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Known for her creative use of natural light and unique artistic composition, Kathleen likens flower photography to painted portraits. In this workshop, she will share her favorite equipment and techniques. Topics include lens choice, lighting, subject selection, focus issues, aperture choices, background selection, and how to simplify a subject to truly capture its natural beauty.
Are yellow, wilting, puckered, or folding leaves getting you down? Is Google simultaneously telling you that you're under and over-watering? Enter our staff expert, Garth, to assess, and accurately diagnose your plant problems in real-time, and provide recommendations to resolve the issues. You'll gain the tools to help you identify any more problems you may encounter in the future and even learn how to prevent them when possible. Students are encouraged to bring photo samples of up to two different plant issues for Garth to help identify. To prevent spread, please do not bring live samples of the plant(s). Class Level: All Levels
Combining botany, design, and illustration, students will have the opportunity to create an artful botanical dissection plate during this two-day workshop. Botanical dissection plates have been around since the invention of the microscope and are realistic educational illustrations of plant anatomy. Participants will learn valuable techniques used by science illustrators, such as field sketching, plant dissection, and drawing from magnified plant specimens. Students will also learn how to use color and design to create eye-catching compositions. The workshop will take place both in the gardens and the classroom, where students will learn how to translate their knowledge into creative and visually appealing illustrations. This workshop will take a loose and artful approach to this typically technical and time-consuming process. All experience levels are welcome. Suitable for teens 14+.
This class is sold out, but please click "Learn More" to join our waitlist. | Groundcover plants combine beautiful form and function, supporting healthy soils and providing texture and color to any garden. In this class, you'll learn from staff Horticulturalist Jen Dunlap about the wide variety of groundcovers, especially those indigenous to the Northeast. We'll uncover their economic and ecological benefits, such as a solution to replace the need for any other kind of mulch.
Join artist and forest therapy guide Susan Bickford for a guided, mindful walk and craft workshop. Returning to a time pre-technology, participants will employ their eyes, ears, and touch to document their experience, transferring their observations into a 3-dimensional creative collage map. This fun, interactive, and tactile activity further deepens awareness of nature's elements, resulting in a texture-rich, aromatic artistic representation that participants will take home. Locally foraged herbal tea will be offered during the workshop to sustain participants' newly awakened senses and imagination. All materials will be supplied.
Class Level: All Levels. Suited for teens 14+.
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Instructor Biography:
Susan Bickford, Certified Forest Therapy Guide, leads walks throughout coastal Maine and co-manages a retreat event annually called the Stillness Kitchen. Susan has many talents connecting her to nature, including a visual arts instructor at the University of Maine Augusta. A native of Maine, Susan has a strong connection to the flora and fauna in our verdant landscape.
This class is sold out, but please click "Learn More" to join our waitlist. | The first step to gardening with Maine’s native plants is meeting them in their wild habitats. Over this three-day in-person class, Melissa Cullina, the Gardens’ Director of Plant Science & Collections, will help students recognize around fifty frequent coastal species. As a staff botanist, Melissa will cover plant identification skills, terminology, and botanical etymology. Through guided walks, both at the Gardens and a Boothbay Region Land Trust property, students will practice skills and collect samples for identification and botanizing native species. Class Level: Intermediate-Advanced
This two-day workshop will focus on how to create monoprints, which are one-of-a-kind prints where an image made with ink is transferred onto various papers. Unlike most printmaking techniques, which allow for multiple originals, monoprinting creates a single, unique image at a time. The beauty of this technique lies in its spontaneity and its allowance for combinations of printmaking, painting, and various mark-making methods that can be printed multiple times in a variety of ways. Open to all artistic and printmaking skill levels. Suitable for teens 14+.
