Life Lessons on Community and Kindness

By Margaret Leahy

Each year, as the season begins to wind down here at the Garden, our offsite programming at local schools picks back up. If you were to be a fly on the wall in our Berkshire Botanical Garden offices, at the height of summer you would see the palpable excitement of the Education team as it plans for fall and winter.

The feeling is not dissimilar to that of a child looking forward to the first day of school. We bustle around, planning our gardening lessons, and we prepare to meet students who have enrolled in Farm and Garden Club.

Afterschool programming during the fall and winter months is unique because, while there is still much to do in a garden, the time of planting and harvesting has all but ended. This means we spend more time working on lessons focused on nature-based crafts and cooking with our students.

For instance, last fall, students at Reid and Herberg Middle Schools in Pittsfield used the finished crafts they worked on during the cooler months to build their connections with each other and their wider community through a session-long service project. All of the nature-based crafts made throughout the session were eventually sold at Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Holiday Marketplace, and the money was donated to two Pittsfieldbased organizations.

After learning a bit more about a few different local charitable organizations, students used a rank-choice voting system to decide which that they felt the most connection to. Students at Herberg chose to donate to Strong Little Souls, which provides care bags, gifts and monetary support to families facing childhood cancer. Students at Reid decided on the Christian Center, which provides hot meals and clothing to members of the community.

After students chose the organization to which they wished to donate, they began the work of making products to be sold at Holiday Marketplace. Every week, they learned about the specific craft, its connection to the garden or the natural world, and they worked with their hands to create the product.

They made mini birdfeeders, beeswax paper, needle felted art, wreaths, and tea bags. The week before Holiday Marketplace, the students made a poster to promote their crafts and priced all of their products, which allowed them to reflect on the time and energy spent on their service. Ultimately, the students in Farm and Garden were able to raise $120 for the charities they had chosen.

This project provided students with the space to cultivate their creativity while collaborating with their peers. It also gave them the autonomy to decide on a charity and pricing of crafts. On top of this, the students learned that community service requires “all hands on deck.” That lesson was underscored when Madison Quinn, founder of Strong Little Souls, spoke to

Students at Reid Middle School in Pittsfield benefit from Berkshire Botanical Garden’s youth education programs. The nature-based crafts they are creating here were eventually sold at Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Holiday Marketplace, and the money was donated to two Pittsfield-based organizations.

Herberg students about her foundation and the families she serves.

Visitors to Holiday Marketplace not only bought finished products, but also kindly remarked on the students’ hard work (and even donated without a purchase). The schools’ administrators were receptive and helpful every step of the way. Being at the age where collaboration and kindness can feel difficult at times, the middle schoolers learned to cultivate such skills and virtues — and they went above and beyond to give back.

HORTICULTURE CERTIFICATE PROGRAM 2023-2024

The Horticulture Certificate Program is a noncredit, adult enrichment program designed for the professional, aspiring professional or serious home gardener. Students can choose either to take classes towards receiving a certificate, or audit individual classes of interest. Staffed by seasoned and practicing horticulturists and landscape designers, these in-depth classes provide a strong foundation for all horticultural pursuits — whether one is exploring or advancing career goals or simply acquiring or expanding their knowledge, skills and enjoyment of gardening. Classes include lectures, hands-on workshops and field trips.

Through seven core courses, Level I students learn material essential for a foundation in good gardening practices. These courses are sequentially designed, beginning in September and progressing through April.

