Somerville Garden Club

Peter Heller, Somerville Garden Club member, and lead coordinator of the Tufts Community Garden since 2003, will facilitate a discussion on critter control in our gardens.  Peter will present a slide show on how critters behave and talk about the techniques, best practices, and gardening behavior-modifications that have been successful for him in controlling the impact of squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, and rats in his home and community gardens.  A roundtable discussion will follow for attendees to share their own experiences, knowledge, and ideas on the topic.

Peter Niels Heller loves gardening at his home in Somerville and at the Tufts Community Garden, where he is one of the coordinators.  Every year, the dividing line between dahlias and tomatoes in his plot moves a little further into the tomato territory.  Peter has lived in Davis Square for a long time, helped raise kids, and has worked in professions from electronics engineer to architect. Peter has 20 years’ experience defending flowering bulbs, dahlia shoots, asters, and vegetables from squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, and rats.

All Somerville Garden Club meetings are free and open to the public. 7-9pm. If you are interested in attending our virtual meeting, but have not received the meeting link via email, or are not a SGC member, you can email info@somervillegardenclub.org for the link.

Create Thriving Habitat, Reverse Biodiversity Loss, and Help Mitigate Climate Change

This talk is about the current biodiversity crisis; the evolutionary history among native plants, insects, birds and fungi, and how these interdependent relationships among diverse species are necessary for their survival. Amy Meltzer will show how growing native plants and using ecological landscape practices can simultaneously reverse biodiversity loss, increase resilience in our landscapes, and slow climate change. Amy will also talk about what she has been learning in her two native plant gardens about how to choose plants for different conditions – dry, wet, sun, shade; and the challenge of choosing plants for the increasingly hot conditions of an urban garden.

Amy Meltzer has been an active member of Grow Native Massachusetts for many years and has contributed to citizen science research on pollinators and native plants. She is a member of the Elders Climate Action research team, where she developed a presentation on the intersection of climate change and biodiversity loss, and how both crises need to be addressed simultaneously. She is an avid native plant gardener who loves sharing plants, developing easy to use resources, and teaching about both the importance of growing native plants, and how to do it.