Sow for the Future: Wild to Cultivated and Underused Edibles (Webinar)

What's the difference between a wild plant and a garden crop? MOFGA's organic crop specialist, Caleb Goossen, will speak about seed selection and seed saving, identify the differences between wild plants and modern hybrid cultivars, and the strengths and weaknesses that might influence your decision to grow these wild-to-domestic varieties. MOFGA's landscape coordinator, Jack Kertesz, will share some of his favorite underutilized edible annual and perennial plants to incorporate into a variety of gardens or naturalized into the landscape.

Location: Online
Instructor: Caleb Goossen
Price: $16 / $20

Gardening with Herbs

There’s something powerful about herbs; whether it’s their scent, taste, or long therapeutic history, growing them successfully at home is especially fulfilling. Herbs also lend something special to any garden design, particularly curly parsley, sage, basil, and rosemary. In this class, we’ll cover common herbs as well as the often-overlooked like chervil and chamomile. Join Irene Barber, HTR, horticulturist and Horticultural Therapist, in the Lerner Garden of the Five Senses to learn more about using herbs in garden design as well as tips for management, harvest, and recipe ideas.

To provide safe, in-person classes at the Gardens, classes are held entirely outdoors and have been reduced to 12 students. We are practicing Maine CDC social-distancing protocols.

Rain date: Saturday, June 5, 2021 @ 2–4 p.m

Location: Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens 105 Botanical Gardens Drive, Boothbay
Instructor: Irene Barber
Price: $25 / $32

Introduction to Medicinal Plants: Cultivation and Cultural Uses

Join horticulturalist Lesley Paxson in the Lerner Garden of the Five Senses as she introduces you to our new Medicinal Plant Garden. Before modern medicine, we looked to the natural world to heal the body and mind. By looking through the lens of three populations, Indigenous Peoples of Maine, European settlers, and traditional Eastern cultures, we will explore the new garden’s plantings. We will compare and contrast the different uses and philosophies associated with these important plants. We will also take a stroll through the Lerner Garden and discover the healing powers of some common backyard garden plants.

To provide safe, in-person classes at the Gardens, classes are held entirely outdoors and have been reduced to 12 students. We are practicing Maine CDC social-distancing protocols.

Rain date: Saturday, July 10, 2021

Location: Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens 105 Botanical Gardens Drive, Boothbay
Instructor: Lesley Paxson
Price: $25 / $32

The Art of Forest Bathing: Shinrin Yoku

Deepening your connection to nature through moving meditation offers enormous benefits for personal well-being. Follow Susan Bickford, forest therapy guide for the ancient Japanese practice, Shinrin Yoku, or forest bathing, as she gives you the tools to begin your own meditation practice. In this gentle class, experience how the simple practice of walking mindfully through a forest can provide deep serenity. By engaging with the forest with all five senses, we enhance awareness and presence. Despite a busy lifestyle, taking time for ourselves is enormously important—what luck that we can do so by walking in the forest! 

Location: Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens 105 Botanical Gardens Drive, Boothbay
Instructor: Susan Bickford
Price: $20 / $26

Winter Gardens Book Club (Members Only)

Now that the garden is put to bed, it’s a great time to read those books you’ve been meaning to get to all season long. Join the conversation as we discuss four acclaimed books featuring plants at their core. This year, to be sure everyone can participate, we will be conducting these conversations via Zoom. Just sign up, read the selection, and then join the group by logging into the Zoom discussion that day. Selections include: Life in the Garden, The Age of Wood, The Garden of Evening Mists, and Uprooted: A Gardener’s Reflections on Beginning Again.

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Location: Online
Instructor: Vanessa Nesvig
Price: $25

Forest Therapy and Tea (Sold Out)

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 can enhance awareness and presence. Follow Susan Bickford, certified guide in the ancient Japanese practice of Shinrin-yoku, or forest therapy/forest bathing, and gain the tools needed to begin your own meditation practice. The walk ends with a tea ceremony.

