Members Fall Garden Tour

November 18th, 9:30 AM - 11 AM

Come explore our collection of signature specimen trees with Executive Director, Debbie Merriam while enjoying coffee or hot cider and homemade coffee cake. This event is free for members but does require registration.

To register please click here. If you are not a member and would like to join or renew, please click here.

Wreath-making Workshops, December 7th and 9th

Make plans now to attend our annual wreath-making workshop. Participants will create a fabulous holiday wreath for their home with locally sourced evergreens. This workshop will begin with a short demonstration of how to assemble the wreath base. Then you can explore how to embellish that wreath and turn it into a custom-made showstopper! All materials are provided but feel free to bring your decorations. The fee for this class is $50 for non-members and $30 for members. Supplies and space are limited and registration is required.

To register for December 7th, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM, click here.

To register for December 9th, 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM, click here.

October FamilyFest was a fun-filled afternoon.

The sun was shining and the band created a perfect ambiance for families to relax, carve pumpkins, build creative vegetable racers and enjoy good food and beer in a beautiful setting overlooking the fall-tinged gardens. We are thankful for our wonderfully supportive volunteer corps, from setup through cleanup; offering a warm welcome, a helpful assist racing vegetables, delicious food and drinks without a wait, and music that brought it all to life. Thank you for spending the afternoon with us and supporting our educational programs.

If you enjoyed the music and are looking for more, click here: Electric Standard.

Boston Public School students wrapped up fall field trips with a visit from Betty the llama!

Over 150 school children in 1st through 5th grade visited us in October. They were eager to get started on their field investigations as soon as they exited the big yellow school buses. While many students have visited in previous years, some were experiencing this outdoor learning classroom for the first time. Either way, they brought curiosity, wondering and imagination to their investigations of trees, plants and seeds, the decomposer trail, the weathering boulders, erosion in a stream bank, the apple orchard, the chicken coop and pond life.

We are delighted to serve as an outdoor learning classroom for students and teachers as they navigate our landscape, observing, questioning, hypothesizing and offering insights that connect classroom learning to real life experiences.

Master Gardeners supported seed donation to the Milton Public Library.

Beauty in the fall garden comes in the form of bright red berries, dried seedheads, the rich colors of leaves and the song of birds enjoying their harvest. Master Gardeners joined us to collect seeds from a variety of trees, shrubs and plants throughout the arboretum and set to work processing them for saving. Dried seed-heads or pods from echinacea, calycanthus, rudbeckia, and physocarpus were processed by separating the seed from that plant the seed from its hull. Seeds encased in a more fleshy fruit, magnolia, cranberry viburnum, and dogwood required a gooey extraction process and drying before being stored. Packaged seeds were delivered to the Milton Public Library's Seed Library for community members to check out. We also have seeds on-site if visitors are interested in taking some home.

Youth Education and Community Service collaborations offer local students an opportunity to make an impact.



Wherever you wander through our gardens, you will experience the gifts of community contribution. Our collaborations with local educational programs offer students an avenue to contribute to a community resource, enhance the gardens, and learn about working in a natural setting. Students from BC High, Thacher Montessori and TEC have all pulled on gardening gloves and joined in projects over the past couple of months here at the arboretum. Projects include mulching the understory of the dawn redwoods, removing invasive plants from the Blueberry Trail in the woodlands, harvesting dogwood fruit, preparing for the October FamilyFest, and planning and carrying out a project to rejuvenate the Decomposer Trail used for student field trips.