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margaret roach, head gardener

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ask my friends: profile of ‘birdlike, neurotic’ me

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Margaret Roach in Wave Hill style chairA LITTLE KNOWLEDGE IS A DANGEROUS THING, right? When you say yes to a friend interviewing you (and then she asks other friends for quotes)…well, a little knowledge results in a sweet profile laced with some hilarious one-liners. Read what my sister-blogger Paige Smith Orloff wrote about me in the current issue of Berkshire Living magazine, and how my close friend Andrew Beckman summed up my current state of affairs, post-corporate life: “She is more neurotic than ever. But she is also getting more in tune with her garden and the natural world.” Both Paige (who calls me “birdlike,” which I quite like, and says I live in my own “personal retreat and laboratory”) and Andrew (takes one to know one, dollface) are spot-on, of course.

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16 comments
July 20, 2009

comments

  1. Roxie says

    July 20, 2009 at 12:07 pm

    Margaret, I found this article strangely comforting. I came to gardening late in life, and it has become a hobby, an avocation, but not my life’s work. I’ve been very intimidated by the photographs of your beautiful landscape, which for many reasons (climate and time among them) I will never achieve. So I was happy to learn how much time, education, experimentation, consultation, endurance and sheer persistence was required to create your garden.

    Reply
  2. Renovation Therapy says

    July 20, 2009 at 12:20 pm

    Face it, we all love you! ;)

    Reply
  3. invisiblebees says

    July 20, 2009 at 3:01 pm

    I envy your long-term relationship with your garden, Margaret. As someone who has moved around a lot (30 times in my 33 years), I’m feeling a very strong desire to find a property with land and energy that welcomes me “home.”

    PS I am very much looking forward to the time when I get to read your upcoming memoir. What are the chances that A Way to Garden, the book, will be reprinted soon-ish? Borrowing the library copy isn’t satisfying enough.

    Reply
  4. Matthew Weinert says

    July 20, 2009 at 4:14 pm

    Great article about you, Margaret! By the way: please step away from the garden and go back to writing your memoir. I need something FABULOUS to read, soon!

    Reply
  5. Helen at Toronto Gardens says

    July 20, 2009 at 4:56 pm

    I notice that you glide past “lithe” and alight on “birdlike.” Funny, sister, but so like a woman. I recently submitted a contributor photo for a travel article I wrote, with the comment, “It does make me look a bit like a chicken.” Birds of a feather?

    Reply
  6. georgie says

    July 20, 2009 at 7:48 pm

    I enjoy reading your blog. It makes gardening fun again and not so scary and intimidating. So many other garden writers make it sound overwhelming and unaffordable. As for favorite hostas-we have 15 different varieties here and they are all my favorites. One is from a slip a friend’s mother purloined near the monument to an Iowa mayor. I don’t know the proper name, but refer to it as “Mr..(mayor’s name).

    Reply
  7. Margaret says

    July 20, 2009 at 8:01 pm

    Welcome, Matthew. I promise, I am trying. Almost halfway there. But definitely backfill meantime with a few other books. :) Not ready yet!

    Welcome, Georgie. Now you have me wondering what that mayoral hosta is, hmmm…always some puzzle to solve here! Glad to make things less daunting, which they should be, and glad to have you here.

    @Helen: Tweet-tweet.

    @InvisibleBees: What about a used one? They are usually in fine condition. You could check on Amazon and compare the prices.

    Reply
  8. Yvonne at Country Gardener says

    July 20, 2009 at 10:33 pm

    Glad to hear that you are writing a memior. Looking forward to it. It was fascinating to read about the evolution of your garden. You have such as strong connection to a very special piece of land.

    Reply
  9. Susan says

    July 21, 2009 at 9:45 am

    Wonderful article, looking forward to reading more about you in your book you have been buried in this summer.
    You are the best.

