on a flying sardine can just to see that spring day. I want a New England spring with lilacs, tulips, rhododendron and newly leafed-out maples.  Yeah, I know it's impossible.

Oh, wait. It isn't impossible. In fact, I can get that fix of spring next week. It's called the Boston Flower & Garden Show. 

We are still in the midst of the worst winter in recorded New England history. We've got the Polar Vortex plus storms with names like Neptune and Sparta that keep marching across the country like meteorological Mongol hordes, each one dumping ten inches of snow and dropping temperatures into the single digits. I haven't seen my front yard since mid-January. Somewhere under the four feet of snow is a clutch of hellebores that were in bloom before Mother Nature started running amok.   

The beauty of the flower show is that it is tangible proof that winter eventually gives way to something really, really spectacular around here. You walk in the doors of the Seaport World Trade Center, and you're in the midst of landscapes and garden vignettes. You smell spring: lilacs and tulips and daffodils are all around you. It's sensory overload.  Be still my heart.

Incredibly, those landscape exhibits are just the opening act. Beyond the glass doors at the rear of the main hall is another, more intimate show that is just as compelling.  It's the part that Mass Hort runs.

For starters, there's a pair of floral design competitions. It is my good fortune to know some of the designers who create magic with flowers. They enter a class with a name like "Thumbelina" which requires the designer to create a miniature design no bigger than five inches high or wide, or "Reawakening", which the schedule for the show describes as "a Traditional Design created in the manner of Italian Renaissance staged on a pedestal 36" high with a 14" diameter top." I have no idea what that means, but I can't wait to see what gets created.

Next door, there's Ikebana, the incredibly graceful art of Japanese flower arranging. (It can't be called a competition because it isn't judged, but it is no less beautiful or imaginative.)

The photography competition is dazzling

Then, there's the Photography competition, which draws entries from around the world. There are seven classes of competition this year. One I'm especially interested in seeing is called "The Princess and the Pea," which asks the entrant to provide a close-up or macro image that "enchants with the smallest detail." Every year, I keep thinking it can't get any better, and every year, the folks who run it prove me wrong. The photography competition is worth the trip into South Boston all by itself.

Amateur Horticulture judges assess entries in the succulent category

Finally, there's the Amateur Horticulture displays. This is where we mere mortals get to strut our stuff. If I have a houseplant I am proud of, and I can get it to Seaport between noon and 8 p.m. on Monday, March 9, I can enter it. There are a handful of rules to follow (no dirty pots, no bugs on plants, please), but the rest of it is easy. One of the best parts is that, if you don't know the exact name of your plant, there are a roomful of experts to help you find that name.

There's one other great reason to enter a plant into Amateur Horticulture:  you get to walk near the landscape exhibits as they're in the middle of being created. This part of the show, called 'the build,' is one of the most awe-inspiring sights around. Of course, you can also use the drive-through service in which a volunteer takes your plant and you're on your way. 

I have been trying to decide which houseplants I'm going to enter this year. For example, I have a terrific croton that won a blue ribbon a few years ago. We also have a farfugium, a notoriously difficult-to-grow plant that may, after five years, finally be ready for its close-up. 

But no matter what I enter, I'm headed for the Flower Show next week. It turns out that spring comes twice a year in New England. One may not come until mid-May when the last of this snow melts. The other runs March 11 to 15 in South Boston.

 

Neal Sanders is a regular contributor to the Leaflet. His newest mystery, Murder in Negative Space, has just been published and he will be signing copies at the Boston Flower & Garden Show, and speaking on the Lecture Hall stage on Wednesday, March 11, at 11:30 a.m.  You can learn more about his books here or order them through Amazon.com.

 

 

Conserving Our Works on Paper                      

The Mass Hort staff was excited recently to rediscover a

Membership acknowledgment

membership certificate from 1831. It was presented to Martin Burridge of Medford, just two years after our 1829 founding and according to Article VII of our original by-laws, "Each member before he receives his certificate or takes his seat, shall pay a sum of five dollars." One can imagine that at subsequent meetings, after the original presentation, Mr. Burridge brandished the certificate in order to participate, which may explain its worn-out appearance. The signs of age, though, do not entirely obscure the multitude of artistically rendered horticultural motifs. An intriguing embellishment is the Society seal, with its primitive rendering of the first human farmer.

