MY OLD FRIEND BOB HYLAND AND I are teaching together again next month, this time a Shade Gardening Workshop–including hands-on demonstrations as we start renovations on beds and borders here in my garden in the morning, and later at Loomis Creek Nursery nearby. The date: Saturday, September 11; the details (and registration information) below:
Made for the Shade Workshop
With A Way to Garden and Loomis Creek
Saturday, September 11, 8:30am-1 pm
RAIN DATE: Sunday, September 12
This hands-on workshop offers participants practical approaches for designing, planting and rejuvenating a shade border.
It’s been a challenging hot, dry summer in the Hudson Valley; fall is a great time for planting. Come learn and share with us. Light breakfast refreshments at Margaret’s is included, and gives us a chance to get acquainted and see what the group wants most from the day’s class so we can tailor our activities a bit.
The fee is $45/person, including breakfast. (Note: To simplify registration, we are using Eventbrite, which charges per ticket to process registrations. We have adjusted to get your total at checkout as close to $45 as possible. Important: The password of our event site is shadeclass. All directions and other details will be sent to you once you’ve registered.)
This half-day workshop starts at my place, where after our light breakfast together, we’ll start with demos here in the garden.
Late morning, we head (in our caravan of cars) over to Loomis Creek, 20 minutes away, where we will work out the design revisions for a shady area together and begin its renovation.
At both sites, we’ll be uprooting and dividing a range of shade perennials from well-known to rare; talking about design challenges and also the challenges of different kinds of shade (light, dry, high, dense, bright–what does it all mean?), planning for the incorporation of flowering bulbs that work well in shade, and more.
Our spring workshop was a sellout, and a hit–you can read about it here.
To register, visit the Eventbrite site for this workshop–again, the password is shadeclass. See you in the shade!
Hello!
Totally off topic. Do you have a plan for those lovely red adirondack chairs that are often in your pics.
I will not be able to attend you shade garden workshop but we do have a large area of our yard in the shade. Will you have notes and plants on your website?
Thank you
Welcome, Cheryl. We may have some coverage after, yes — and there is also a shade “topic” here in the archive that you can browse through anytime. Enjoy!
@Lynn: You can adapt the plan from the Wave Hill Chairs (public garden in NYC). I just used heavier stock and shifted the angle of the back a tiny bit.
Hi Margaret,
We’re huge fans of your from pre-blog days with your lovely book, A Way to Garden, and would love to attend this workshop. However, coming from Montreal means we can’t make the drive in the a.m. but would have to drive there on Friday. Any ideas of place to stay nearby?
Thanks.
Wish I lived closer!
Welcome, Donna — and though I am not great at answering this question, the Loomis Creek site has an “area attractions” page including the contact for the Columbia County (NY) tourism board and so on that might be a start. The nearest little ski place to me has a list on their site, too, with “Linden Valley” being the one nearest accommodation. I also found these phone numbers for the nearest associations on another area site (I am 20 minutes from Gt. Barrington, MA, in Berkshire Country, which is one of the counties listed below, fyi):
* Columbia County (NY) Lodging Association: 1-800-558-8218
* Columbia County (NY) Chamber of Commerce: 518-828-4417
* Columbia County (NY) Tourism: 1-800-724-1846
* Southern Berkshire (MA) Chamber of Commerce: 413-528-1510
I just booked for two. My sister just moved from a sunny area to one with shade so I am bringing her along too.
See you soon!
I’m much more a garden-appreciator than a skilled gardener, but I do have lots of shade to cope with, so I’ve just signed up! I love Loomis Nursery, and I have visited your garden on Garden Open days, so this will be such fun for me, as well as educational. Thanks for setting this up!
Best, Kassie
Shade gardening seems such a neglected subject. I am happy to see a fellow gardener teaching it. There are many wonderful native woodland shade plants. Solomon’s Seal and wild violets are two of my favorites. I’m not a fan of the non-native hostas and I’d love to see gardeners using more native alternatives. If only garden centers would promote more natives… But, then again, gardeners need to start asking for them.
I just tried to register for your shade class, but am wait-listed. I am so disappointed!
We live in southern Westchester but are up in Great Barrington for that weekend as my husband is running in the Josh Billings triathlon on Sunday.
Do you have any idea yet when you might be scheduling the second class?
Hi Margaret,
My brother lives near you so I am coming down from Montreal for the class. If you could facilitate a connection with Donna from Montreal to discuss potential ride-sharing, that would be appreciated.
Welcome, David. I will do some behind-the-scenes questioning.
Hey, Margaret–
I signed up for the workshop in August, and am looking forward to it. I haven’t been contacted with any directions or info, though, and was wondering if I’m officially registered at your end. Just checking! Thanks, and hopefully, see you Saturday!
Kassie