Market: Greenway Open Market (Saturdays, Wharf District Parks)
Name/Vendor: Rebecca and Cameron Stern for Stern Design Works
Art/Craft: Jewelry

Cameron and Rebecca Stern Design Works

Interview:

GC (Greenway Conservancy): How long have you been creating and selling your work? How would you describe your work? Are there any particular inspirations for your work?

SDW (Stern Design Works): 2012 marks our 6^th year in business and our 2^nd year as Stern Design Works. We hand-fabricate unique objects in metal, resin and increasingly with other alternative materials. Our subject matter is influenced by the natural world, science, toys, and a fervent passion for the past, present, and future of art and design.

GC: What interested or intrigued you about showcasing and selling your work on the Greenway?

SDW: Urban-transformation creates beauty and interactivity in formerly utilitarian or disused environments. We sell at pop-up markets that infuse beauty, energy and design into the environments that surround them, and vice versa. It is always exciting to sell and interact in a new location, especially one like the Greenway, in terms of creating something special in the middle of an industrial area – something we do on a daily basis.

GC: How many weekends have you dedicated towards being involved with the Greenway Open Market?

SDW: As many as they’ll let us! We will most likely be splitting our Saturdays between the Greenway and Providence Open Markets.

GC:  Can you describe your overall experience with the GOM? Does anything in particular stand out?

SDW: The greenway is a unique experience. It is always great to be able to sell to a mix of cultured locals and tourists which the area really attracts.

GC: What is it like working alongside the other talented artists and vendors at the market?

SDW: It is just another day at work. I couldn’t imagine working in a standard office. It’s always a great experience to be out there in the field with other professional artists.

GC:  What is your favorite part about selling on the Greenway so far?

SDW: It is never bad when we get to sell closely to the Clover food truck. Whenever we can start a day off with one of their breakfast sandwiches I know it’s going to be a good day.

GC:  How do you incorporate environmentally friendly or sustainable practices into the work you do?

SDW: We are trying to use more and more “green sourced” or recycled metals. All of our displays are created with a lot of up-cycled and re-purposed building supplies including barn wood and wood straight out of garbage piles in NYC.

Rebecca and Cameron will be on the Greenway this summer, so be sure to keep an eye out for them! If you would like more information about Stern Design Works or to view their jewelry online, visit: http://sterndesignworks.com/

Lacebark Pine (Pinus bungeana)
The Chinatown Park is home to one of our larger ornamental evergreens, the Lacebark Pine (Pinus bungeana). This particular tree was recently rehabilitated after being damaged during the previous winter, and we are very pleased to see it looking healthier and stronger. The Lacebark Pine is a multi-stemmed tree with a broad and open form and medium length green needles. It produces ovular cones between 2 and 3 inches long with broad, spiky scales. Perhaps the most notable feature of the Lacebark Pine is its multi-colored exfoliating bark, from which the name is derived.

Lacebark Pine

Lacebark

The Tanyosho Pine (Pinus densiflora ‘Umbraculifera’)
The Tanyosho Pine  is a dwarf cultivar and another multi-stemmed Pine that has found a home on the Greenway. Dotted throughout the Fort Point Channel Parks, the Tanyosho Pine has a distinctive broad and rounded habit, with all of its stems forming an umbrella-like canopy at the top. These trees bear clusters of small seed cones prolifically, and also have attractive reddish bark that can be easily seen under their dark green canopies.

Tanyosho Pine

Tanyosho Pine Cones

‘Grey Owl’ Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana ‘Grey Owl’)
The Wharf District Parks are home to a particularly lovely native evergreen shrub, the ‘Grey Owl’ Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana ‘Grey Owl’). This Juniper rarely grows more than 3 feet in height, but expands outward in a spreading habit. The needles of the ‘Grey Owl’ Eastern Red Cedar are silvery-grey and filled with showy blue seed cones that resemble berries.

Juniper

The immediate remediation work at Dewey Square Park will conclude today, and the remainder of the restoration work will wait for warmer spring temperatures. We look forward to reopening the park soon, following the Boston Police Department’s decision to remove the barriers. Visitors are encouraged to use the paths through the park as the lawn will be roped off to allow the new sod to take root.

Dewey Square Park earlier this week

The restoration cost to date is $32,500; while spring will bring further costs and improvements, updated projections are $37,000 to $40,000. Reducing the expense from early estimates, cost savings came in large part from 1) repairing, rather than replacing the road and paths; 2) restoring rather than replacing many yards of soil across the site. The Dewey Square Park, like all of the Greenway, is maintained organically. We welcome your donations to support this effort.

