Edible Landscape Design

Manchester, MA  Public Library  Monday April 27, 2009 at 6:30PM

Learn how to include gorgeous, healthy vegetables and fruits in your landscape.  Anyone with a spot that gets 6-8 hours of sun can grow a bountiful crop and also enjoy flowers and other ornamentals.  I will include basic tips for success as well as some unusual plant combinations to consider.  Vegetables do well in containers and that will be covered too.  Come and enjoy!  There is no charge for this talk.

Family Gardening

Manchester, MA  Public Library  Tuesday April 7, 2009 at 4PM

A big welcome to children of all ages.  Come and learn how to grow your favorite vegetables from seed.  Everyone will go home with a little planted container to get them started.  If my pet chicken named Polly is being good, she'll be invited to tell about the fun of living in Manchester.  There is no charge for this talk

Polly and I went to the library and had a great time with the kids.  There was an overflow crowd of about 24 children plus parents.  Polly was a hit...and she did wonderfully with being touched by so many kidlets.  She wasn't real happy when they got too close to her face but was quite docile with gentle petting.  It was the first time that many of them had seen a chicken and they loved seeing all the colored egg shells I brought from home.

Peat pots were planted with snap pea, long bean and nasturtium seeds...great fun.


Edible Garden Design
Long Hill Beverly, MA  Thursday, March 5, 7-9PM

Using my years of experience at Horticulture magazine and in my own garden, I will share how to create edible landscapes that are bountiful, boldly designed and easily maintained.  This lecture will include tips and techniques for success, a seed staring demonstration and a raffle of gardening products.  The proceeds will help support the Long Hill children's vegetable garden.  Members $15. Nonmembers $20.

Long Hill is one of the properties belonging to The Trustees of Reservation.  More information can  be found at www.thetrustees.org.

From 1916 to 1979, Long Hill was the summer home of noted author and editor of The Atlantic Monthly, Ellery Sedgwick, and his first wife, Mabel Cabot Sedgwick, an accomplished horticulturist, gardener, and author of The Garden Month by Month. The Federal-style house was completed in 1925 and contains original woodwork from the ca.1812 Isaac Ball House in Charleston, South Carolina.

Mrs. Sedgwick designed and planted the original gardens. After her death in 1937, Mr. Sedgwick's second wife, the former Marjorie Russell, herself a distinguished gardener and propagator of rare plants, added many plants to the gardens, including unusual species and varieties of trees and shrubs, some introduced by the Arnold Arboretum.

Today the gardens reflect the collective interests and tastes of both women. Five acres of cultivated grounds are laid out in a series of separate garden "rooms" surrounding the house. Each area is distinct in its own way and is accented by garden ornaments, structures, and statuary. The gardens are flanked on all sides by more than 100 acres of woodland as well as an apple orchard, meadow, and agricultural fields.

3/23/09
Here is some feedback from the talk!
" Barbara
Thank you so VERY much for putting on a fabulous lecture here at Long Hill.  Your presentation was wonderful and I know that everyone gained some insight and ideasd in the world of edible landscaping."
Beth Zschau
Horticulture Educator
The Trustees of Reservations