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LATEST PODCASTS & POSTS

May 27, 2023

growing primula from seed, with ken druse

I WAS REMARKING to my friend Ken Druse earlier this spring about a garden I’d just visited, and how the stands of primulas in it..

May 17, 2023

for the love of pineapple lilies: eucomis, with jenks farmer

I’M CRAZY ABOUT pineapple lilies, bulbs in the genus Eucomis. And though in my zone 5 garden, they aren’t hardy, I can’t imagine a growing..

May 6, 2023

dahlias galore, with ceramic artist frances palmer

SOME OF US plant a row or two of annuals for cutting, but Frances Palmer has taken the phrase “cutting garden” to the most delightful..

April 21, 2023

the ‘wildscape’ around us, with nancy lawson (‘the humane gardener’)

OUR HUMAN-CENTRIC way of looking at things in the garden and tasting, hearing, seeing and touching things is just one person’s opinion, and hardly represents..

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7 WAYS TO MAKE A BED

how-to

soil preparation: 7 ways to make a garden bed

HOW DO YOU GET your garden soil ready for growing things each spring? Do you till to prepare your beds, or double-dig them, or roughly..

TIMELY ESSENTIALS

the june garden chores

THE SHAGGIES: It’s not a dance, or a hairdo—or some variant on the delightful British slang for sex. It’s a nemesis, plain and simple, one..

favorite asparagus recipes, with alexandra stafford (plus how to grow it)

ONE DIMENSION of my friendship with Alexandra Stafford is a years-long ongoing barter. She shares her cooking expertise with me and my extended family, and..

less work, healthier soil: no-dig gardening, with charles dowding

PROMISES OF LESS WORK with more garden productivity often raise my suspicions as perhaps sounding too good to be true, except when the subject is..

how to start seeds: 18 confidence-building tips

WONDER HOW TO start seed indoors, or which seed to sow directly in the garden, and how? Becoming a confident seed starter unlocks a garden..

NATURE TOPICS

making and maintaining meadow gardens, with owen wormser

THE TIME IS approaching for my annual pass with the tractor through my little meadow on the hill above my house—the one time each year..

‘the hidden company that trees keep,’ with jim nardi

DR. JAMES NARDI says you can tell a lot about a tree by the company it keeps. From life in the soil around their roots..

natural garden design, with benjamin vogt

IT’S PROBABLY the question I’m asked most: Gardeners want to go wilder and use more native plants to create habitat, but how do they figure..

‘trying to fool mother nature’

ON GROUNDHOG DAY I am always reminded of another holiday: the Fourth of July, and specifically my first Independence Day on this piece of land,..

the best of the sedges, and how to use them (even mown!), with sam hoadley

WITH THE SURGE in interest in lawn alternatives and other native choices for groundcover, the genus Carex is always mentioned high up on the list...

reflecting on a garden year, and life, with marc hamer

IT’S THAT TIME of year when we look both ways. Not left and right, like we’re crossing the road, but back and forward at the..

NATIVE PLANT STORIES

‘wild plant culture:’ edible and medicinal natives, with jared rosenbaum

IN HIS NEW BOOK, “Wild Plant Culture,” restoration ecologist Jared Rosenbaum says something provocative about gardening with native plants. “It’s time to expand our vision..

an eco-focused fall cleanup, with native plant trust’s uli lorimer

WE’VE ALL HEARD the environmentally conscious advice: The way we used to clean up our gardens, extra-tidy, but to within an inch of its life..

surprising native annuals (and how to find your region’s), with alan branhagen

I’VE BEEN UNDERTAKING more native plant-focused garden transformations in recent years, as I know many of you listening have, too. I spoke recently to Alan..

eastern native annuals, with uli lorimer

WITH THE EXPLOSION of interest in native plants in recent years, I know I’m not alone among gardeners who are scouring catalogs and specialty nurseries,..

