Executive Board Meetings
Board meetings are held the 2nd Wednesday of the month at 9:30 am, a week before the Membership meeting. Locations are announced monthly. Please contact the President if you have any suggestions or questions for the agenda.
Meeting Information
Held the 3rd Wednesday of the month at 10:30 am, September through May.
Meetings in 2026–27 are held at the St. John’s Church, corner of Pleasant St. and Lombard Road.
Meetings start with a relevant speaker and are followed by a business meeting and lunch. December is a catered luncheon and June is an evening catered event.
Programs are canceled if the Arlington Public Schools are canceled due to snow or other inclement weather. Please check local TV/radio for school closing information.
Upcoming Programs & Events
September 16, 2026
Martha Chiarchiaro – American Landscapes Through the Centuries
Martha is making a repeat appearance with a different program. We will hear about the Hudson River School artists as well as Winslow Homer and the Wyeth Family and how they captured the landscapes of New England and its coastline.
October 21, 2026
Dallin and Bishop Schools – Green Team Update
Staff and students will present their projects from concept to design and implementation.
November 18, 2026
Dr. Sara Lewis – The Wondrous World of Fireflies
Dr. Lewis is an ecologist and professor emerita at Tufts University. For over 30 years, she has been fascinated by firefly behavior, ecology and evolution. She is the co-chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature Firefly Specialist Group.
December 16, 2026
Susan Nock – Holiday Decorations
Susan is returning to create for us holiday decorations for your home and holiday parties.
January 20, 2027
Adrienne Allstate – History of Wright-Locke Farm and Programming in the 21st Century
Adrienne is the farm manager at Wright-Locke Farm. She trained as a teacher, but changed careers to farming. She relocated to Massachusetts 16 years ago to become the first employee at Wright-Locke Farm and led its turn-around from a pick-your-own rasberrry patch to a vibrant and varied farm.
February 17, 2027
Colleen Leger – All About Ticks
Colleen is the director of Health and Human Services for the Town of Arlington. Learn what action Arlington is taking to educate its residents on this issue and how ticks affect our gardening and what precautions we need to take.
March 17, 2027
Dr. Janet Weathers – Winter Pruning: Why, When and How to Prune Your Shrubs
Janet is a Master Gardener who has a special passion for pruning. Initially she taught herself and has had her share of bad cuts. As a Master Gardener trainee, she worked with professionals and horticulturists to perfect her skills.
April 21, 2027
Leisha Johnson – Natural Gardens with Purpose
Leisha is a garden and landscape designer who specializes in creating beautiful, ecological landscapes inspired by nature. For more than 22 years, she has helped homeowners transform challenging properties into vibrant gardens that support wildlife, celebrate native plants, and bring lasting enjoyment.
Leisha regularly lectures, leads garden tours and serves as landscape designer for Tending Your Yard, Tending the Earth project in Lincoln, MA.
May 19, 2027
Gabriele Zybarth – New England Dahlia Society
Gabriele is the president of the New England Dahlia Society. Originally from Germany, she moved to the U.S. to study molecular biology and went on to work in the biomedical industry. She has been growing Dahlias since 2008. She is an accredited Dahlia show judge. We will learn about Dahlias from A-Z.
June 16, 2027
End-of-Year Dinner – Town Hall
Other Garden Related Events
Massachusetts Horticultural Society
Offers many garden-related lectures and events throughout the year, many but not all of which are held at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s headquarters at Elm Bank in Wellesley, MA. Seasonal garden tours and daily programs are also held Gardens at Elm Bank, 36 acres on the Elm Bank Reservation at 900 Washington Street in Wellesley, MA 02482.
The site includes open fields and meadows, streams and pools, wooded areas and formal gardens. Mass Hort is uniquely positioned, not only to protect these natural resources, but also to develop spaces that enhance visitors’ appreciation of the landscape and the surrounding Charles River.
Massachusetts Master Gardeners Association
Master Gardeners are experienced and trained volunteers who provide horticultural information and education resources to the gardening public, offer technical support for horticulture projects and contribute outreach programs for community events.
The first Master Gardener (MG) program was started in 1972 in Seattle, Washington by Cooperative Extension Agents as a means of more effectively addressing questions posed to them by eager home gardeners. Within a few years the program was adopted throughout Washington and by many other states. Today, Master Gardeners are in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and several Canadian provinces. The vast majority of Master Gardener programs are run by the Cooperative Extension Services of land-grant universities. MG programs are usually organized county by county, with extension agents and university professors serving as program instructors.
