SPRING 2008
APRIL | MAY | JUNE
(click
on any of these titles for their descriptions)
Overview
Irrigation Workshops (2):
All But Drip
Focus on Drip
Mother’s Day Celebration:
Creative Fun for Kids & Adults
Sharing the Garden
with Children
Site
Search Features:
Irrigation – All BUT Drip
with
John Piper, Irrigation Specialist &
Certified Instructor
Learn to design & install your own professional system. Topics: principles of design, sprinkler placement, valves, heads, timers, wiring (all but drip). Lecture & outdoor lab where we will put together a demo system.
Date: Saturday, April 5 Time: 9am - Noon
Cost: $15 GHF members, $20 non-members
Lab fee: $5
Irrigation – Focus on Drip
with
John Piper, Irrigation Specialist &
Certified Instructor
Learn how to design and install a drip irrigation system in your landscape - and save money! Lecture will cover benefits of using drip, design issues and component parts; in outdoor lab, we will put together a demo system.
Date: Saturday, April 12 Time: 9:30 - Noon
Cost: $15 GHF members, $20 non-members
Lab fee: $5- also see Irrigation: All BUT Drip -
How to Plot your Dahlia Plot
with
Deborah Dietz, Dahlia Society of California, contributor to Golden Gate Park Dahlia Garden
Where, when, what, how with a little history of the dahlia, dates of local competitions and sites of Bay Area collections. Bring lots of questions.
Date: Sunday April 13 Time: 10am – 11:30am
Cost: $15 GHF member/$20 non-member
Birdscaping Your Garden
with
Cecil Williams, Owner of Wild Birds Unlimited
Yvonne Breukens, Calif. Native Plant Specialist
Learn how to maximize Nature in your garden. You too can have a wild kingdom using the four elements of habitat. A slide show highlighting backyard birds in our area, will show correct placement of essential elements and discuss plant selections. Bring your questions!
Date: Sunday , April 20th Time: 10 - 11:30 am
Cost: $15 GHF members/$20 non-members
Photos courtesy Jim Barber ©2008
Wild Bees in the Garden
with
Dr. Gordon Frankie, Entomologist, Horticultural Ecologist, UC Berkeley
Did you know that in California we have about 4,000 species of wild bees? Many of these important and fascinating pollinators are like little jewels in the garden. On the fieldtrip, bring a bag lunch and enjoy all the flowers in the Urban Bee Garden, especially designed to attract bees. The “stars” come to work when it’s warm! Let’s bee watch, learn different behaviors, and ID on the wing. We’ll also do come counts, talk about which flowers attract the most bees, use hand lens and aerial collection.
Dates (2 Saturdays):
Slideshow/Lecture at GHF - Saturday April 19 (12:30-1:30); Fieldtrip Saturday, April 26 (12pm - 2pm)Cost: $30 GHF members/$40 non-members
(price includes both days)
Garden Illuminations
with
Andie Thrams, painter, book artist and educatorGive yourself the time to spend a day deeply observing the form and beauty of garden flora with pencil, pen and brush in hand. Andie will freely share her field-friendly tricks and techniques for working outdoors to capture botanical gesture, detail, pattern, color, light and shadow. Demonstrations and experiments will instruct how to effectively compose illuminations that can be completed on site as well as strategies to get enough down on paper to enable completion later. Work with watercolor, gouache, pastel and pencil, to build layers of color and marks, conjuring up a sense of the often overwhelming complexity of plants growing in the Garden and documenting fleeting moments. Some art experience is helpful, though not required. Supply list available at registration.
Date: Friday, May 9 Time: 10am – 4pm
Cost: $70 GHF members/$80 non-members
Materials fee: $5 (includes handouts, supplies)Click for Supply List (PDF format)
ANDIE THRAMS is a painter, book artist and educator whose work is currently focused on wild forests. Her images and books are widely exhibited, published and collected. In addition to her courses for Gardens at Heather Farm, Andie also teaches in her Sierra Nevada studio, for the Oakland Museum of California, San Francisco Center for the Book, Sitka Center for Art & Ecology, San Francisco State University Field Campus, Art Institute at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and Yosemite Association. She has been Artist in Residence at Glacier National Park and Sitka Center for Art & Ecology.
Andie holds a BA in Art Practice from the University of California, Berkeley.