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Location: Bosarge Family Education Center Botanical Gardens Drive, Boothbay
Instructor: Susan Bickford
Price: $25 / $30

Wabanaki Food and Medicine (Sold Out)

In this all-ages class, learn about the plants and natural resources the Wabanaki have been using for food and medicine for centuries, from fishing to foraging and cultivating. Join Barry Dana (Penobscot) and Lori Dana and learn more about the flora, fauna, and practices that the Wabanaki have carried forward. Come increase your awareness and help preserve their existence, getting fired up to incorporate these heritage and native plants into your landscape setting, whether a community garden, forest edge, or wide-open field. All efforts help to continue and honor these natural resources, especially as nutritional sovereignty becomes more of an issue in today’s Maine.

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Location: Bosarge Family Education Center Botanical Gardens Drive, Boothbay
Instructor: Barry Dana
Price: $24 / $30

Wabanaki Essentials: Tools for Life and Home

Long before products manufactured from metals, plastics, or synthetics were widely available, essential daily tools like pots, baskets, bowls, and utensils were handmade from elements found in nature. In this all-ages class, learn how the Wabanaki made such daily essentials and how these traditions live on, connecting people to earth and to heritage. Learn from Barry Dana (Penobscot) and Lori Dana as they share stories, describing how to know what natural elements are used for what function and where they can be found, as well as the making process, produced by hand without the need for electricity, oil, coal, or metal. To finish class, you'll learn how to braid traditional bass rope.

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Location: Bosarge Family Education Center Botanical Gardens Drive, Boothbay
Instructor: Barry Dana
Price: $24 / $30

10 Medicinal Plants: Morphology and Uses

In this workshop and field-study class, herbalism practitioner and staff horticulturalist Lesley Paxson will review 10 specific plants used for their medicinal applications. Lesley will take students around the Gardens, examining the morphology (form and structure) of each plant, describing key chemical constituents, and sharing details about what and when to harvest, plant folklore, and history. Students will forage from the select plants, sample recipes derived from traditional methods, and learn how to process their collected materials, once home. Come with an airtight bag or jar in which to preserve your collections.

Please note this class requires participants to show proof of having received all eligible Covid-19 vaccinations, as recommended for their age by the CDC, in order to participate. Because of the dynamic nature of this situation, we ask that you agree to abide by potential future changes in CMBG’s Covid-19 policy designed to address evolving public health recommendations.

Location: Bosarge Family Education Center Botanical Gardens Drive, Boothbay
Instructor: Lesley Paxson
Price: $36 / $44

Forest Therapy and Tea (Sold Out)

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 can enhance awareness and presence. Follow Susan Bickford, certified guide in the ancient Japanese practice of Shinrin-yoku, or forest therapy/forest bathing, and gain the tools needed to begin your own meditation practice. The walk ends with a tea ceremony.

Learn More
Location: Bosarge Family Education Center Botanical Gardens Drive, Boothbay
Instructor: Susan Bickford
Price: $25 / $30

Forest Therapy and Tea

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 can enhance awareness and presence. Follow Susan Bickford, certified guide in the ancient Japanese practice of Shinrin-yoku, or forest therapy/forest bathing, and gain the tools needed to begin your own meditation practice. The walk ends with a tea ceremony.

Learn More
Location: Bosarge Family Education Center Botanical Gardens Drive, Boothbay
Instructor: Susan Bickford
Price: $25 / $30

Forest Therapy Walk & Tea: Spring

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.

Location: Bosarge Family Education Center Botanical Gardens Drive, Boothbay
Instructor: Susan Bickford
Price: $30 / $36

Medicinal Plants: Teas & Tinctures (Sold Out)

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.

Location: Bosarge Family Education Center Botanical Gardens Drive, Boothbay
Instructor: Lesley Paxson
Price: $40 / $48

Forest Therapy Walk & Tea: Summer

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.

Location: Bosarge Family Education Center Botanical Gardens Drive, Boothbay
Instructor: Susan Bickford
Price: $30 / $36

Forest Therapy Walk & Tea: Autumn

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.

Location: Bosarge Family Education Center Botanical Gardens Drive, Boothbay
Instructor: Susan Bickford
Price: $30 / $36