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A Way To Garden

A Way To Garden

'horticultural how-to and woo-woo' | margaret roach, head gardener

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December 1, 2023
237 Comments

seed shopping, with lia babitch of turtle tree seed

LET THE seed shopping season begin. The 2024 offerings are being loaded into seed-catalog websites, and the earliest print catalogs are already arriving in our..
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g
November 24, 2023
59 Comments

gifts for gardeners: my tried-and-true gear

EVERY YEAR I do a guide of “gifts for gardeners,” and every year it’s the same stuff, basically (how unoriginal and embarrassing). But how can..
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y
November 17, 2023
194 Comments

yes, ‘gardening can be murder,’ says marta mcdowell

I DON’T THINK I’ve read a mystery novel since the “Nancy Drew” books of my long-ago childhood, though I will confess to having watched more..
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d
November 11, 2023
436 Comments

diverse, powerful milkweeds, with eric lee-mäder

MOST OF US may automatically think “monarch” after hearing the word “milkweed,” or vice versa. And that’s in fact a critical and intimate relationship, the..
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&
November 4, 2023
10 Comments

‘cleanup-plus:’ a conscious fall approach, with ken druse

YES, IT’S TIME or almost time to do some raking, and to dig the dahlias to stash: time to perform the rounds of the fall..
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e
October 28, 2023
349 Comments

edible houseplants: growing citrus, with logees’ byron martin

ARE ANY OF YOUR houseplants edible? A new book by the owners of the beloved rare-plant nursery called Logee’s Greenhouses suggests that we make room..
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c
October 21, 2023
13 Comments

cornell’s take on the native lawn, with todd bittner

REDUCING THE footprint of our lawns has been a key environmental message for gardeners in recent years, since lawns lack biodiversity and involve huge amounts..
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i
October 13, 2023
21 Comments

in brandywine valley gardens, the du pont family legacy

IT’S HARD TO THINK of another place so rich with major gardens as the Brandywine Valley in Chester County, Pa., and an adjacent portion of..
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October 7, 2023
219 Comments

the wild-ish garden of margaret renkl; plus, join us for a nov. 7 webinar

MY, HOW TIMES have changed. That’s what I keep thinking, looking around my own garden in recent years. I’ve been struck by the same thought..
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September 30, 2023
5 Comments

what does organic mean? with linley dixon of the real organic project

WHEN YOU SHOP for food—whether produce or meat or eggs—and see a label that says “organic,” what do you think that means? At its most..
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September 23, 2023
162 Comments

a garden of delights, with writer ross gay

THE WORDS joy and delight figure prominently in writer Ross Gay‘s work, and so do moments he spends in his garden and descriptions of his..
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September 15, 2023
149 Comments

getting ready to stash the tender plants, with marianne willburn

IT IS NOT TIME quite yet here for what I call the mad stash, storing those non-hardy plants for the winter that we wish to..
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c
September 8, 2023
42 Comments

coping with invasive jumping worms, with brad herrick of uw-madison

THE QUESTION “What do I do about the Asian jumping worms that are destroying my soil?” has outpaced what was the most common thing I..
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September 2, 2023
9 Comments

high-impact obsessions: using gold and variegated foliage, with ken druse

EVERY GARDENER has their obsessions—or maybe a nicer way to say that might be to call it their “signature plants,” the ones that help define..
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p
August 26, 2023
256 Comments

pressing plants, with herbarium curator linda lipsen

I SAW NEWS of a new book called “Pressed Plants” recently, and it got me thinking about my grandmother and one of the many crafts..
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  • gifts for gardeners: my tried-and-true gear
  • diverse, powerful milkweeds, with eric lee-mäder
  • seed shopping, with lia babitch of turtle tree seed
  • yes, ‘gardening can be murder,’ says marta mcdowell
  • ‘cleanup-plus:’ a conscious fall approach, with ken druse
  • pumpkin custard: holiday pie, minus the crust
  • november garden chores
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Aug 20

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Buddha and the Beast: A backyard water garden visit from Big Bird, who either is a Buddhist and was communing with the guy up on the wall, or thought the frog buffet was intended for him/her. I begged to differ re: the latter and invited the bird to leave…multiple times. Apparently I don’t scare anybody. #awaytogarden #greatblueheron #birdsofinstagram

Buddha and the Beast: A backyard water garden visit from Big Bird, who either is a Buddhist and was communing with the guy up on the wall, or thought the frog buffet was intended for him/her. I begged to differ re: the latter and invited the bird to leave…multiple times. Apparently I don’t scare anybody. #awaytogarden #greatblueheron #birdsofinstagram ...

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Jul 10

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Did someone say #pearly? Because of the way my head works this Pearly Wood-Nymph moth gives me a flashback to @stevewinwood performing the song Pearly Queen in 1968ish. Other than that it is also a charming small #moth whose host plants include two (wild grape and #virginiacreeper aka #parthenocissusquinquefolia) that are all around here for its larval stage to dine on. So now you know: I love moths and the band Traffic was pretty swell, too. #awaytogarden #lepidoptera #woodnymphs

Did someone say #pearly? Because of the way my head works this Pearly Wood-Nymph moth gives me a flashback to @stevewinwood performing the song Pearly Queen in 1968ish. Other than that it is also a charming small #moth whose host plants include two (wild grape and #virginiacreeper aka #parthenocissusquinquefolia) that are all around here for its larval stage to dine on. So now you know: I love moths and the band Traffic was pretty swell, too. #awaytogarden #lepidoptera #woodnymphs ...

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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

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

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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FROM THE WEEKLY PODCAST

rethinking the lawn, with dan wilder

THE LECTURE that he’s been giving for a number of years is not-so-subtly called “Kill Your Lawn.” Ecological horticulturist Dan Jaffe Wilder knows that starting over and creating an entire native habitat instead of a lawn isn’t for everyone. But Dan just wants to grab our attention and get us to start to make some changes at least in the way we care for the turfgrass we do want in our landscapes. And maybe give up a little square footage of it to some other kind of more diverse planting, too, like the wild strawberries (Fragaria virginiana, inset). Alternative, more eco-focused styles of lawn care, along with some lawn alternatives is what he and I talked about on the podcast. Dan is Director of Applied Ecology at Norcross Wildlife Foundation in Wales, Massachusetts, and its 8,000-acre sanctuary. He’s also co-author with Mark Richardson of the book “Native Plants for New England Gardens.”

(Stream it below,  read the illustrated transcript or subscribe free.)

https://robinhoodradioondemand.com/podcast-player/29859/rethinking-lawn-with-dan-wilder-a-way-to-garden-with-margaret-roach-june-27-2022.mp3

Welcome! I’m Margaret Roach, a leading garden writer for 30 years—at ‘Martha Stewart Living,’ ‘Newsday,’ and in three books. Since April 2020, I have been the garden columnist for “The New York Times,” where I began my journalism career decades ago. I host a public-radio podcast; I also lecture, plus hold tours at my 2.3-acre Hudson Valley (NY) Zone 5B garden in “normal” years, and always say no to chemicals and yes to great plants.

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