Fall Festival 2011

Saturday, October 1, 2011

10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Free and open to the public

Spend an educational and fun filled day at Tranquil Lake Nursery in Rehoboth, Massachusetts on Saturday, October 1st from 10 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Learn new techniques that will help you to hone your gardening skills and improve the look and care of your own garden this fall and in the year to come. A variety of garden professional will share their knowledge and tools of the trade with you through workshops, hands-on activities, garden talks and demonstrations.

Learn how and when to divide perennials and prune shrubs, select trees for their fall and winter landscape interest or to attract butterflues and increase biodiversity or select from the top ten list of must have garden plants. Experience the fine art of Japanese-style garden arranging, renovating a mixed border, building a garden fire pit or gabion garden seat.

The nursery also has more than 10 acres of daylilies and Siberian and Japanese Iris in the field. Some of the late blooming daylilies will still be in bloom at the end of September. Tranquil Lake Nursery offers a diverse selection of perennials, herbs, shrubs, grasses and tender perennials. Bring a picnic lunch; we'll provide the drinks. For more information or a schedule, call the nursery at (508) 252-4002.

Schedule of Workshops & Demonstrations

10:00 a.m.     “Artful Pruning of Your Trees and Shrubs”

The day begins with a pruning demonstration with horticulturist and recent URI Graduate Jimmy Riddle, a member of the Tranquil Lake Nursery Landscape crew. He will demonstrate the art and craft of pruning practices, showing how and when to cut back shrubs and trees, ornamental grasses and vines as he takes you through the nursery gardens. In his demonstration "Artful Pruning of Your Trees and Shrubs" he will show you how to cut back trees and shrubs to keep them in scale with the garden, thin out overgrown shrubs and trees, rejuvenate older plantings and encourage prolific bloom in the future. He will discuss the underlying complex choices of selecting branch armature to promote healthy plant growth as well as sustaining beauty. These specialized pruning techniques will allow you to shape your trees and shrubs, so that they can be used in many versatile ways.

10:30 a.m.     “Planting for a Colorful Fall and Winter Garden”

Garden color and interest need not fade with the first fall frost and frost and may even persist through winter snows. Enhance this often overlooked garden season by adding perennials, grasses, shrubs and small trees that will add color, texture and structure in your borders throughout the fall and into the winter. In his garden talk "Planting for a Colorful Fall and Winter Garden", Warren Leach, landscape gardener and co-owner of Tranquil Lake Nursery will highlight a variety of uncommon and lesser known late season beauties that will spice up your borders adding late-season blooms, fall foliage effect, colorful twigs and attractive fruit to brighten the fall and winter landscape. He will also offer design suggestions for combining these plants into your borders and protecting them for the winter ahead.

11:30 a.m.    “Gardening for Butterflies and Biodiversity”

Plant a garden that will attract and support butterflies, fritillaries, moths and other herbivorous insects. In doing so, you will be able to enjoy and study the life cycles of these key members of the food web, while also helping to increase biodiversity by providing the food for organisms such as birds, amphibian, reptiles and even mammals. Horticulturists and gardener Debi Hogan will offer an overview of some of these insects, showing their life cycle and the plants that will attract and feed the adults while also providing food for the caterpillars. She will also suggest gardening practices that will encourage and support these important and beautiful insects.

12:00 noon.  “Designing and Constructing a Fire Pit”

The warm glow of fore adds to the ambiance of the evening garden setting. Horticulturist Jimmy Riddle will show you how to build a raise hearth using stone fragments recycled from landscape paving projects. (On-going throughout the day)

12:30  p.m.          “Designing and Planting Tips for Renovating a Mixed Border”

Warren Leach, horticulturists and co-owner of Tranquil Lake Nursery will offer a demonstration on the techniques for "Designing and Planting Tips for Renovating A Mixed Border." Using one of the older gardens at Tranquil Lake Nursery, he will remove existing perenialsm, demonstrate digging in soil amendments, preparing the planting bed and will then renovate by planting perennials and woody ornamental. The end result will be a new mixed border display garden display.

1:30 p.m.     “Creative Arrangements for the Fall Garden with A Japanese Flair”

Gilbert Moore, a talented gardener and flower arranger from North Smithfield, Rhode Island will share his talents in his demonstration "Creative Arrangements from the Fall Garden with a Japanese Flair." Gil will compose several summer arrangements in a diversity of containers, showcasing his unique design style. For several years now, he has been studying Ikebana, the art of Japanese Flower Arrangement and he will review a few basic principles and demonstrate a couple of Japanese-style arrangements that can easily be made from simple flowers and branches you will find in the your garden. He will also share tips for selecting containers and tell you how to condition flowers and foliage picked from the autumn garden.

2:00 p.m.     “Building a Gabion Garden Seat”

Add an artful and unique architectural feature to your garden this year by "Building a Gabion Garden Seat" . Jimmy Riddle and Warren Leach are adapting the venerable civil engineering structure known as the gabion to build a garden structure. This technique was once used by Leonardo da Vinci in Milan and ca easilyt be adapted for your garden.

2:20 p.m.     “Dividing Tips and Techniques for the Fall Garden”

Philip Boucher, co-owner of Tranquil Lake Nursery will offer a demonstration, taking you step-by-step through "Dividing Tips and Techniques for the Fall Garden" This is a terrific opportunity to increase the number of plants in your garden while also improving the vigor and bloom of your plants, as you learn how to divide established clumps of Hosta, Iris, daylilies and many other perennials. Then learn some fall gardening practices for good garden hygiene, pest control, culture and beauty. You will learn what to cut back and when, how to compost, what plants to leave standing for winter interest, mulching and more. You will also learn how to prune, which plants to protect from winter cold, how to overwinter containers and clean up the garden for winter.configuration and construction.

3:00 p.m.     “Top Ten Must Have Plants for Your Garden”

Landscape horticulturist and garden designer Warren Leach, will end the day with "Top Ten Must Have Plants for Your Garden." Warren will showcase his overall favorite garden plants for their ruggedness, long season of interest and design qualities for the garden.

Bring a picnic lunch; we'll provide the drinks.

Plan to spend the whole day and learn how to improve the look of your garden this autumn, while you also get ready for the winter ahead and the spring to follow. You will also have the opportunity to wander among the gardens at Tranquil Lake Nursery, where you will see a diverse variety of perennials, grasses, shrubs and vines with late season interest. The gardens include a number of perennial borders, mixed perennial and shrub gardens, an ornamental vegetable garden, a thyme bench, container herb garden, an entry garden, an ornamental grass garden, a purple garden designed to attract hummingbirds, spectacular container plantings brimming with annuals and perennials, a pond-side water garden, a bog garden, a pool with a water rill, a dry-scree garden and a new reservoir garden with a stone wall that overflows to a drip fountain. All plants discussed during the day will be available for sale.