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GARDEN DOODLES BY ANDRE

happy spring? andre jordan’s doodled thoughts on winter, as it officially slips away

IN THE VERY FIRST YEAR of A Way to Garden dot com, 2008, I met a stranger across an ocean via the internet. I was..

doodle by andre: oh yeah, sure; the weeds are sorry

DO YOU THINK I BELIEVE THIS FOR ONE SECOND? After nearly 30 years of fighting (losing?) the good fight, I know the one thing we..

doodles by andre: what gardeners regret

SOMETIMES IT’S THE PLANT WE BOUGHT (as in “wrong plant, wrong place,” above); other times the cause of our gardener’s lament-bordering-on-shame is a little trickier,..

doodle by andre: gentle reminders

THERE IS SIMPLY NOTHING TO SAY in response to this latest and greatest of Andre Jordan’s outbursts but this: I shower daily, sir. (All Andre’s..

doodle by andre: so long for now

THIS IS HOW IT GOES, beginning at the first real thaw: Farewell “life,” hello garden. Thanks to Doodler Andre Jordan for depicting the Headless-Chicken Syndrome..

doodle by andre: horny birds

AS I HAVE MENTIONED: Forget about Angry Birds; my yard is full of Horny Birds this spring. And when I told that to the Mad..

RECIPES AND MORE

david lebovitz’s french onion soup (from ‘my paris kitchen’)

SOME ONIONS WON’T LAST—you know, the ones whose tops didn’t brown down thoroughly before harvest, and may still look more like a scallion’s stalk, or..

recipe: baking up some heirloom beans

IMADE VEGETARIAN BAKED BEANS WITH MARTHA STEWART, my ex-boss, on her television show in 2011, one of the more out-of-body experiences of the relatively quiet..

baking no-knead bread and using every crumb, with alexandra stafford

A NEW COOKBOOK got me thinking in a whole new way about bread, which actually involved my thinking about bread in a whole old way:..

recipe: power green soup, by rebecca katz

THE GREENEST of green soups, this one is called Power Green Soup, and comes from Rebecca Katz’s cookbook “Clean Soups.” Read and/or listen to my..

clafoutis batter, universal solvent of fruit dessert

I DON’T BAKE MUCH THESE DAYS, BUT IN ANOTHER LIFE I was the Queen of Pie (and even baked all my bread, too). Even though..

soup garden: growing vegetable soup ingredients

I DON’T THINK I HAVE EVER planted a theme garden—you know, a Children’s Garden, for instance, or White Garden or Shakespeare Garden, the kinds of..

growing and storing a year of parsley

F LAT-LEAF, OR ITALIAN, PARSLEY IS MACHO COMPARED TO CURLY-LEAF, particularly the selection called (grrrr!) ‘Gigante.’ I like my parsley big and strong, and I..

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May 23

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A very choice selection of Astilboides tabularis I am naming var. frozeniensis. It took me decades of growing #astilboidestabularis and a 31-degree mid-May night to achieve this. Good job, Margaret. #awaytogarden #shadegarden #hellonwheels ...

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Apr 28

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A really cut guy at the gym said anabolic steroids really make you bulk up fast so I gave them to the asparagus. #truestory #ohsure #awaytogarden ...

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Apr 13

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No not a hungry caterpillar…a catkin of giant pussy willow dropped onto a dwarf conifer below. Had me fooled for half a second. #awaytogarden #salixchaenomeloides ...

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Mar 27

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The gold medal for bravery is awarded to #eranthishyemalis the winter aconite. They started blooming February 15, and then a couple of small snows fell and then a whopper more than knee-deep last week, but do they care? Not a bit. #awaytogarden #winteraconite ...

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Mar 15

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“Frosty the Snowman, table for four.” #snowday #noreaster #awaytogarden ...

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Nov 25

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Sep 2

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How to grow epiphytic Corydalis lutea 101: Plant an apple tree. Wait 150 years (second photo). Plant Corydalis below it. Wait till it defies gravity and sows itself 8 feet up the trunk. Voila!#awaytogarden #corydalis #corydalislutea ...

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Jul 30

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Get a room. #silverspottedskipper #awaytogarden #lepidoptera ...

