1-66 Newbury St.

It’s easy to grow your own culinary herbs! Fresh and nutritious herbs are a healthy and fun way to liven up any meal. This Cambridge Center for Adult Education class on Saturday, July 7 at 11 am will focus on the most common herbs used in cooking. Whether you have a garden or a windowsill for containers, you’ll be able to plant, grow, and harvest your very own herbs. Handouts will include information on herbs and growing instructions. Instructor: Iris Weaver. The class will take place at 42 Brattle Street in Cambridge, and is $50. Register online at http://learn.ccae.org/modules/shop/index.html?action=courseBrowse&TagID=254

The Garden Conservancy announces Nantucket Open Day on Thursday, July 12 from 10 – 4. Admission to each garden is $7 for members and nonmembers without tickets purchased in advance.

The Cape Cod Hydrangea Society welcomes you to a Garden for All Seasons. Featured in Fine Gardening magazine last year, this property was chosen for its skill in making a mere half acre feel much larger. Winding garden paths lead the visitor through surprising vistas and vignettes. Espaliered pear and dogwood trees and archways of beeches and hydrangeas are some of the many features to be discovered in this 34 year old garden created by the homeowners / professional horticulturists. More than 30 hydrangea cultivars are integrated into the mixed borders. Yearly changes make this garden well worth a return trip. Open: Sunday, July 8 and Friday, July 13, 10 – 4. The proceeds from this garden tour will benefit the Cape Cod Hydrangea Society. Admission:$5 per garden. Rain or Shine. Pay cash at the door. For more information visit http://www.thecapecodhydrangeasociety.org/

In this three-session Massachusetts Horticultural Society tutorial course, Maria von Brincken, landscape designer, will teach you how to use color and plants to design gardens filled with color from flowers and foliage. You’ll learn how to create beautiful plant combinations that flower from spring to frost for sun and shade.

Join gardeners, nonprofits and organizers of the Cape Cod Hydrangea Festival on Thursday, July 5 from 6:30 – 8:30 at Cape Cod Beer for a celebratory opening night party. Come out and try Cape Cod Beer Hydrangea Cocktail. Free to attend. Open to public. Cape Cod Beer is located at 1336 Phinneys Lane in Hyannis. Image courtesy of Yankee Magazine.

What would you do with a tiny house? Purchase a raffle ticket today ($15) from the Fuller Craft Museum and enter to win your very own Tiny House. In the spirit of play and in collaboration with HGTV host Deek Diedricksen, Fuller Craft Museum presents a chance to win your very own Tiny House. The house will be on view for the duration of Diedricksen’s installation FORTitude and the upcoming Playtime in the Making exhibition at the Museum, which is located at 455 Oak Street in Brockton. The raffle drawing will take place on Friday, August 24, 2018. Once you purchase your ticket online, you will not receive a physical ticket, but a ticket in your name will be submitted to our fishbowl for the official drawing. Our lucky winner will be able to take home their Tiny house at the end of the exhibition on September 16.

My vote in support of Mayor Walsh’s Short Term Rental Ordinance

While Massachusetts has led the nation with health care reform, residents of the Commonwealth continue to lack basic access to primary and specialty care across the state. Poor patient access to care, an uncontrolled opioid epidemic and rising healthcare costs together present a perfect storm.  Many states however, have been proactive about removing practice barriers to increase access to NP driven care.

The Charles River Watershed Association announced that it has named Emily Norton, who is currently director of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Sierra Club, as CRWA’s new executive director. She succeeds longtime CRWA Executive Director Bob Zimmerman.

Evandro Carvalho believes his campaign for Suffolk County District Attorney is picking up momentum with just under three months to go before the Democratic primary is held on Sept. 4.

SUMMER EVENING AT OTIS HOUSE THIS THURSDAY

The Boston City Council voted late Wednesday afternoon to adopt Mayor Martin Walsh’s amended short-term rental ordinance by a vote of 11-2, eliminating the controversial investor units that have been described as “de facto hotels,” but also giving some new leeway to owner-occupants to rent out their units for short-term platforms.

Dorothy Elizabeth Russell and Ceva Gabrielle Stanley embrace and remember some great memories from elementary school during the Kingsley Montessori School graduation on Thursday, June 13, in the Back Bay Events Center. Graduates were encouraged by Kingsley alumnus Max Aboko-Cole, who delivered the alumni address, and is now a student at American University.

The Emerald Necklace Conservancy turns 20 this year, and to celebrate, they have proposed a 12-week art exhibition in the parks. This is one of three initiatives the Conservancy is pursuing to honor the anniversary.