Programs You May Have Missed
May 20, 2026
Andrew Brousseau – Commercial Composting A – Z
Did you ever wonder what happens to your scraps when the truck comes to your house, picks up the green bucket, empties it into their stinky truck? Andrew will share with us anything and everything you wanted to know about commercial composting the Black Earth way. Andrew is a partner and compost manager at Black Earth Compost.
April 15, 2026
Susan Nock – Spring Container Gardening for Stunning Results
Join us as Susan designs 3 container displays using her favorite plants. She will be choosing spring-specific planters and will create show-stopping arrangements while giving tips we can use to attain the same results. We will auction off all the finished designs.
March 18, 2026
Joan Butler – Spring Ephemerals: Our Native Woodland Wildflowers
Joan is an avid gardener, plant collector, and backyard birder. She is past president of the Holliston Garden Club and an Accredited Flower Show Judge. She is a Master Gardener, holds degrees in Geology and Landscape Management from UMass Amherst and their Green School. We have invited Joan back to present to us another of her delightful programs.
February 18, 2026
Jessica Zander – Looking Ahead to Spring Cleanup for Healthy Soil and Tips for Happy Hydrangeas
Jessica is a gardener, coach and consultant based in the Boston area. In 2022, she launched her business “You Can Do It Gardening,” which helps people feel more confident tackling their own gardens. Jessica is known for her no-nonsense encouraging style. She has over 900,000 followers on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
January 21, 2026
Ingrid Gallagher – The Roots of Gumption: A small Biz from the Ground Up
Ingrid has had a lifetime curiosity about plants, especially their uses as food and medicine. Inspired by the old-time drug store soda fountains which served health-promoting tonics, she founded Gumption Elixir in 2021. She brews time-honored roots and herbs into delicious, distinctively modern beverage syrups. There are currently 8 originals flavors. Join us for this unique story and a chance to sample her products.
November 19, 2025
Martha Chiarchiaro – Women Floral Painters Through the Centuries
Martha is an art history educator with more than 30 years of experience studying the life and times of people through their art. Martha will explore the floral and fauna illustrations of the following woman artists: Maria Sibylla, Merian and Rachel Ruysch, Mary Moser, Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt and Georgia O’Keeffe. and how their work reveals different truths about the times in which they lived.
October 15, 2025
Jennifer Fraulo Strassfeld – Supercharging Landscapes for Watershed Health
Jennifer is an educator with the Mystic River Watershed Association. She will speak about how engineers in Arlington and neighboring towns use plants and soils in “green infrastructure” projects to ease flooding and reduce discharge to waterways. Jennifer will discuss simple ways you, as a gardener, can reduce pollutants from getting into our water supply.
September 17, 2025
Kathie Skinner – Groundcovers
Kathie is a Lifetime Master Gardener. She is a past Education Coordinator and Master Gardener Training Coordinator for the Mass Master Gardeners Association. Her topic “Groundcovers” will focus on the advantages of using plants to conserve water, keep weeds at bay and create plant communities with common growing conditions.
Groundcovers: What Are They & How to Use Them
May 21, 2025
Susan Stamps – Arlington Tree Committee: Action in a Time of Climate Change
Susan Stamps is a retired attorney, mediator and small business owner who focuses on environmental advocacy, climate resilience and urban forestry. She is a member of Arlington’s Tree Committee , Gas Leaks Task Force, Town Meeting Member and co-founder of Green Streets Arlington, which advocates for trees, open spaces, walkability and ecologically healthy environment in harmony with development in Town.
April 16, 2025
Kathy Leva – The Master Flower Show Judge – My Creative Journey
A former Arlington resident and AGC President, Kathy served as a Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts Board member as well as a , Master Flower Show Judge throughout New England.
March 19, 2025
Michael Friedman – Climate Change and Our Gardens
Michael has a PhD in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since 2001 he has been working for the American Meteorological Society in Boston. He will cover the reality of climate change (climate crisis) including the basics of what, why and how it is happening. He will speak on how it affects your garden and offer survival strategies for you and your garden. Michael is a former Arlington resident.
February 19, 2025
Susan Dorson – Arlington Eats: A Journey Towards a Food Secure Arlington
Susan has been the Program Director at Arlington Eats for the past 5 years. Her role as Program Director is to improve quality, quantity and accessibility to food for Arlington residents, while working closely with local organizations to connect people to resources.
January 15, 2025
Charlotte Milan – Updates from the Town’s Recycling and Reuse Coordinator
Charlotte is responsible for a variety of waste diversion programs for the Town. She also works for various volunteer organizations to rehouse household items, furniture, building materials and tech gadgets. Her program updated us on changes to the guidelines at the State and local level regarding recycling and reuse of our weekly trash.
Arlington Garden Club 