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How to Grow Everything

16 things i know about growing tomatoes

FROM THE FIRST SEED SOWN to the last fruit stashed in the freezer, homegrown tomatoes are a labor of love. Whether it’s tomato-sowing time (as..

growing hellebores, with judith knott tyler

ON A FORMER Virginia tobacco farm that was in her family for six generations, Judith Knott Tyler and her husband, Dick, spent 30ish years breeding..

lee reich’s blueberry-growing how-to

DON’T SAY ‘I CAN’T GROW BLUEBERRIES,’ says Lee Reich, whose PhD explored factors affecting the growth of Vaccinium corymbosum, the highbush blueberry. “Follow the prescription..

how to grow kale, with sarah kleeger of adaptive seeds

‘ANYONE CAN GROW KALE,’ the seed farmers at Adaptive Seeds—who have collected kales from around the world and made them a specialty—said recently, seeming to..

grow onions from seed, with seed breeder don tipping of siskiyou seeds

SICK OF SPENDING BIG on onion and leek transplants? Master growing those edible Allium from seed, and also learn a bigger lesson: about the powerful..

how to grow garlic, a q&a with filaree farm

MY FIRST EXPLORATION INTO growing garlic was also my first encounter with Filaree Farm. I hate to confess how long it has been since I..

10 top tips for growing root vegetables

GROWING CARROTS, BEETS, RADISHES or other root vegetables can be more challenging than, say, growing a zucchini or pole bean, but these long-storing staples are..

success with brassicas (including brussels sprouts), with don tipping

THE OTHER DAY as I was plotting who I could ask for help outsmarting the coming season’s cabbage worms, and coaxing the Brussels sprouts to..

View More How-to-Grow Stories

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LATEST PODCASTS & POSTS

growing primula from seed, with ken druse

for the love of pineapple lilies: eucomis, with jenks farmer

dahlias galore, with ceramic artist frances palmer

the ‘wildscape’ around us, with nancy lawson (‘the humane gardener’)

7 WAYS TO MAKE A BED

soil preparation: 7 ways to make a garden bed

TIMELY ESSENTIALS

the june garden chores

favorite asparagus recipes, with alexandra stafford (plus how to grow it)

less work, healthier soil: no-dig gardening, with charles dowding

how to start seeds: 18 confidence-building tips

NATURE TOPICS

making and maintaining meadow gardens, with owen wormser

‘the hidden company that trees keep,’ with jim nardi

natural garden design, with benjamin vogt

‘trying to fool mother nature’

the best of the sedges, and how to use them (even mown!), with sam hoadley

reflecting on a garden year, and life, with marc hamer

NATIVE PLANT STORIES

‘wild plant culture:’ edible and medicinal natives, with jared rosenbaum

an eco-focused fall cleanup, with native plant trust’s uli lorimer

surprising native annuals (and how to find your region’s), with alan branhagen

eastern native annuals, with uli lorimer

GARDEN DOODLES BY ANDRE

happy spring? andre jordan’s doodled thoughts on winter, as it officially slips away

doodle by andre: oh yeah, sure; the weeds are sorry

doodles by andre: what gardeners regret

doodle by andre: gentle reminders

doodle by andre: so long for now

doodle by andre: horny birds

RECIPES AND MORE

david lebovitz’s french onion soup (from ‘my paris kitchen’)

recipe: baking up some heirloom beans

baking no-knead bread and using every crumb, with alexandra stafford

recipe: power green soup, by rebecca katz

clafoutis batter, universal solvent of fruit dessert

soup garden: growing vegetable soup ingredients

growing and storing a year of parsley

Instagram Feed

awaytogarden

How to Grow Everything

16 things i know about growing tomatoes

growing hellebores, with judith knott tyler

lee reich’s blueberry-growing how-to

how to grow kale, with sarah kleeger of adaptive seeds

grow onions from seed, with seed breeder don tipping of siskiyou seeds

how to grow garlic, a q&a with filaree farm

10 top tips for growing root vegetables

success with brassicas (including brussels sprouts), with don tipping

FROM THE WEEKLY PODCAST

rethinking the lawn, with dan wilder