Last week the sod was completed, dead trees removed and replaced with new trees, and improvements made to drainage and irrigation. Seasonal plantings and decorations were added to the storage boxes, and some trees are wrapped for winter lights. As we enter the peak holiday season, we hope that you will stop by to see the revitalized park, get a hot drink from our food vendors on the plaza, and shop for veggies at the Farmers Market (Tuesdays/Thursdays through December 22).

Dewey Square Park summer 2011

Dewey Square Park, Summer 2011

Significant remediation work has already occurred. On Saturday, the entire area was re-graded to eliminate ruts and channels. Organic horticulture practices, used on the entire Greenway, are stabilizing the soils. Air spading addressed significant compaction in the soil, 60 cubic yards of organic compost and 50 cubic yards of loam were added. On Sunday, the irrigation system was repaired, including upgraded irrigation heads that use less water. Today, sod is being rolled out. The lawn and applications need some time to rest.

Public programs and further improvements will continue in the winter. Soon, trained arborists will wrap trees in the west bed with winter lights. The Boston Public Market Association’s farmers market continues through Christmas on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the plaza from 11:30-2:30, and grab a bite from our Dewey food trucks: Clover, Bon Me, and Momogoose.

Boston Public Market at Dewey Square

Please continue to enjoy the entire Greenway, including our Winter Lights offerings.

Ginkgo Biloba
The Ginkgo trees in Chinatown are putting on one of the final, spectacular shows of fall color over the coming days. Ginkgo biloba, also known as the Maidenhair Tree, is a deciduous tree native to Eastern China. The Ginkgo’s leaves are fan-shaped and bright green in the spring and summer, finally turning to a brilliant gold before they drop. Ginkgo biloba is well-known for its medicinal uses in memory enhancement, but among horticulturists and botanists it may be more famous for its interesting reproductive habits and odorous female fruit.

Gingko Biloba

‘Henry’s Garnet’ Virginia Sweetspire (Itea virginica ‘Henry’s Garnet’)
In the Fort Point Channel Parks there is still life and color springing forth out of the gardens. Many of our roses and hydrangeas are continuing to bloom for just a bit longer, and there are still splashes of fall color. The foliage of the ‘Henry’s Garnet’ Virginia Sweetspire (Itea virginica ‘Henry’s Garnet’) has turned a deep shade of burgundy. This cultivar of Virginia Sweetspire bears especially long cascades of raceme-flowers, adapts well to sunny and partially-shaded environments, and holds onto its beautiful fall foliage for an unusually long time.

‘Henry’s Garnet’ Virginia Sweetspire

‘Red Sprite’ Winterberry (Ilex verticillata ‘Red Sprite’)
Our Winterberry Hollies began to fruit weeks ago, but now that they are shedding their leaves the bright red berries may be more noticeable clinging to the bare branches. ‘Red Sprite’ Winterberry (Ilex verticillata ‘Red Sprite’) is a native cultivar that is compact and rounded, with large berries in the fall and winter months. The ‘Red Sprite’ winterberries can be seen fruiting throughout our Wharf District Parks

‘Red Sprite’ Winterberry

Honeylocust trees (Gleditsia triacanthos var. inermis)  & Thread Leaf Blue Stars (Amsonia hubrichtii)

The Fort Point Channel Parks are golden this week with bright Honeylocust trees (Gleditsia triacanthos var. inermis) and Thread Leaf Blue Stars (Amsonia hubrichtii). The Thread Leaf Blue Star is an herbaceous perennial that produces delicate star-shaped flowers in the spring. The Blue Star’s foliage is long and very fine, and takes on a beautiful shade of yellow in the fall. Amsonia hubrichtii was named the Perennial Plant Association’s 2011 Plant of the Year, and it has certainly proved to be of interest in multiple seasons here on the Greenway!

Honeylocust Tree

Thread Leaf Blue Stars

Sweetgum trees (Liquidambar styraciflua ‘Moraine’)

The Wharf District has a number of trees and shrubs that are showing fall color, including Maples, Ironwoods, Black Gums, and Sweetgums. The Sweetgum trees (Liquidambar styraciflua ‘Moraine’) are native trees with star-shaped leaves that look similar to maple leaves, and turn red before they drop.

Sweetgum Tree

Cranberrybush Viburnums (Viburnum trilobum ‘Spring Green Compact’)

Also in color in the Wharf District are the Cranberrybush Viburnums (Viburnum trilobum ‘Spring Green Compact’), which are gradually turning a bright cranberry red. We have a variety of Viburnums throughout the Greenway which produce clusters of red berries, and take on shades of red for the fall before they drop their leaves. They can be seen from the North End to the Fort Point Channel Parks.

