Let’s reimagine the centuries-old Japanese art of bonsai, emphasizing individual expression beyond classical tradition. This approach embraces playful, lighthearted and sometimes humorous ways of working with miniature trees as an artistic form. In this Berkshire Botanical Garden workshop on Thursday, August 27, from 5 to 7:30 p.m., led by artist and horticultural therapist Brian Mikesell, you’ll have creative freedom to shape your own bonsai. Step beyond your horticultural comfort zone and into a hands-on creative challenge. All materials are included, and you’ll take your finished bonsai home. $100 for BBG members, $130 for nonmembers, Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/pop-bonsai-workshop
Climate change is affecting everything on the menu, making this topic relevant to everyone who eats! Not another doom-and-gloom story–this free Massachusetts Master Gardeners online talk on August 26 focuses on solutions to confront climate change and still keep our favorites on the menu. And coincidentally, help keep the planet livable.
Urban forests are on the front lines of invasive pest threats and climate uncertainty. This free Invasive Species Centre webinar features two practical tools that help communities assess risk, strengthen preparedness, and respond strategically to emerging forest pests. Representatives from the Washington State Department of Natural Resources will introduce the Urban Forest Pest Readiness Playbook, a resource that guides towns, cities, counties, and urban forestry programs through self assessments and recommended actions to close gaps between local managers and state and federal response partners. We will also explore Portland’s Tree Inventory Project and how comprehensive tree data supports proactive management. By measuring, mapping, and identifying public trees across the city, Portland has strengthened its ability to plan for climate impacts and invasive species, including using inventory data to inform its response planning for emerald ash borer. Join us to gain practical insights and learn about scalable tools that can help your community prepare for the next pest threat before it arrives. Visit https://naisma.org/event/webinar-planning-for-the-unknown-tools-for-urban-forest-pest-preparedness/ to register.
A healthy landscape is more than a collection of plants.
Pollinators, birds, amphibians, and other wildlife depend on a range of resources that are often overlooked in conventional garden design. Bare soil may provide nesting habitat for native bees. Fallen leaves and plant stems may shelter insects through the winter. Water, dead wood, dense vegetation, and specialized soil conditions can each support different species and life stages.
Drawing on more than 20 years of experience in ecological restoration, habitat management, and conservation research, Shaun McCoshum will explain how these pieces work together within an ecosystem. He will also share practical ways to incorporate them into residential landscapes. Shaun McCoshum, PhD, is a landscape ecologist, Certified Wildlife Biologist, botanist, conservationist, and author with more than 20 years of experience in ecological restoration, habitat management, and conservation research.
His work has included habitat restoration and planning projects across the United States supporting a wide range of species and ecosystems. Currently a Senior Ecologist, Shaun combines scientific research with practical habitat design to help people create landscapes that support biodiversity.
Whether you care for a small suburban yard or a larger property, you will leave with a better understanding of how to create habitat that supports biodiversity throughout the year.
Join Orleans Conservation Trust on August 25 at 5 pm at the Orleans Yacht Club, 39 Cove Road in Orleans for our 2026 Annual Meeting. Doors open at 4:30 pm. Enjoy refreshments and the gorgeous view over Town Cove as we celebrate OCT’s work to protect and restore land for people and wildlife. Attendees will learn about the Trust’s projects, highlights of 2026 and what’s to come in the new year. OCT members are encouraged to vote on the Slate of Trustees, including five renewing members and two incoming Trustees. Free with cash bar.
The meeting’s keynote presentation will be by guest speaker Nick Nelson. A fluvial geomorphologist and regional director with Inter-Fluve, Nick will present on “Opportunities to Transform Ecosystem Health on Cape Cod.” His talk will cover topics such as restoration of degraded wetlands and waterways throughout Cape Cod and active work on OCT’s Namequoit Bog eco-restoration project in South Orleans.