Mother’s Day Celebration: Creative Fun for Kids & Adults (Ages 7 & up)
with
Andie Thrams, painter, book artist and educator
Kids, teens, brothers, sisters, moms, dads, aunties, uncles and cousins of all ages and experience levels are invited to join in this day of celebrating the creative spirit! Everyone will work with ink, watercolor, sticks and other found garden objects, as well as pen, brush and crayon, to explore lighthearted, easy and quite beautiful ways to create spontaneous botanical drawings. Our group will move between studio and Garden, collecting materials, and creating drawings and paintings throughout the day. This day will be a fun way to celebrate Mother’s Day and create gifts for moms, too.
Date: Saturday, May 10 Time: 10am – 4pm)
Cost: $70 GHF members/$80 non-members
Children (up to age 16): $25
Materials fee: $10 (all art supplies provided)
Introduction to Botanical Art
with
Catherine Watters,
botanical artist & instructor
This two day hands-on class introduces traditional botanical art skills such as plant observation, drawing, color mixing and watercolor painting using leaves, flowers and fruit as models. No previous art experience is required. Materials list provided at registration.
Dates: Saturday, May 17 & Sunday May 18
Time: 10am – 4pm each day
Cost: $120 GHF members, $130 non-members- click for materials list (PDF format) -
.
Quick and Easy Creek Botany
with
Judy Adler,
LifeGarden founder
The Walnut Creek Watershed is the largest in Contra Costa County and a coalition is forming to design, fund and implement a plan to insure the protection, enhancement and restoration of this watershed. As a first step to watershed appreciation, join Judy Adler for an introduction to the component plants of the riparian communities of central Contra Costa County. You will know how to recognize the major native trees, shrubs and vines of creek ecosystems as well as the many invasive intruders in urban settings. Storm drain issues will be addressed
Date: Saturday, May 24
Time: 9:30am -12:30pm
Cost: $15 GHF members/$20 non-members
.
Healthy Gardening Workshop
Learn how to:
- Choose appropriate plants for your garden
- Build and maintain healthy soil
- Create wildlife habitat that attract birds, butterflies and beneficial insects
- Manage pests and weeds the least toxic way
- Save time, energy and resources with gardening practices that protect our families, wildlife and water
Workshop includes a gardening guide, insect ID chart, plants and a garden tour. Worm bins will be available at the workshop a small materials fee.
Early registration for Walnut Creek residents before May 14th. Registration deadline: May 23rd.
Date: Saturday, May 31
Time: 9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Cost: FREE; Materials fee: $10 for optional worm bin (please indicate on registration whether you would like to make a worm bin)
The Working Herb Garden
with
Rose Loveall-Sale,
Owner Morningsun
Herb FarmGet your herb garden working for you this year! We will go beyond the basics of herb gardening to learn techniques to grow and maintain a beautiful productive garden, providing food, medicine, cut flowers and
fragrance for you, as well as a wonderful refuge for hummingbirds, butterflies and beneficial insects. Learn design principles and organic gardening techniques to grow a garden to delight all of your senses this
year! Handouts and a walk through the beautiful gardens at Heather Farms are included.Date: Sunday, June 8
Time: 10am – 12:30pm
Cost: $15 GHF members/$20 non-members
Creative Floral Design
with
Najat Nicola,
Diablo Women’s Garden ClubExplore floral design with fresh flowers. The instructor will demonstrate techniques in the first class and then will help students create their own arrangements in the next three classes.
Weekly Themes:
2. Romantic Summer Evening Floral Design
3. “Watermelon Anybody?”
4. “Fabulous Green Arrangement”Dates: (4 Fridays) June 6 – 27
Time: 9:30 - Noon
Cost: $55 GHF members/$65 non-member;
Materials (first class only): $10; students bring flowers weeks 2-4
Sharing the Garden with Children
with
Patrice Hanlon,
GHF Garden Manager
Introduce children to the natural world and the importance of having plants in our lives. By working in the garden, a child can experience the satisfaction that comes from caring for something over time and observe the cycles of life firsthand. This class is for parents who want to incorporate flowers, butterfly sensory and edible plants into their landscapes. We will discuss plants and activities to help get kids outdoors & into the garden! Includes garden tour.
Date: Saturday, June 21
Time: 9:30am – Noon
Cost: $15 GHF member/$20 non-member