9/19: open garden, tovah martin talk, bird walk, plant sale

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LATE SEPTEMBER is the start of my favorite garden season: fall. Fruiting plants (hollies, aralias, and more) start to color up, and grasses and forbs are showing off, too, and setting seed–with the fruit and seeds enticing to the many birds who call my garden home for all or part of the year.

Come see at my fourth and final Garden Conservancy Open Day of 2015, on Saturday, September 19, in Copake Falls, New York. Attend Tovah Martin’s class on “Indestructible Houseplants”–just in time for the indoor garden season’s kickoff. Take a morning bird walk first with expert Will Yandik. And shop all day for rare plants from Broken Arrow Nursery while you’re here, since fall is prime planting time.

in brief:

Garden open, 10 AM to 4 PM (get directions; $7 suggested charitable donation to Garden Conservancy at gate)
Guided bird walk with Will Yandik, 9-10:30 AM: 10 AM to 4 PM (buy a ticket at this link, or using the easy form below)
Tovah Martin Indestructible Houseplant class 11 AM (buy a ticket at this link, or using the easy form below; there is plenty of time between the bird walk and plant lecture to get to both, FYI)
Broken Arrow Nursery plant sale at Margaret’s garden, 10-4 (more on that below…plus information about pre-ordering specific plants)

get tickets for tovah martin’s lecture

get tickets for the 9 am bird walk

plant sale details (yes, you can pre-order!)

BROKEN ARROW, one of the most acclaimed rare-plant nurseries in the country, will be in the driveway at my place from 10-4 on each Open Day, selling some of my favorite woody and herbaceous plants–and theirs. If you want to pre-order a particular things from their even-larger inventory, or a bigger, landscape size of some item, contact Adam Wheeler ahead of time (or call the nursery at 203-288-1026) to discuss what you are seeking, and it will be delivered here that day, just for you. Browse their offerings.

rethinking the lawn, with dan wilder

THE LECTURE that he’s been giving for a number of years is not-so-subtly called “Kill Your Lawn.” Ecological horticulturist Dan Jaffe Wilder knows that starting over and creating an entire native habitat instead of a lawn isn’t for everyone. But Dan just wants to grab our attention and get us to start to make some changes at least in the way we care for the turfgrass we do want in our landscapes. And maybe give up a little square footage of it to some other kind of more diverse planting, too, like the wild strawberries (Fragaria virginiana, inset). Alternative, more eco-focused styles of lawn care, along with some lawn alternatives is what he and I talked about on the podcast. Dan is Director of Applied Ecology at Norcross Wildlife Foundation in Wales, Massachusetts, and its 8,000-acre sanctuary. He’s also co-author with Mark Richardson of the book “Native Plants for New England Gardens.”