    Reply
  10. Barbara Conner says

    July 21, 2009 at 10:14 am

    Magazines have always been a guilty pleasure of mine. But with the demise of some of my favorites (Country Home; Cottage Living) and the thinning of others, I have turned to online blogs for inspiration and information. Looking up former favorite magazine writers/gardeners/flea market stylers, I have been able to “reconnect” with some folks who feel like old friends. You, Margaret, via your blog, are among my rediscovered reading pleasures. How funny that so many seem to be in the upper Hudson Valley/ Berkshire area, not too far from my home in Saratoga County. Love the blog; hope to see the garden at Copake Falls Days in August. Do we need tickets? Reservations?

    Reply
    • Margaret says

      July 21, 2009 at 11:24 am

      Welcome, Barbara. No tickets required, we are holding a free-for-all, literally (tee hee). I am glad to be re-found, too, so thank you for making the effort and visiting. And do so again, soon.

      Reply
  11. Paige Orloff says

    July 21, 2009 at 12:59 pm

    I stand by my adorable sources, and my lovable subject.

    Reply
  12. Lauren Starkey says

    July 21, 2009 at 6:52 pm

    I just found your site today after rechecking an article I pulled from MSL (year?) about your garden. It inspired my husband and me to create a stone patio in front of my writing house (which Gorden built a few years ago but remained “floating” in the yard–how can I share a picture?). It is now a lovely spot! And I could spend hours here…what a gift you have chosen to share. Thank you, Margaret! Your site will be a guilty pleasure every time I’m stuck with writer’s block!

    Reply
  13. Margaret says

    July 21, 2009 at 8:28 pm

    Welcome, Lauren. I am glad that we have been reunited, and glad to hear of your great-sounding refuge of the patio. Do feel free to spend hours; we will all look forward to the extra company.

    @Paige Orloff: Now as for you, Missy… :)

    Reply
  14. jane gross says

    July 27, 2009 at 1:55 pm

    Halfway done with the book? You shame some of the rest of us, at it much longer and only a third of the way there, if that, without 3 ongoing blogs. You are birdlike, perhaps. Maybe even neurotic. But a dervish of productivity. Kudos!

    Reply
    • Margaret says

      July 27, 2009 at 2:53 pm

      @Jane: Yes, but I am writing from my head, not having to actually do the amount of work that you do to pull your much-harder subject into focus for your much-bigger book. I think it’s a miracle either one of us has gotten this far, but it’s exciting to think that we have, and continue to hurtle forward on our parallel tracks, lo these many years later, huh? :)

      Reply

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Podcast: Soups, Soups & More Soups

I’VE FOLLOWED a vegetarian diet for decades, but it wasn’t until just a few years ago that I mastered a really good vegetable soup. Now I’m learning variations on vegetable-based soups, plus ones with beans and even ideas for mushroom soups, too–all thanks to Alexandra Stafford and these recipes. (Stream it below, read the transcript or subscribe free.)

https://robinhoodradioondemand.com/podcast-player/6211/vegetable-soup-ideas-with-ali-stafford-november-5-a-way-to-garden-with-margaret-roach.mp3

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awaytogarden

mad gardener, nature addict, award-winning writer & podcaster, rural resident, corporate dropout, creator of awaytogarden dot com and matching book.