Beacon Hill Beat

The Museum of Fine Arts Boston invites you to join adjunct instructor Martha Wright to reflect in the Japanese garden, tour sculpture on MFA lawns, and savor the sunshine in landscapes in the galleries.  The two session Looking Together event will take place Tuesday, July 10 and Tuesday, July 17 from 10:30 – 12. Meet at the Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Visitor Center.  $64 for MFA members, $80 for nonmembers. Tickets required. Tickets must be purchased prior to the start of the first session; individual sessions are not available. You may purchase tickets online at www.mfa.org. To order tickets by phone, call 1-800-440-6975; to order in person, visit any MFA ticket desk .

The Eastham Garden Tour drew huge crowds at last year’s Cape Cod Hydrangea Festival. This year five unique Eastham gardens will be open on Tuesday, July 10th, from 10am to 4pm. For more information, go to http://EasthamGardenTour.org or contact the Eastham Library, (508) 240-5950.

Berkshire Botanical Garden again hosts its Cocktails in Great Gardens series, and on Friday, June 29 at 5 pm, they will be in a private garden in Kinderhook, New York. An allée of mature maple trees welcomes you to the home and gardens at this lovely Kinderhook, New York property. The main garden was conceived as a contained counterpoint to the surrounding farmland with a series of spaces, each with its own character. A kitchen garden of boxwood parterres and espaliered pears is planted with summer vegetables and herbs; the main lawn is enclosed by a boxwood and hornbeam hedge with a visual break revealing a view to the pond, fields, and mountains beyond.

Have you ever wondered how the Douglas Fir got its name? Or how the tree’s namesake met his end by a wild bull in Hawaii? Join Steve Jackson, Mount Auburn’s Plant Records & GIS Manager, for an early evening stroll through the cemetery (580 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge) to hear the stories of the plant hunters who often risked their lives to bring us the plants we have in Mount Auburn’s landscape. The walk will take place Thursday, June 28 at 5:30, and is $7 for Friends of Mount Auburn, $12 for general public. Register at http://mountauburn.org/event/plant-hunters-lions-and-tigers-andxenophobic-tibetan-lamas-oh-my/

The Friends of the Public Garden will hold its annual Summer Party on Wednesday, July 18 from 6 – 8 on the Roof at Taj Boston, sponsored by Cambridge Trust Company.  Visit http://friendsofthepublicgarden.org/2018/06/05/2018summerparty/ for ticket information.  The event sells out, so act now!

Jerry Bond, Urban Forestry Consultant, Urban Forest Analytics LLC, will lead Arnold Arboretum attendees through a new field protocol for obtaining quick and reliable estimates of tree health, a critical component of tree condition. He will introduce his process of observation, with emphasis on producing repeatable and useful results. After practicing techniques in the field, he will present the way field observations can be interpreted and transformed into reliable information for communicating to clients. Jerry will also stress understanding the limits of observation in order to guard against making assumptions. A second outdoor session will test real-world application of these methods. He will explain the biological foundation for his field protocol and end the program with the day-to-day utility of this approach within various work contexts. This class is based on the book, Urban Tree Health: A Practical and Precise Estimation Method, by Jerry Bond, published in 2012. Lunch will be provided. $150.

Join Generous Gardeners on Saturday, July 7 from 10 – 4 in the intriguing Lanesville neighborhood of Gloucester for the sixth annual Gloucester Garden Tour. Explore more than a dozen lovely private gardens, quarries and ocean views. Rain or Shine. Contact Susan Kelly or 781-346-1363. Tickets are $30 and may be purchased the day of the tour at 1123 Washington St, Gloucester, MA, or in advance online at http://generousgardeners.org/gloucester-garden-tour/.

Join Pacific Horticulture for Valentine’s Day in romantic San Miguel de Allende. Private garden visits include a lush, walled compound, a collector’s home and garden with sculpture and fabulous Mexican art, and a quirky artist retreat filled with ongoing mosaic projects. We’ll visit The Mask Museum in San Miguel housed adjacent to a charming courtyard garden and explore el Charco del Ingenio, a botanical garden and nature preserve (below). History and folk art await us in Dolores Hidalgo and Atotonilco.

Birds are not only winged harbingers of spring, they are harbingers of healthy ecosystems. 2018 is the ‘Year of the Bird’ and new research exposes the critical role that farmland and other diverse habitats provide for birdlife. In New England, birds associated with grass- and shrublands represent some of the most treasured wildlife in Massachusetts, but they are also some of the most imperiled and rapidly declining bird groups. Most of these birds depend significantly on privately-owned lands, agricultural landscapes, and the efforts of individual landowners in order to survive.