Membership certificate from 1831

We consulted the experts at the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, and they recommended a plan to reduce staining and help restore the integrity of the paper. The iron-gall ink, of a kind that was used as far back as the 18th century will require a water/alcohol bath.

    

A related document is the letter written to our president, General H. A. S. Dearborn, by Judge E. B. Strong of Rochester, New York, in which he expresses his gratitude for having been elected a Corresponding Member. That class of membership was reserved for citizens of the United States or other countries who were distinguished for their practical skill and knowledge of horticulture, and to whom the president and secretary could write letters. (It is doubtful that Judge Strong overused his certificate because he was heavily involved in establishing the first bank in Rochester.) His letter is full of compliments for the Massachusetts Horticultural Society as the source of much zeal for the science and industry of horticulture.

   

Membership certificate illustration 1831

With this encouragement in mind, we shall continue to pursue the steps we must take to preserve our Works on Paper and hope that the reproductions we make of the certificate will be treasured gifts to future members.

 

 

Elm Bank: Living up to Olmsted Principles 

E.B. Asian Garden publicized by Olmsted, 1937

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A visit and lecture in late February by Alan Banks, the Supervisory Park Ranger at the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, was informative and also reassuring. Along with the general public, several Mass Hort staff heard his recount of Olmsted's life and design principles and  agreed that the Elm Bank designers created a public good and that we, as its present day curators, are continuing to protect their legacy.

     

Mr. Banks told us that Olmsted's landscape education began at the People's Park in Birkenhead, England. His writing on the subject attracted the notice of the fledgling New York Times, which sent him to the pre-Civil War South to describe living conditions. Buoyed by his literary success, he founded his own publishing company, which failed. History should be grateful for this because, without a clear career path, he formed a partnership with Calvert Vaux, and they were awarded the commission to design New York's Central Park. It opened in 1857, making life in the city healthful and happy for millions. Ever searching for new challenges, Olmsted traveled to the West after the Civil War and managed a mining camp. Still concerned with human welfare, he built a community that improved people's lives.

     

His restlessness took over again, and he moved to Boston, specifically to Fairsted in Brookline and established a firm that would work on 6,000 projects. Eventually it was taken over by his sons, Charles and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., who were in charge in 1908, when work was started at Elm Bank by Alice Cheney Balzell and her husband, William. The supervisor of the project was Percy Gallagher. The firm was so proud of the results that they included a picture of our Asian Garden in promotional material, celebrating the honor of receiving the Hunnewell Medal in 1937. Also in their promotional material they stated guiding words that echoed those of the firm's founding father, among them were style in the use of light (note the sense of mystery in the Asian Garden); sanitation (in the use of natural water, such as the aquifer where Elm Bank sits); separation of styles (a variety of gardens); and suitability (to the place's natural terrain). 

    

Here at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, we are working to protect the public good, and it can be argued that Elm Bank meets the criteria for Olmsted's vision of a successful landscape, but we don't want to be static.  Horticulture should be used for cultural improvement, and as steward of Olmsted Firm landscapes that sit over our regions aquifer, we feel strongly here at Mass Hort, that a portion of our work is to preserve a cultural inheritance for generations to come.

We hope that you will grow with us in the years ahead as we begin to restore the historic layers here at Elm Bank. You can already visit the Italianate garden which we have lovingly restored and adorned as a period landscape and backdrop for many of the weddings and events held at Mass Hort. In the years ahead, with your help, we will work to restore the "Temple Garden," "Japanese Aquatic Garden" and boathouse landscapes installed by the Olmsted Firm nearly a century ago.

If you would like to learn more about these historic landscapes, join us on June 25 for another talk in our 2015 series that highlights the preservation of our cultural landscapes!

 

 

Notes from the Vegetable Garden                              
Susan Hammond

Gardening requires flexibility...and the use of many "calendars."

 

Normally, in the Garden to Table Vegetable garden, we can use the dates of the Flower Show as a calendar, and a week after the flower show we cut down the cover crops that protected our beds over the winter.

