Autumn Joy 2026
Great Native Plants for an Autumn Garden
Keynote by Duncan HImmelman, PhD.
Autumn is an important season to ensure you are providing food for native bees, butterflies and other insects before winter sets in. On top of all the wildlife needs, we want gorgeous fall gardens too! Discover a variety of late blooming native perennials and colorful native trees and shrubs that offer all the bounty for everyone concerned.
Keynote speaker Duncan Himmelman earned his doctorate at Cornell University and taught horticultural science at the college level for 24 years. He subsequently managed adult education programs at the New York Botanical Garden and Mt. Cuba Center, a public garden in Delaware devoted to native plant advocacy. In retirement, Duncan continues to enjoy teaching, designing landscapes, and promoting ecologically focused gardening practices.
The Autumn Joy Fall Symposium takes place at the 204 Cultural Municipal Building, 204 Sisson Road, Harwich, MA. Refreshments and beverages will be available after check in, beginning at 8:30 a.m..
Symposium fee: $30. Online registration opens mid-August, 2026.
Symposium registration includes keynote presentation and your choice of two break-out sessions, plus coffee and light refreshments. Space is limited; please register early. no ticket sales at the door.
Symposium Timeline
8:30-9:00am Sign in and refreshments
9:00-10:30am Welcome and Keynote Address
10:30-10:45am Break
10:45-11:30am Breakout Session 1
11:30-11:45am Break
11:45-12:30pm Breakout Session 2
Break Out Sessions: Choose Two
Ground Covers as Lawn Alternatives
Ahhh, a lush green turfgrass lawn -- so luxurious, picturesque, steeped in tradition and time consuming -- a true labor of love! We'll learn about the history of lawns in the United States, examine available alternatives, and cover considerations for selecting options from turf, groundcovers and other plants, to hardscapes that are nature-friendly and require less upkeep.
Speaker Carolyn Brzezinski has been a Master Gardener since 2022, volunteering regularly in the Demonstration Garden, where she and the team developed both a lawn alternative and cutting gardens. She has presented at Evenings in the Garden and at prior Autumn Joy symposiums.
Container Yourself: Potted Plants for the Home and Patio Garden
While gardening has benefits and treasures for all, not everyone has the amount or kind of space needed to garden in the ground. Containers can provide portability, convenience, and the ability to adjust the environment to a plant’s individual needs. Join Escher Cattle for a discussion of a condensed history of container plants and their benefits, overview of their needs and care in indoor and outdoor spaces, and some common pitfalls, pests and diseases they face.
Escher is an Entomologist and Educator with the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension with a love and curiosity for nature and ecology. As a longtime renter and indoor gardener, he specializes in pet-friendly container planting that won’t suffer too much if they are chewed on by his enormous black cats.
Growing Figs on Cape Cod
Master Gardener Rich Trimble will take participants through a year in the life of a Cape Cod fig tree. He will share tips for successfully growing subtropical figs here in zone 7 as well as information about the different varieties of fig trees, and the unique relationship with the fig wasp in their native environment. Rich will bring a fig tree or two and have a Q&A period following his presentation.
Rich has been a Master Gardener since 2025 and a full time Eastham resident since 2019, after retiring from a 30 year career as a physician. He started growing figs five years ago and now has over 30 varieties. He is currently co-chair of the MGACC Hoophouse Committee, and presents workshops with the Propagation team.
Growing Mushrooms
Learn all about home-scale gourmet mushroom growing: how it works, and the different setups people use. Chase Freeman will cover the different species of mushrooms that fall into either the culinary category or medicinal. Be guided through preparation, what to look for when something goes wrong, harvesting mushrooms, plus storage options. Chase will also cover inoculating logs to build mushroom beds in the garden, and show participants how to repurpose spent grow-blocks as compost or as a soil amendment.
Chase Freeman is a software engineer turned mushroom farmer. Together, he and his wife Brianna operate the Cape Cod Mushroom Company. Chase found his way into mushroom farming through Unicorn Bags, the industry standard for growing gourmet varieties. He now applies that same engineering mindset to Sporeline, a platform he is building to track the full lifecycle of mushrooms.
