Datebook: Events, exhibits, classes for the week ahead

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We’ve listed select home and garden events below. Suggest your own via reader comments. Submissions must be fewer than 75 words and must be for one-time events with legitimate value to other readers. No store promotions and no frivolous links, please. L.A. at Home staff will determine which submissions will be made public, but we won’t edit the comments.

Tuesday: Research botanist Bruce Bartholomew of the California Academy of Sciences will discuss plant collecting expeditions to China. 7:30 p.m. Free. Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. (626) 405-2128.

Thursday: Lili Singer series continues with “Less-Known and Less-Grown Bulbs” with Dylan Hannon, curator of conservatory collections at the Huntington Botanical Gardens. 9:30 a.m. to noon. $20. Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia. (626) 821-4623.

Thursday: Artists will discuss the gardens they have created for the exhibition “EatLACMA” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The artists will discuss their gardens, then field questions. With Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio (Jules Rochielle Sievert), Didier Hess (Jenna Didier and Oliver Hess, whose installation is pictured here), Fallen Fruit (David Burns, Matias Viegener, Austin Young), National Bitter Melon Council (Hiroko Kikuchi, Jeremy Liu), Roots of Compromise (Karen Atkinson, John Burtle, Ari Kletzky and Owen Driggs), and Åsa Sonjasdotter. 7 to 9:30 p.m. Free. Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, 6522 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles.

Thursday or Saturday: Landscape designers Tony Zile and Elijah Thompkins will demonstrate how to design, install and maintain a native, water-wise organic landscape in this five-session series. Sign up for one or all five. 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday or 9 a.m. to noon Saturday. Individual class, $32 to $40; five-session series, $140 to $175. Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, 1500 N. College Ave., Claremont. (909) 625-8767.

Friday through Sunday: The Woodworking and DIY Show bills itself as the nation’s largest woodworking event. Demonstrations will cover the latest in routers, saws, sanders, planers and more. Experts will show how to build cabinets, refinish wood, use veneers, make more intricate cuts in carpentry projects and otherwise be awesome. Noon to 6 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. $10; children under 15 free. Orange County Fair & Event Center, Buildings 10 and 12, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa. (800)) 826-8257.

Saturday and Sunday: Rare mums will be on display at the 67th annual National Chrysanthemum Show and Convention. The show will feature single-stem cut blooms, container-grown flowers, baskets, bonsai, cascades, trees and floral arrangements. Hundreds of plants for sale. 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. $3. Sherman Library and Gardens, 2647 Coast Highway, Corona del Mar. (949) 673-2231.

Sunday: The L.A. Community Garden Council, a nonprofit organization that helps neighborhoods to build and manage sustainable gardens, hosts ‘Haunted Picnic, a Green Halloween for Community Gardeners.’ The event will include a carne asada buffet, comic Lalo Lalin, the Tamborosa Hermosa Cortez band, folklorico performers, gypsy soul band AK & Her Kalashnikovs, a Dia de los Muertos altar display and a garden swap. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Stanford Avalon Community Garden, 658 E 111th Place, Los Angeles. $10 suggested donation. (323) 344-8426 or on day of event (323) 947-3659.

ONGOING

Brown Bag Tuesdays: The Gamble House, the Arts and Crafts landmark designed by Charles and Henry Greene, continues a weekly lunch program. Visitors can picnic on the rear lawn or terrace of the 1908 estate between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. each Tuesday. Twenty-minute docent-led tours will be given at 12:15 and 12:45 p.m. for $5. 4 Westmoreland Place, Pasadena; (626) 793-3334. Reservations: (626) 449-4178.

Coy Howard: “From Hand to Mouse, From Furniture to Architecture,” the first in a two-part exhibition by the Southern California Institute of Architecture’s faculty member Coy Howard. Show features 50 images of Howard’s speculative architectural projects and a selection of furniture designs. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily through Nov. 7. SCI-Arc Gallery, 960 E. 3rd St., Los Angeles.

Design biennial: The Pasadena Museum of California Art’s fourth California Design Biennial, titled “Action/Reaction,” highlights work in industrial design, fashion, graphics, transportation and architecture. Noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays, through Nov. 1. $5 to $7. 490 E. Union St. (626) 568-3665.

Installation: “Light Frames,” an outdoor installation by Los Angeles architect Gail Peter Borden, consists of a hand-assembled dome and an enclosed “chapel” built out of translucent vinyl plastic. 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily through mid-March. Free. Materials & Applications, 1619 Silver Lake Blvd., Los Angeles. (323) 739-4668.

Spider Pavilion: Tickets for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County’s annual attraction are timed for admission at half-hour intervals. Open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the last tickets sold for 4:30 p.m., through Nov. 7. $1 to $3. 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles. (213) 763-DINO.

— Lisa Boone