 

This year's historic snowfalls mean that that calendar won't work, so we need to find another. We will plan to cut down our cover crops as soon as our beds are clear of snow. This is where raised beds have a big advantage: they warm up more quickly than the surrounding soil. About one to two weeks after that, we'll turn what's left of the cover crops under. And a few weeks after that we have a garden bed ready for planting.

 

Here's where the "flexibility" comes in. We have some crops that like cool spring weather. Many old-time New England gardeners may remember the saying "Plant Peas On Patriot's Day." Our normal handling of cover crops would have beds ready for planting by then, but this year that may not leave time for the turned-under crops to break down.   

 

So we'll have to be flexible about timing and about how we handle our cover crops. If we get to Patriot's Day and the weather is still much cooler than normal, we'll delay spring planting for a week or two. If the temperatures are normal, but the beds are not quite ready, we'll take the remains of the cover crops out of the beds and put them into our compost pile to finish breaking down. That will let us get planting back on schedule.

 

It also helps to be flexible about what we grow. For example, most of us, when we grow peas, grow them for shell peas peas or for edible pods. However, we can get a much earlier crop if we grow peas for the shoots! The young growth of peas - the tendrils, tender shoots and leaves - are tasty and fast to mature. In fact many Asian restaurants have stir-fried pea shoots on the menu as a gourmet vegetable. Pea shoots can be harvested in just a few weeks from planting!

 

Part of the mission of this garden is to give our visitors ideas to help them with their own gardening. We'll be using our experiences this spring as part of our Hands on Hort program "From Plan To Harvest" on July 11th,  and will discuss what worked and what didn't as we adapted to the challenges the weather presented us this year. Sign up for that program here.

 

Want to get an early start on planning your own vegetable garden- or just to learn more? Sign up here for the Thursday Night at the Hort lecture "Vegetable Gardening for Everyone"  on March 26th- and think spring!

 

 

Growing from Our Roots                               

February 19th was an exciting day at Mass Hort. Over 100 people came for our School Gardens Conference. Experts from local school gardens, the Concord Seed Lending Library, Mass Ag in the Classroom, Mass Master Gardeners, and Slow Food USA shared best practices for successful school garden programs.

 

The day was filled with ideas on how to engage administrators, teachers, volunteers and above all else the students. School food service directors, such as Brendan Ryan of Framingham Schools, reflected on their experiences with using student grown food in the cafeteria. He told us how he makes 1,200 gallons of tomato sauce from the garden. School garden volunteer and NPR resident Chef Kathy Gunst raised the bar of school garden programs, as she regaled us with stories of preparing squid ink pasta with kids.

 

Presenters from Mass Ag in the Classroom led a workshop on using gardens as classrooms to incorporate them into curriculum for a hands-on and exciting program. The organizers of Concord's Seed Lending Library gave us their best practices for running a seed lending library. Theirs was one of the first such libraries in Massachusetts, and in addition to helping conference participants understand how to run a library, they excitedly agreed to help Mass Hort start our own seed lending library!

 

We are so grateful to the presenters, sponsors and volunteers of this conference, and we are excited to take our place as leaders in the school garden movement. In 1891, Mass Hort established a committee on school gardens, leading the School Garden Movement through Boston, and growing a movement throughout the nation. School gardens encouraged students to work in the open air, work together across different ages, observe the wonders of plant science, and develop life skills as they collectively decided how to raise their gardens. Mass Hort offered guidance, prizes and opportunities to show off the fruits of their hard work.

From the start of the day, with a joint overview by Mass Hort's Kathy Macdonald and John Forti of the history of school gardens to the end of the day, when a panel of school garden experts shared their greatest moments, the event was inspiring. One participant may have summed it up best with, "I am leaving with renewed confidence, new ideas, and lots of energy and enthusiasm."

 

Please follow our work into the year ahead as we create new, engaging educational programs to help keep youth and the school garden movement at the forefront of our work. Conference attendees are encouraged to share their garden experiences on our Facebook.

 

Mass Hort looks forward to growing out the many wonderful community relationships built by this sold out conference. We would again like to thank our sponsors and supporters: Chipotle Mexican Grill, FoodCorps, the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts, Mass Ag in the Classroom, Mass Master Gardeners, Slow Food Boston, Slow Food USA, and Starbucks.