Cranberrybush Viburnums

The Greenway is managed organically and we never use chemicals to get rid of unwanted weeds. Demonstrating their commitment to sustainable landscape practices, the horticulture staff and the apprentices managed to remove all of the plantains and dandelions from the lawns this fall by hand!  Removing these plants ensures that they won’t be back in the spring and that our lawns will be even healthier and happier next year!

Diana and Asha removing broad-leaf weeds from the lawns in the Fort Point Channel Parks

The Green & Grow apprentices have also taken on the fall task of pruning and are fast to mastering the methods used by our own horticulturalists.  One Apprentice, Noelia, reflected on the task: “When we got to Chinatown it was clear that the plants were getting in people’s way.  When we were finished, I felt as though people will walk by and say, ‘Wow, what a really nice job they did.’  I feel good about the work we did today, it looks so much better!”

Hughes employing the skills he learned in the classroom to the garden beds in Chinatown

Thanks to the apprentices, there will be another huge splash of color on the Greenway this spring! The Apprentices planted over 700 crocus bulbs in the lawns of Fort Point Channel that will be ready to pop up and show their colors in approximately 110 days!

Planting bulbs in Fort Point Channel Parks

Chinese Elm (Ulmus parvifolia ‘Dynasty’)

Chinatown is rich with autumnal colors, but there are more subtle botanical features to be enjoyed as well. Our Chinese Elms (Ulmus parvifolia ‘Dynasty’) along Kingston Street have recently put out their delicate, pink to reddish-tinged fruit. Elms produce a fibrous, papery fruit called a samara. The seed is held in the center of what appear to be papery wings, which effectively carry the fruit far away from its parent tree. As the Chinese Elms lose their fruit and leaves, the nude branches and revealed trunk display one of the tree’s most beautiful qualities- its bark! Ulmus parvofoliaare also known as Lacebark Elms due to their exfoliating, piecey bark, which takes on shades of gray, brown, green, and orange.

Chinese Elm

Lowbush Blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium ‘Putte’) 

The Fort Point Channel Parks have been transformed by the colors of Fall, with red and orange-tinged Maple leaves, fiery-foliaged Amelanchiers, and plump red Winterberry Holly and Cranberrybush Viburnum fruit. Also in color for the fall are a few of our smaller woody plants. The Lowbush Blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium ‘Putte’) have turned a deep red for the fall, and the ‘Henry Garnet’ Virginia Sweetspire (Itea virginica‘Henry’s Garnet’) are turning a rich shade of burgundy.

Lowbush Blueberries

Red Sunset Maple(Acer Rubrum ‘Franksred’) 

Enjoy a stroll through the Greenway soon and enjoy one of the most classic New England fall sightings: a fiery red Maple tree. The Red Sunset Maple (Acer Rubrum‘Franksred’) is one of the most popular cultivars of Red Maples due to its vigorous growth, disease and pest resistance, and most notably its vibrant fall color. We have several Red Sunset Maples throughout the Fort Point Channel, Wharf District, and North End Parks.

Red Sunset Maple

The Lady in Black Aster typically grows up to three feet tall in a mounded form with dusky purple foliage.  This Aster bears many tiny white flowers with rosy eyes, and does well in most soil conditions with an average amount of sunlight. It is recommended to pinch back these plants in the early summer to promote better branching and flowering. See our Ladies in Black in bloom in the Fort Point Channel Parks just south of Pearl Street.

Lady in Black Aster

Cockspur Hawthorn (Crataegus crus-galli var. inermis)

Cockspur Hawthorns are bearing clusters of fleshy red fruit in the Wharf District Parks. The Cockspur Hawthorn is a medium-sized deciduous tree that produces small white flowers in the spring and red pome fruit in the fall. Crataegus crus-galli var. inermis is a variety of Cockspur Hawthorne similar to the straight species with bright red fruit but without thorns.

Cockspur Hawthorn

Purple-stemmed Aster (Symphyotrichum puniceum)

The Purple-stemmed Aster is another native Aster that can be seen blooming throughout the Wharf District Parks. It typically (but not always) has reddish or purplish hairy branching stems. The word ‘Aster’ comes from the Greek language, meaning ‘a star’, to describe Symphyotrichum’s disc flowers. Purple-stemmed Asters bear clusters of disc flowers which are light purple to blue with a yellow center.

Purple-stemmed Aster