By Carol Stocker
The Spring Festival and Perennial Divide will be held at Boston on May 12th at Boston Natural Areas Network’s City Natives, 30 Edgewater Drive, Mattapan from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The festival is free for everyone and is held rain or shine.The Festival’s highlight is the Perennial Divide where anyone who shares an interest in community or backyard gardening can come together to swap plants and gardening tips. Participants are requested to pre-divide their perennial plants into smaller pieces and to bring their own containers for plants to take home. You do not need to bring plants if you are a beginning gardener; there are plenty of free plant divisions to share. BNAN staff members along with skilled BNAN Master Urban Gardeners will be standing by to assist with any questions, concerns or comments you might have.
The Spring Festival also includes a Gardener’s Market of native plants and vegetable seedlings propagated at City Natives along with compost, organic fertilizer and soil amendments to help gardeners build their soil. Proceeds from all sales will benefit BNAN’s City Natives. There is also a free workshop on beekeeping presented by Mike Graney from 12:00- 1:00 p.m. This event also offers the opportunity to take a self-guided tour of the Learning Garden and network with other gardeners.
For more information about the Spring Festival and Perennial Divide, contact BNAN at 617-542-7696 or www.bostonnatural.org. City Natives is accessible by public transportation to Mattapan Square. Remember only service dogs are allowed onto the property.
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LOCAL LAWYERS joined volunteers to plant 16 trees on Saturday, April 28 at the Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter School in Roxbury. The event was made possible with the help of LATTE (Lawyers Accountable To The Earth), which is joining forces with Grow Boston Greener (GBG), and Boston Natural Areas Network (BNAN).
LATTE is a local initiative of RainforestMaker, a non-profit program founded by Boston attorney Jeffrey S. Glassman, and is dedicated to providing for tree planting and maintenance at Boston area sites in need of trees. “Since lawyers go through ten times more paper than the average office worker, it is only fitting that they replant the trees they use.” Says Attorney Glassman, “Planting trees at schools sets a positive example for teachers, parents, and kids and raises awareness that resources used in one’s life can be mindfully restored.”
Jesse Solomon, Executive Director, Boston Plan for Excellence was also at the school to help out. Mr. Solomon stated, “The Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter School aims to provide a world class education for all its students, preparing them for long-term academic success and responsible civic engagement. As part of that mission, we want to help our students learn about and become stewards of their environment and community. We are intent on making the physical space be the welcoming and vibrant space our children deserve, and having several trees recently added to the property goes a long way toward this goal.”
The Grow Boston Greener program was launched by Mayor Menino on Arbor Day, April 30, 2007 when an inventory of the City’s trees showed that Boston had an overall tree canopy cover of 29%. The GBG vision is to plant an additional 100,000 trees by 2020 to increase the urban tree canopy to 35% and make Boston a cooler, greener, healthier city. The goals of GBG are to increase tree canopy, mitigate heat island effect, reduce energy consumption, improve air quality and improve storm water management. GBG focuses not only on planting trees, but also on the community-based stewardship activities necessary to ensure the trees’ survival.
Boston Natural Areas Network assists the City of Boston by managing the GBG program. Funding for the GBG program is provided by the support of corporate and philanthropic donors through the Fund for Parks and Recreation in Boston.
Boston Natural Areas Network is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing together local residents, partner organizations, public officials and foundations to preserve, expand and enhance urban open space, including community gardens, greenways and urban wilds. For further information about the organization, becoming a member or the calendar of events, visit www.bostonnatural.org, or call 617-542-7696.
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