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This one-day class will cover extensive ground on the insects, diseases, and deficiencies found on plants in the landscape. Applying principles of integrated pest management (IPM), the course will help students identify, monitor, and prevent poor plant health and, when necessary, deal with treatments. State Horticulturalist Gary Fish will emphasize preventative measures and help students determine methods to mitigate further plant-pest problems.
Color, color, and more color! Join us and learn how visually stunning color combinations can be achieved effectively and harmoniously in container garden design. Sometimes too much color can be overpowering, but color can be expressed in many ways—through hue, tone, shape, and texture, creating wide-ranging visual appeal. Join Brent McHale, container-garden designer and Gardens Horticulturist, to learn how to create your own colorful container garden, one that achieves its effect through flowers, foliage, and seasonal succession. All planting materials will be supplied by the Gardens. The instructor will contact you to ask if you want a shade- or sun-loving plant selection. Please bring your own garden gloves and clippers.
Join award-winning photographer Nathaniel Smalley and gain new understanding in composing and capturing the beauty of nature. In this exceptional three-day photo session, tune your creative vision in a blend of both classroom and fieldwork. An in-depth presentation on camera settings will help you maximize the photographic opportunities we’ll encounter in the Gardens, where we’ll work on capturing images of plants and flowers in both landscapes and more intimate scenes. There will be time to process your images in Lightroom or Photoshop, developing them to their full potential. Participants should have a sturdy tripod, a camera with a manual mode setting. Photographers of all skill levels are welcome, but a basic understanding of the functions of their camera’s ISO, aperture, shutter speed, light meter, and histogram is required. *Please note: This is not an introductory course on how to use your camera for the first time.
Sedges and rushes are ubiquitous and ecologically significant elements of our natural landscapes, but lacking showy flowers, they are often overlooked. This class will introduce a number of the common sedges and rushes frequently encountered in woods, wetlands, and meadows, highlighting their subtle variety and visual appeal. Join Ted Elliman, New England botanist and field-study researcher, to learn how to identify sedges and rushes, their functions in our natural landscapes, and how they provide ornamental and ecological benefits to gardens spaces.
Choosing native plants for your landscape should be fun and creative, not daunting or complicated! When you consider plants in simple groupings, or guilds, it becomes a lot easier to design a landscape with appealing texture, color, and wildlife value throughout the seasons. Native plant guilds draw on inspiration from natural plant communities in habitats like coastal plains, forests, wetlands, or mountain tops. This field-study and design workshop at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens will guide students through the process of selecting plants according to companionship, seasonal performance, and environmental considerations.
Water-wise gardening is another way of referring to designing with water in mind, especially relevant to drought conditions. Water-wise container gardens lend themselves to an exotic and creative assortment of annuals or perennials like succulents, alpines, and plants with fuzzy leaves, leathery-glossy leaves, or those with varied color- and textural characteristics. Join Gardens Horticulturist Jen Dunlap for this creative workshop and make your own drought-tolerant container garden. Students are encouraged to bring their own clippers, apron, and garden gloves. While this class is a part of our adult education offerings, it is open to advanced younger students, ages 14 and older.
Have you ever thought of flower photographs as portraits? Award-winning photographer Kathleen Clemons certainly does, and she will share the equipment and techniques she uses to create her art. Topics will include lens choice, lighting, subject selection, focus issues, aperture choices, selecting a background, and how to simplify a subject to truly capture its natural beauty.
Join trained herbalist and horticulturist Lesley Paxson for a workshop and field-study examining some of the interesting layers of herbalism, from traditional beliefs to contemporary applications. Come enjoy a tea tasting with plants freshly harvested from the Gardens, harvest medicinal plant cuttings to take home for tea, and, since July offers an abundance of blooms, she'll also demonstrate how a flower essence is made. We’ll stroll the gardens and identify five important medicinal plants historically valuable to human well-being and understand them more intimately with a tincture tasting.
Weeds, by casual definition, are undesired plants found in a certain location. In this class, we will discuss the perception of weeds as well as their identification, cultural management, and ecology. Learning the identity of a “weed” may change the desire to remove it from the landscape as you realize its potential benefits. While sometimes weeds are just misunderstood plants, there are times they can be invasive or toxic, so it is important to properly identify and learn how to manage for these species. Join Delany Pitman, CMBG Horticulturist, in this mixed field-study and lecture class and broaden your awareness of why, what, when, how, and where these plants live and if they can be embraced or must be eradicated from a garden or landscape.
Water gardens are growing in popularity for a number of reasons: to attract wildlife like birds and butterflies, to add a melodic sound feature, to contribute light reflection, to offer a place for personal respite, and to cool down a garden space. Water gardens that incorporate unique and lush plants add bold shapes, forms, colors, defined lines, and textures to a garden space. In class, students will make and take home a small water garden container filled with personally selected plants supplied by the Gardens. We'll talk about the wide variety of plant options, materials, and different kinds of water garden designs. While this class is a part of our adult education offerings, it is open to advanced younger students, ages 14 and older.
Through this symposium, we hope to explore and address these three key questions:
Founded in 2018, Indigo Arts Alliance (IAA) is a Portland, ME-based, Black-led organization dedicated to professional development and amplification of Black and Brown thought-leadership, vision, and creative practice. As an organization of social practice artists, scholars, and activists, it seeks to strengthen multiracial democracy by cultivating and celebrating art as a key resource for healthy communities, connecting global and local Black and Brown artists, providing an affirming environment for the creation of artwork across disciplines, and promoting engagement through participatory events that bring artists' and activists' work into public conversation on social justice, culture, and community. IAA is the only Black-led, established arts incubator in northern New England. That being the case, they fill a critically important gap in representation lacking in other regional arts and cultural institutions.
Deepening your connection to nature through moving meditation offers enormous benefits for personal well-being. In this gentle class, experience how the simple practice of walking mindfully through a forest can provide deep serenity. By engaging with all five senses, we enhance awareness and presence. Follow Susan Bickford, certified guide in the ancient 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.
Ever wondered what wildlife is living in your backyard? In our seasonal series of field-study classes (register separately for each), participants will learn more about the creatures that live in or around their garden, looking for shelter, food, and water. Join us and see summer animalactivity first-hand, an experience that will provide deeper insight into and appreciation for their roles in the ecosystem, better informing us how humans and wildlife can live together more harmoniously. This month, we’ll primarily focus on the diverse world insects, especially pollinators and beneficials, then learn about the mammals that are feeding and starting their families during these lazy days of summer.
Commonly referred to as vegetable gardens, yet frequently inclusive of herbs, fruits, and edible flowers, kitchen gardens are lifestyle-reflective. In this class, we’ll explore edible gardens at CMBG, including the gardens where edibles are planted along perennial borders. While we examine the different styles, from the traditionally-designed potager to more naturalistic designs known as “rewilding,” students will learn about style considerations like plant companions, pollinators, management, and aesthetic choices. The field-study class will include (brief) design time so students can practice integrating ideas into their own spaces.
Drying and pressing plants is not only a mindful, restful activity, it’s also one that produces beautiful compositions. From artfully matted notecards to printmaking, botanical research to herbarium use, pressing plants has so many applications. Join us for two sessions at the Gardens where we’ll begin by learning how to collect and press plants. Then, in session two, we’ll create a customized mounted project using the pressed plants, such as a set of notecards or a matted print.
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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