Instagram post 2190297402408409324_444552553 Snow day. To be followed by a snow night. #awaytogarden #wavehillchairs
Instagram post 2177779417009402040_444552553 No matter that it was 11F and 17F on mornings this week; my lifelong companions and I are all tucked in, each in our respective offseason spots. Three giant pots of #cliviaminiata that are actually pieces of my long-gone grandmother’s original plant from many, many decades ago, love the offseason bright cold of the mudroom, and get no water till around the new year or so. They need a chill (under 50 but above 35) for about 40 days to trigger timely bloom in late winter/early spring (without it they will bloom whenever, later, like June or even summer). The #alocasia reacts to the cold of the mudroom by shutting down and going dormant and leafless, and then I’ll let it sleep till late winter, when I give it a drink to see if it awakens. That one sleeps and wakes on its own timetable because I do not have a proper spot for it (ideally warm, like 60 or 65 at least, and humid and bright...no can do the humid part here). We have been together probably 10 years anyhow, despite my shortcomings as a #plantparent . #alocasiaamazonica #clivias #houseplantsofinstagram #houseplants #awaytogarden
Instagram post 2172580656557749859_444552553 Gardener: “I raked all the leaves!” Nature: “Oh, really?” (Cue sound of demonic laughter from on high.)
Instagram post 2170506606641504178_444552553 I wanna tell you how it’s gonna be You’re gonna give your love to me I wanna love you night and day You know my love will not fade away Not fade away Nope. Not this #cotinus leaf’s fiery hot love at least. Like the 1957 #buddyholly song I first heard by #therollingstones in 1964, it keeps going. #awaytogarden #fallfoliage2019 #cotinusgrace #notfadeaway
Instagram post 2168987273989949378_444552553 “Jack Frost nipping at your, er, geraniums...” And here it comes.
Instagram post 2166837817953503284_444552553 Constant companions: If you want to keep good company all winter, grow some good keepers. My house is stuffed with piles of #cucurbita awaiting their time in the oven or soup kettle. Each one is a character, distinctive. On one chair in the mudroom two close cousins in #cucurbitamoschata — the horse collar-shaped one called ‘Tromboncino’ or ‘Tromboncino Rampicante’ snuggles with some ‘Butternut.’ The ‘Tromboncino’ are better eaten green and small as #zucchini but I can’t resist their eventual mad size and shape, big enough to wear around your neck. I use their meat for enriching vegetable stock; the ‘Butternut’ are far more rich and delicious. Seed respectively from sandhillpreservation.com #sandhillpreservationcenter and @turtle_tree_seed (whose ‘Butternut,’ selected for “lastingness” for decades, will keep and keep into next spring or more). #wintersquash #awaytogarden #goodkeeper #cucurbitaceae
Instagram post 2162565040882902064_444552553 Furry fall friend: I look forward to crossing paths with this woolly caterpillar of the #giantleopardmoth this time of year, when its fiery intersegmental bands and plush coat seem to be just the right autumn-into-winter look. Miraculously this tiny animal will overwinter in a woodpile or in the leaf litter, even here in the North, building up a concentration of antifreeze (glycerol I think?) in its cells before the worst weather begins to avoid disaster. (Reminds me of the super-hardy #woodfrog who does similarly. Such heroes.) Swipe to see a beat-up pic of the adult moth, tattered with scales missing at its wing margins, but still dramatic. Unlike various spine-covered caterpillars that can sting you, this one’s hairs (or setae) won’t, but he will roll up tight if touched, in self-defense. I am in awe of such complex strategies of survival, I am. #mothsofinstagram #caterpillars #awaytogarden #hypercompescribonia #hypercompe
Instagram post 2161992098629435854_444552553 Beans are life. I mean, not only do I live on them daily (as I have as a vegetarian for 40+ years) but each one is a seed, a living embryo, a distinct and gorgeous little DNA miracle. I have been inspired by the hashtag #31daysofbeans by @lukasvolger lately, loving watching someone unknown to me (um, who shares my oatmeal thing too apparently...also see his #28daysofoatmeal) dish up the #phaseolus. We both admire bean ambassador Steve Sando @rancho_gordo and this photo might be my fave bean of all that I “met” via Steve years back, big and flat and chestnutty ‘Christmas Lima.’ My advice: don’t wait till Dec. 25 to dig in.
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Welcome! I’m Margaret Roach, a leading garden writer for 25 years—at ‘Martha Stewart Living,’ ‘Newsday,’ and in three books. I host a public-radio podcast; I also lecture, plus hold tours at my 2.3-acre Hudson Valley (NY) Zone 5B garden, and always say no to chemicals and yes to great plants.

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