A Way To Garden

A Way To Garden

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margaret roach, head gardener

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links: gleaming dragonflies, oliver sacks at 80

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Tiffany dragonfly hair ornament (photo from Metropolitan Museum of Art)

LATEST LINKS: Too-hot-to-handle weather has had me indoors for a broad swath of each recent day, and that means more than the usual dose of web browsing—and a couple of new links to share. One (a video) is an extraordinary take on dragonflies; the other a moving essay on what I think is the garden’s most important and insistent message: that nothing lasts. The latter is delivered not by a gardener at all, but by the neurologist Oliver Sacks. Some decidedly non-horticultural but ever-so-moving links I think you’ll like:

video: dragonflies of a different order

LATELY WE LOOKED AT DRAGONFLIES on the blog together (remember?), so when a friend alerted me that the Metropolitan Museum of Art had their eye on the order of odonates, too, I had to have a look. I was especially interested because the narrator of the gleaming new video is Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, curator of American decorative arts at the Met, with whom I intersected briefly long ago when we co-conspired to plan a surprise 60th birthday party for a mutual friend, a great gardener. That’s another story altogether; the story this time involves Louis Comfort Tiffany, and as promised, a couple of very special dragonflies. Watch the video here. (Photo of Tiffany hair ornament, above, from the Met website.)

(Want more? Listen to and watch this slideshow on bugs galore as a motif within the Met’s collections. Who knew, for instance, that Napoleon had his robes embroidered in bees—industrious, and with a society that’s highly organized with royalty at the top, and also able to sting as needed? Good choice, Mr. Emperor.)

Oliver Sacks portrait, from oliversacks.com

nothing lasts: oliver sacks, on reaching 80

DECADES AGO, when I was garden editor at “Newsday” newspaper, I was invited to take a walk in New York Botanical Garden with one of its then-daily visitors, the neurologist and author Dr. Oliver Sacks. (Among his many books: “Awakenings,” and most recently “Hallucinations.”) It remains probably the most treasured interview memory of my journalism career.

Sacks will turn 80 on Tuesday, and in his essay on that in today’s “New York Times,” he speaks of being “freed from the factitious urgencies of earlier days, free to explore whatever I wish,” and of being “more conscious of transience and, perhaps, of beauty.” No matter your own age, read it.

Want more? I love listening to Oliver Sacks on his occasional interviews on the public-radio program Radiolab, talking for instance about his face blindness (true: he cannot remember faces, to an extreme degree) or how he works past blocks in creativity. (Sacks’s website is here; photo from oliversacks.com.)

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11 comments
July 7, 2013

comments

  1. Alison says

    July 7, 2013 at 11:17 am

    Thanks for the link to Oliver Sacks’ essay on turning 80, I loved it. I have read just about all his books, his topics and the subjects that he covers, are fascinating.

    Reply
    • margaret says

      July 8, 2013 at 9:53 am

      Isn’t he amazing, Alison? A shy and unassuming man, who is also a total genius. I find his way of thinking fascinating, and always am on the lookout for more of his points of view.

      Reply
  2. Linda L Smith says

    July 7, 2013 at 7:27 pm

    Every day you make my life better. Thank you for this great post and all the links. You never cease to amaze or educate me.

    Reply
  3. Sara says

    July 8, 2013 at 6:33 am

    Finished reading “Parables” a few days ago and am still pondering so many things you said. Funny, at first I thought we had little in common: I’m not much of a gardener and never had a Big Girl job in the corporate world. And yet this book– and “Peace Here” before it–spoke clearly to me. Thank you for tweaking my curiosity about the parables within my own backyard.

    Reply
  4. Jo says

    July 8, 2013 at 10:17 am

    Thank you so much for the dragonfly and Oliver Sachs links. The two brought forth that warm heart feeling that surrounds both beauty of life and its creations.

    Reply
  5. Jan says

    July 8, 2013 at 11:24 am

    As I live through this 81st year of my life I really appreciated reading this. Thank you for the link. I often wonder how people my age who are not in touch with the outdoor environment in some way can continue without the wonder of awakening every day to a new flower, a new smell, a new sky and not wonder at it all. I am in awe of it all – still.

    Reply
  6. Rae says

    July 8, 2013 at 11:46 am

    With your articles about freezing many items to the above link you have made my life more interesting and interested in learning more. Thanks so much. I wished I lived close to your garden, etc.

    Reply
  7. Suellen says

    July 8, 2013 at 12:03 pm

    I am an old fan of Oliver Sacks and have some of his books. Thanks for sharing this essay. I hope I am able to age as gracefully as he has.

    Suellen

    Reply
  8. Lorie says

    July 8, 2013 at 3:25 pm

    On the eve of turning 76, that was a treat. Lessons to be learned; Oliver is simply eloquent while being totally honest.

    Reply
  9. Martha in Austin TX says

    July 10, 2013 at 2:14 pm

    Thank you, Margaret Roach and Jack, for all that you two bring into our world, the things you notice, engage our attentions toward–things that, one by one, change us and our world. You are magnificent.

    A grateful bit to Jack–from yesterday’s NPR–which he’s probably already heard and knows all about, but it’s so important it can be repeated:
    Peter Gabriel’s ‘Interspecies Internet’ | Here & Now hereandnow.wbur.org/2013/07/09/gabriel-interspecies-internet
    21 hours ago – Here and Now with Robin Young … of animal cognition, language, enrichment …and facilitate communication between species.

    Reply
  10. Dorian Winslow says

    July 30, 2013 at 6:27 pm

    Thanks for sharing this link. It was comforting. I spent the past two weeks with my 88 year old mother, and often wondered what she was thinking–in the quiet moments. She is full of life and vigor, and it is inspirational to the rest of us.

    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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