Milkweeds and goldenrods adorn our New England landscapes from July through October in shades of white, pink, and yellow, providing beauty and valuable nectar and pollen to native pollinators. Native plant ecologist and botanist Ted Elliman will lead students through a deep dive into the botanical and ecological lessons of these genera and species through a lecture, slideshow, and outdoor field study. Class Level: Intermediate-Advanced
Learn about native woody plants that contribute so much to our landscapes and local biodiversity in this two-day hybrid class. Andy Brand, Director of Horticulture at the Gardens, will discuss identification, habitat, and the role woody plants play in plant reproduction and management as hosts for insects, birds, and other wildlife. You'll leave with recommendations for native species and cultivars and guidance for cultivation, landscape uses, and soil and light considerations. Class Level: Intermediate-Advanced
This class is sold out, but please click "Learn More" to join our waitlist. | Internationally recognized horticulturist Dr. Allan Armitage presents on his journey of creating a new personal garden. From years of working in horticulture and visiting hundreds of gardens globally, Dr. A, as many call him, was inspired to downsize his garden. With wisdom and empathy, Dr. Armitage will explain his difficult process of choosing the plants and combinations that meant the most to him and his family, with the ultimate goal of reducing chaos and increasing a sense of contentment. Special Presentation: All Levels
This class is sold out, but please click "Learn More" to join our waitlist. | Deepening your connection to nature through moving meditation offers enormous benefits for personal well-being. In this gentle and sensory-oriented class, students will experience the practice of walking mindfully through a forest to gain deep serenity and new awareness. Follow Susan Bickford, a certified guide in the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, or forest therapy/forest bathing, as she gives you the tools to begin your own meditation practice. The walk ends with a tea ceremony that honors the experience. Class Levels: All Levels. Suitable for teens 14+.
In this intimate, informative, and entertaining garden tour, "Dr. A" will highlight Western legends in horticulture, plant nicknames, and extraordinary stories behind plant discovery, cultivation, and uses. Whether you're a new or seasoned gardener, Dr. A's stories will enlighten and clarify your curiosities about plant origins, classification, and naming. After the tour, we'll dine together in the newly renovated Cafe at the Gardens. Lunch is included in the price of the event. Class Level: All Levels
Join award-winning horticulturist and author Dr. Allan Armitage for an insider's perspective of breeding, cultivating, and trialing plants that millions of gardeners enjoy today. Dr. A's vibrant storytelling style and abundant knowledge of plants make any plant lover truly hear and hold onto every word. Stroll along with a fascinating, horticulturally encyclopedic narrator, and you'll learn about the trials, challenges, and successes discussed and inspired by the plants encountered, along the garden tour. Class Level: All Levels
Make your own small sparkling mosaic wall piece (or two) in this two-day workshop. You will be provided with a variety of pre-cut shapes. Experiment with various types of glass, ceramic tile, beads, and shells. Add dyes and glitter to your grout for added sparkly, colorful texture. All levels are welcome. Suitable for teens 14+.
Improved air quality, aromatherapy, aesthetic interest, and emotional and edible nourishment are a few of the benefits of having houseplants. Join Brent McHale to learn about the garden plants that do best indoors, what kind of indoor conditions and considerations to be aware of, and the numerous ways to display the plants that you love outdoors, now indoors. Each student will pot and take home a young new houseplant. Class Level: All Levels. Suitable for teens 14+.
This class is sold out, but please click "Learn More" to join our waitlist. | Invasive species are considered highly undesirable by botany, ecology, horticulture, and conservation professionals—and for good reason. In this three-part course, Amanda Devine, Regional Land Steward for Maine Coast Heritage Land Trust, will identify the basic ecological problems surrounding these aggressive, tenacious plants. We'll discuss the complicated, and sometimes political issues, and how a plant becomes labeled "invasive." Class Level: Intermediate-Advanced
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is filled with natural treasures waiting to be drawn and painted! Join Mindy Lighthipe for this fun five-day workshop as we focus on capturing wild Maine. From the beach to the woodlands, learn to draw forms and figures like shells, seaweed, woodland creatures, mushrooms and more in graphite, and then transpose into full-color illustration. On the last day, we will take all our sketches and drawings and create a coastal Maine original composition. All levels are welcome. Suitable for teens 14+. Get the best value by signing up for all five classes. For those who can't attend all five, you may sign up for individual days.
The mission of Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is to inspire meaningful connections between people and nature and promote plant conservation through horticulture, education, and plant science.
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