Free to members or with admission to the sculpture garden. Younger children should work with an adult.

Lynden is offering a series of holiday giftmaking workshops in November and December. They range from simple activities suitable for families with smaller children to more advanced workshops for adults. Whether you are making a gift for yourself or another, these workshops should provide a cheerful atmosphere for art making as we head into winter. To see a complete list of holiday giftmaking workshops, visit our Workshops page.

Winter is approaching and as you plan a menu for your backyard birds, suet is a great source of high calorie energy. We will make suet feeders out of natural materials, and fill them with our own homemade suet mix. Please note: There are seeds and nuts in the suet mix, which may make this activity unsuitable for those with nut allergies.

Free to members or with admission to the sculpture garden. Younger children should work with an adult.

Autumn is a time of transition and vibrant colors. We invite you to walk Lynden's grounds to collect a variety of colorful leaves, or choose from the natural materials we have on hand in the studio, to create your own unique collage composition.

Chuck Stebelton, left, with fellow poet and birdwatcher Nathaniel Tarn

September 10 with Chuck Stebelton & Renato Umali, 8:30 am-10 am
October 1 with Chuck Stebelton & Portia Cobb, 8:30 am-10 am

Free to members or with admission to the sculpture garden.

Poet/birder Chuck Stebelton returns to Lynden for fall bird walks, and he's brought friends! Please wear appropriate footwear and bring your binoculars if you have them; no previous birding experience required.

Chuck Stebelton is author of two full-length collections of poetry, most recently The Platformist (Cultural Society, 2012). His first book, Circulation Flowers (Tougher Disguises, 2005), was winner of the inaugural Jack Spicer Award. As a birder and Wisconsin Master Naturalist volunteer he has offered interpretive hikes for organizations including Lynden Sculpture Garden, Friends of Lorine Niedecker, and Woodland Pattern Book Center. He was Literary Program Director at Woodland Pattern from 2005 to 2017. He currently serves as Program Coordinator for Interfaith Older Adult Programs in Milwaukee and is a participant in Lynden's residency program.

On September 10, Stebelton's guest is Renato Umali, an artist, musician and educator. Umali composed the score for artist Cecelia Condit's recent two-channel video installation at Lynden, Tales of a Future Past.

On October 1, Stebelton is joined by filmmaker Portia Cobb, a current Lynden artist-in-residence, whose conceptual work, Rooted: The Storied Land, Memory, and Belonging, draws on her South Carolina roots to respond to and extend the narrative first created by Fo Wilson when she imagined a 19th-century enslaved woman and what she might collect in her living quarters.

A Workshop with Sharon Morrisey, Consumer Horticulture Agent, Milwaukee County University of Wisconsin-Extension

Photo: Viburnum Leaf Beetle Damage

Fee: $15/$10 members
Registration: Space is limited; advance registration required. Register by phone at 414-446-8794.

This workshop is part of Lynden's Garden Series, a series of workshops throughout the spring and summer of 2017 that take a broad view of what it means to garden. For more information, click here.

Along with sun and rain, you can count on pests, both insects and diseases, eventually turning up in your lawn and garden. Knowing which pests to expect and how to identify when they arrive is the key to preventing a minor infestation from becoming a major setback. This session will help you become familiar with many of Southeast Wisconsin’s most common nuisance insect and disease pests, and provide an early look at some up and coming unwanted organisms that every homeowner will want to know about. You will learn several resources for identifying our most common pests and a variety of techniques for managing them.

About Sharon Morrisey

Sharon Morrisey has been lending her horticulture knowledge and expertise to Wisconsin’s residents since 1992. As the Consumer Horticulture Agent for Milwaukee County University of Wisconsin-Extension she serves both individual and groups across a broad range of yard and garden related topics. Sharon is frequently featured on local media—you may know her from her regular guest spot on the Fox6 Wake-Up News show's Green Thumb Garden. Sharon is a good friend of the Lynden Sculpture Garden and occasionally leads tree walks on the grounds.

A Talk with Michelle Zimmer

Free to members or with admission to the sculpture garden.

This workshop is part of Lynden's Garden Series, a series of workshops throughout the spring and summer of 2017 that take a broad view of what it means to garden. For more information, click here.

Garden design is at least a craft and in some cultures rises to an art form. Using living plants as the medium the designer must take into account the added elements of location, the laws and whims of nature, and the inevitable changes that come with the passage of time. Designing a garden to complement the newly installed Bonsai exhibit, planted this May, was a happy but surprisingly complex process. Join me for an informal presentation/discussion of the design process for these new perennial gardens. Bring your imagination and be prepared to walk and talk as we look at the garden from many points of view.

About Michelle Zimmer

Michelle Zimmer is a bonsai hobbyist, amateur naturalist, and garden lover.

A Workshop with Joel Hitchcock Tilton

Fee: $15/$10 members
Registration: Walk-ins welcome, or register by phone at 414-446-8794.

This workshop is part of Lynden's Garden Series, a series of workshops throughout the spring and summer of 2017 that take a broad view of what it means to garden. For more information, click here.