Core Curriculum:

Herbaceous Plants

Understanding Woody Plants

Soil Health and Structure

Plant Health Care

Plant Propagation

Sustainable Garden Care and Maintenance Landscape Design I

Upon completing the Level 1 Horticulture Certificate Program, students can work towards additional Advanced Certificates in the following areas: n Advanced Horticulture n Landscape Design n Sustainable Land Stewardship n Native Plant Landscapes

Registration for this program will begin July 1. Learn more at berkshirebotanical.org

BBG Members: $190/Non-Members: $205

Herbaceous Plants

This intensive four-session class explores the world of herbaceous plants, from their identification, selection and use in the garden, through their basic botany, life cycle and propagation. Participants are asked to create a final project highlighting a genus or plant family related to the curriculum. A part of the Level 1 horticulture core curriculum, this class is essential for the committed gardener and includes lectures, hands-on activities, field study and group discussion. The class aspires to give participants a deeper understanding of annuals, perennials and ornamental vegetables and their role in the garden. Students should dress for outdoor field study. All students participating in this class as part of the Horticulture Certificate Program are required to complete a final project.

Understanding Woody Plants

This four-session course will focus on the bones of the garden with a survey of ornamental woody plants for residential landscape design. It will cover ornamental shrubs, small flowering trees, shade trees, and broadleaf and needle evergreens. Students will become familiar with the many garden-worthy woody plants that thrive in Zone 5. The course covers plant ID, selection, siting, cultivation, and possible design uses. Students should dress for outdoor field study. All students participating in this class as part of the Horticulture Certificate Program are required to complete a final project.

Understanding Soil Health and Structure

This four-session course will explain how plant growth is affected by soils, from drainage to pH and nutrients. Learn how to evaluate soils, improve those that are less than ideal and amend soils for specific garden uses. Fertilizers, soil amendments, making and using compost, moisture management and the pros and cons of mulching will be covered. Students need to get a soil sample before class and bring the results to the first class.

Plant Healthcare

This program focuses on factors that affect plant health care, including insects, diseases, pathogens, and abiotic influences. Basic diagnostic techniques will be taught. Learn to minimize potential problems through proper site preparation, plant selection and placement. Managing problems using biological, chemical and cultural techniques will be discussed with a focus on integrated pest management.

Cuttings

Science of Plant Propagation

Learn about the art and science of plant propagation. Focus on the basic botany needed to understand and successfully propagate plants. Sexual and asexual propagation methods, including sowing seeds, cuttings, grafting, layering, and division, will be covered. Students will learn the fascinating science behind propagation along with the various techniques used to create new plants.

Sustainable Garden Care and Maintenance

Learn about the maintenance considerations that should be integrated into the design process. Students’ horticultural knowledge will expand to factor sustainable maintenance concerns with cost-effectiveness into plant selection. Learn procedures for perennials, woody plants and lawns, including transplanting, staking, fertilizing, winterizing, mulching, plant pathology, and pest control with an emphasis on deer control.

BBG Members: $250/Non-member: $275

Landscape Design I

This design course will introduce students to the design process — the systematic way designers approach a site and client. The course will include a series of simple projects that will end with a garden designed by the students. Learn design principles such as form, balance, repetition, line, texture, color, and spatial relationships. Additionally, students will be introduced to landscape history and how it helps the designer resolve and inspire garden design.

Windy Hill Farm

S uperb p lant S , e xten S ive K nowledge o ut S tanding Quality , S election & v alue

We offer our own Berkshire field-grown specimens, including Chinese or Kousa dogwood; the native Berkshire strain of Cornus florida; American, European Green and Copper beech; native birch; hybrid lilacs; viburnums; hydrangea paniculata selections; American Fringe trees; witchhazels; blueberries; winterberries; espaliered fruit trees; mature apple and pear trees; herbaceous and tree peony selections. O

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THE GARDEN CONSERVANCY

O pen Days 2023

Visit America’s most interesting,creative, and inspiring private gardens through the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program.

Our 2023 season includes many exciting garden-visiting opportunities, Digging Deeper programs, and other educational offerings throughout Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, and beyond.

See You in the Gardens!

Open Days is The Garden Conservancy’s signature program, supporting its mission to preserve, share, and celebrate America’s gardens and diverse gardening traditions for the education and inspiration of the public.

Spring-Summer Cuttings: 4.75”W x 3.5 “H www.websterlandscapes.com gardenconservancy.org/open-days