tI’s tomato season, the most anticipated harvest of the year. In this hands-on Berkshire Botanical Garden class, held on Saturday, August 22, from 3 to 5 p.m., and led by Miriam Rubin, we’ll begin with a tomato tasting, exploring varieties, textures, and flavor, along with a look at the growing season. Each participant will make a personal tomato galette with a choice of toppings on pre-rolled dough. While the galettes bake, we’ll cover an easy method for peeling and seeding tomatoes for sauce or freezing, then prepare Ginger Tomatoes and a Tomato and Peach Salad from Rubin’s book, Tomatoes. $90 for BBG members, $110 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/cooking-tomatoes-hands-workshop
Miriam Rubin was the first woman to work in the kitchens of New York City’s famed Four Seasons Restaurant. A food writer and gardener, she wrote the Miriam’s Garden column for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for many years and her work has appeared in many other publications, including Organic Gardening and Rural Intelligence. She and her husband, the artist David J. Lesako, live in Ghent, N.Y. Find out more at her website, MiriamRubin.com, and Instagram @Miriam Rubin.
The American Horticultural Society has announced the inclusion of Grandmothers’ Garden in Westfield as part of the AHS Garden Network. Located within Chauncey Allen Park, this historic 1935 design by landscape architect Thomas Desmond features a formal layout of geometric beds organized around a central Summer House. Designed in the Colonial Revival style, Grandmothers’ Garden is home to a vibrant mix of formal flower beds and delicate herb gardens. Each season brings new color and fragrance, from spring bulbs and perennials to lush annuals planted by dedicated volunteers. The blossoms and herbs offer beauty, texture, scent and timelessness, creating a living tapestry that recalls both the Garden’s history and the humanity that allows it to thrive.
The history of the garden may be found at https://www.grandmothersgarden.org/home. Photography is encouraged – for policies, click HERE. The garden is located on Smith Avenue in Westfield, open daily from dawn to dusk.
Before skyscrapers and smokestacks transformed the eastern United States, the region was home to an abundance of wildlife. Elk roamed Illinois, bison grazed the prairies of Indiana, and wolves and cougars moved through forests and wetlands stretching from the Northeast to the Deep South. Environmental writer Andrew Moore, author of The Beasts of the East, revisits this largely forgotten landscape and shows how, in just a few generations, industrialization and unregulated hunting pushed many of these animals to the brink of extinction.
Moore follows conservationists, biologists, hunters, and local communities working to return these animals to their native habitats—from bison grazing on restored Illinois prairies to elk thriving in the hills of Kentucky and red wolves roaming coastal North Carolina. As wildlife begins a remarkable comeback, Moore holds that these efforts raise questions about conservation, coexistence, and the meaning of wilderness in a modern landscape shaped by cities, suburbs, and highways.
This Smithsonian online presentation on August 18 at 7 pm is $25 for Smithsonian Associates, $35 for nonmembers. Register at www.smithsonianassociates.org
Looking for evening of hands-on science, entertainment and discovery? Find it at After Dark, our monthly adults-only, after-hours event at the MIT Museum.
On August 13, from 6-9 pm, join us for After Dark: Gardens, celebrating gardens, green spaces, and all things locally grown. Learn about local ecosystems, growing challenges, how to fuel your garden, and more through conversations, demonstrations, and interactive workshops.
With pop-up shops, music, drinks, and bites, you won’t want to miss it! For more information visit mitmuseum.mit.edu
At this year’s Provincetown Conservation Trust Annual Meeting we welcome Andrew Gottlieb, President of the Association for the Preservation of Cape Cod as our keynote speaker. He will present on the critical campaign his organization is undertaking to help preserve and protect the last 14% of developable land on Cape Cod. He will be introduced by friend, former State Senator, and Cape Air owner Dan Wolfe. The event takes place August 27 at the Harbor Hotel.
We will have our popular silent auction featuring fantastic items donated from local businesses, complimentary food, wine and beer donated from local businesses. REGISTER TODAY. Genevieve Martin will receive the Trust’s inaugural Conservation Hero Award.
The Provincetown Conservation Trust is a private, non-profit (501c3) organization, founded in 1980, dedicated to preserving the woods, wetlands, heathlands, dunes and forests of Provincetown, home to a great variety of native flora and fauna, some of it not found anywhere else. These natural habitats are an important Greenway, key links in the wildlife corridors of Cape Cod, and vital to the ecological health of the United States Eastern Seaboard. Our uplands provide habitats not found in the Cape Cod National Seashore.