Controlling pests is part of every gardener’s life, and Joel Hitchcock Tilton encourages us to consider methods of pest control that are not inherently harmful to the earth and those that occupy it. Companion planting--encouraging plants to thrive by planting them in combinations that provide essential nutrients, deter pests, attract pollinators, or offer structural support—is one such technique; there are several others. The workshop will include a brief overview of the theory, possibilities, and benefits of companion planting, as well as an introduction to the most widely used organic pest control methods and their proper implementation. Hitchcock Tilton will finish by demonstrating how to make your own organic pesticide for garden use.

About Joel Hitchcock Tilton

Wisconsin native Joel Hitchcock Tilton has been living and growing in New Orleans for the past twelve years. He runs a network of urban gardens, grows produce, manages greenhouses, and raises sheep, goats, chickens, pigeons, and bees.

A Workshop with Kyle Denton

Fee: $15/$10 members
Registration: Space is limited; advance registration required. Register by phone at 414-446-8794.

This workshop is part of Lynden's Garden Series, a series of workshops throughout the spring and summer of 2017 that take a broad view of what it means to garden. For more information, click here.

Herbalist Kyle Denton leads a walk through Lynden’s acres to search out local plants that can be used in herbal teas. He will talk about the energetic properties of these plants, how they have been used as medicine in the past, what conditions they have been used to treat, and the proper ways to harvest, dry, and store them. Following the walk we will go inside to make tea from the plants we have collected, exploring flavor and investigating our visceral reactions to these wild, foraged herbs.

About Kyle Denton

Kyle Denton is an herbalist and owner of Tippecanoe Herbs and Apothecary, a Milwaukee clinical herbal practice and medicine-making company. Denton applies his knowledge of Ayurveda and traditional Western herbalism by creating herbal medicine preparations from locally wildcrafted plants; teaching courses; and offering clinical consultations.

This series of workshops takes a broad view of what it means to garden. Whether you consider yourself a backyard gardener, a forager, a farmer, or a steward of the land, the Garden Series will have something for you. From formal garden design to identifying and learning to use wild growing plants, we span a range of techniques and philosophies. Because of the range of subjects covered, these classes can be enjoyed by new and experienced gardeners alike.

Upcoming Workshops:

A Workshop with BeeVangelist Charlie Koehnen

Fee: $85/$75 members (instruction manual included)
Registration: Registration is closed. Sign up for our email newsletter for info on future sessions.

This workshop is part of Lynden's Garden Series, a series of workshops throughout the spring and summer of 2017 that take a broad view of what it means to garden. For more information, click here.

Join beekeeper Charlie “CharBee” Koenen for a day-long, hands-on workshop designed for those who want to learn how to keep bees. We will begin by meeting the bees and learning who’s who in the hive, then we’ll delve into the history of bees and beekeeping. We’ll look closely at what’s involved in starting up--equipment, installing bees—and will cover important topics like troubleshooting, harvesting, and overwintering. Finally, weather permitting, we'll end up back with the bees, looking inside a nucleus colony for a real hands-on meetup. You will walk away with enough knowledge to start your own hive, an instruction manual, and several handouts.

Pack a lunch and dress in light colored slacks and long sleeved shirts. Koenen will supply additional protection as needed. If you have need for an epipen, please bring it. While we don't anticipate a risk of stings, they are not under our control. Koenen will teach polite bee-havior and let you get as close as feels comfortable. 

About Charlie Koenen

Artist, activist, serial entrepreneur and inventor, and now beekeeper Charlie “CharBee” Koenen has quite a career of cross-pollination. Not satisfied with conventional beekeeping products, the once “Think Different” Apple Authorized businessman started thinking different about bees. Teaming up with another beekeeper, they updated an ancient beehive design and created Beepods, an innovative vented top bar hive. Koenen is the founder of BeeVangelists, a new nonprofit organization with a mission to save the bees by offering programs designed to educate people about bees and how to keep them.

Chuck Stebelton, left, with fellow poet and birdwatcher Nathaniel Tarn

April 23 with Chuck Stebelton & Cecelia Condit, 8:30 am-10 am
May 21 with Chuck Stebelton & Renato Umali, 8:30 am-10 am

Free to members or with admission to the sculpture garden.

Watch for spring migrants and resident bird species at the sculpture garden. Please wear appropriate footwear and bring your binoculars if you have them; no previous birding experience required.

Chuck Stebelton is author of two full-length collections of poetry, most recently The Platformist (Cultural Society, 2012). His first book, Circulation Flowers (Tougher Disguises, 2005), was winner of the inaugural Jack Spicer Award. As a birder and Wisconsin Master Naturalist volunteer he has offered interpretive hikes for organizations including Lynden Sculpture Garden, Friends of Lorine Niedecker, and Woodland Pattern Book Center. He was Literary Program Director at Woodland Pattern from 2005 to 2017. He currently serves as Program Coordinator for Interfaith Older Adult Programs in Milwaukee and is a participant in Lynden's residency program.

On April 23, Stebelton is joined by Cecelia Condit, whose exhibition Tales of a Future Past is on view in the gallery. As Sally Berger notes in her catalogue essay, " Condit’s videos are most often set in the natural landscape, and increasingly their central subject is human kind’s relationship to nature...." An earlier video, Why Not A Sparrow (2003), "grieves the potential hazards of bird and wildlife extinction."

On May 21, Stebelton's guest is Renato Umali, an artist, musician and educator. Umali composed the score for Condit's two-channel video installation, Tales of a Future Past.