All Somerville Garden Club meetings are free and open to the public. 7-9pm. When we can meet in person, meetings are held the at the Tufts Administration Building, (TAB), 167 Holland Street, second floor, wheelchair accessible. Parking is available, and the building is a ten-minute walk from the Davis Square MBTA stop.
For virtual meetings, the meeting link will be sent out to our membership via email several days beforehand. If you are not a member, you can request the link by emailing info@somervillegardenclub.org.
Please check with this website or our Facebook Page for last minute announcements about upcoming programs.
January 13 – Celebrating Fragrance in the Garden is a presentation about designing a garden to celebrate emotional connections and memories in a space through our sense of smell. Scent can take a garden from simply being beautiful to becoming magical and memorable. Horticulturist Brandon George will highlight unique plants that allow for any garden to incorporate fragrance.
February 10 – A Camel’s Garden: Drought-tolerant Plants for a Changing Climate In this lecture and walkabout, Jen Kettell will share the effects of drought on woody plants and describe plant adaptations for dealing with drought. Most importantly, she will introduce you to a new palette of plant material that will decrease your water use while increasing species diversity and beauty in your home landscape.
March 10 Companion Planting: Garden Strategies for Improved Success If you’re an avid gardener you’ve probably heard of companion planting. You may have also heard it’s a phony practice or tried it yourself with mixed results. So does it actually work? Farmer and gardener, Reeves Cochran, Field Production Manager at Volante Farms, Needham, explores the science, myths, and misconceptions around companion planting in a talk designed to broaden your knowledge and prepare you for improved success in the garden this year!
April 14 – A Piet Oudolf Story Piet Oudolf is a world renown Dutch garden designer, plant nursery man and author. He is a leading figure of the “New Perennial” movement. His designs and plant compositions use bold drifts of herbaceous perennials and grasses chosen at least as much for their structure as for their flower colour. Researching Piet’s aesthetic principles led Dr./Ms. Deborah Chud to design and create her own Oudolfian garden in the Boston area.
May 12 – Tropical Blueberries as Houseplants A brief introduction from SGC member Nathaniel Scheckler to some of the spectacular tropical species related to our familiar native blueberries. Still mostly unknown in horticultural circles, many make easygoing and highly decorative houseplants and have interesting potential for indoor fruit production.
June 9 – Plants Go To War In this slide illustrated talk Judith Sumner, PhD, will trace the victory garden movement, including urban gardens, school gardens, food preservation, and ration book cookery; we will also look at the British Dig for Victory campaign, Hedgerow Harvest program, and Women’s Land Army.
July 14 – World Garden Travelogue Members Rita Edmunds, Teri Swartzel, and Dorothy Africa share their garden adventures with us.
August 11 – Mini-meadowscaping for small yards and hell strips Barbara Passero will walk us through the methods she had developed for turning small spaces such as rock gardens, rain swales, and hell strips into rich habitats that can serve nature and humankind for years.