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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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f
March 23, 2008
19 Comments

favorite gourd

DON’T GET ME STARTED on Cucurbita, the genus that includes pumpkins and squash and some of the gourds. No group of plants is more beloved...
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t
March 23, 2008
4 Comments

taxonomy lite

IT ALL SOUNDS LIKE Plantus unknowniensis at the start, but botanical Latin is the mother tongue of gardening, and must be reckoned with. Besides being..
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p
March 23, 2008
No Comments

pine grosbeaks, my winter companions

THOUGH I AM HAPPY to exclude deer from my garden, my approach to birds is quite another story. The place is basically theirs: I design..
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w
March 23, 2008
No Comments

what is killing bats?

I WAS ON THE PHONE with a fellow gardener last week near dusk when the first bat I’d seen this spring flew right past the..
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a
March 21, 2008
7 Comments

a season for sisterhood (from 1989)

WE HAVE FOUND neutral ground, my sister and I. After three and a half decades, there is at last a place for us to be..
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h
March 21, 2008
3 Comments

hot p(l)ants: hellebores, bravest perennial

WHY WAIT FOR THE FIRST of the bulbs or an extra-eager perennials like Pulmonaria to see some color outside? Most understanding of the gardener’s desperation..
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w
March 21, 2008
2 Comments

well said: clematis

AN UNPRUNED CLEMATIS looks like a disemboweled mattress—a painful sight.’—the late Christopher Lloyd of Great Dixter, garden writer, nurseryman, gardening genius. Categoriestrees & shrubs vinesTagsclematispruningvines
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w
March 21, 2008
2 Comments

well said: never say die

I CONSIDER EVERY PLANT HARDY until I have killed it myself…at least three times’ – Tony Avent, plant hunter and proprietor, Plant Delights Nursery. Categoriesetcetera
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g
March 21, 2008
5 Comments

germination testing of seeds

GERMINATION TESTING of leftover seeds would make a good science project for grade-school kids, and it can delight and inform big people, too. If you..
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s
March 21, 2008
1 Comment

smaller is better (in cabbages)

PREDICTION:  More people would actually grow, and eat, cabbage if it weren’t for those bowling-ball-sized heads of up to 8 pounds that we all think..
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w
March 21, 2008
11 Comments

why plant peas you have to stake?

IT WOULDN’T BE a vegetable garden without edible-pod peas, the closest thing to dessert that you can eat right in the garden. But why bother..
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h
March 21, 2008
12 Comments

hotp(l)ants: the brightest spring poppy

IT’S ALWAYS NICE to feel ahead of the curve. For probably fifteen years, I have been growing a springtime ephemeral (simply meaning it disappears back..
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a
March 18, 2008
13 Comments

a new cycle, a new season

‘I LAY NO CLAIM either to literal ability, or to botanical knowledge, or even to the best practical methods of cultivation,” a woman of great..
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RECENT FAVORITES

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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 ...

awaytogarden

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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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