about margaret's garden

Pin22

Share13

35 Shares

frog on Buddha — I live in a rural Zone 5B New York State garden on 2.3 acres, a place I share with many good friends.

Margaret Roach back garden — The site is steep; the only flat space is this one, about 700 square feet between the back porch and the edge of the frog pond.

chairs in garden in snow — I believe in making a 365-day garden, even here, where frost comes as late as Memorial Day and returns as early as late September.

Jack the Demon Cat — Jack was one of my companions since he appeared in the driveway the morning of 9/11, a stray living in the surrounding woods. RIP Jack; now I talk to wilder animals.

Margaret Roach office — Jack knew the most important lesson of garden design: Look out the window to site your plantings where they can be enjoyed.

west view of Margaret Roach garden — If you are a real gardener, you’ll never view the plantings from outdoors (where you will be working, or crawling around in the beds).

west view Margaret Roach garden summer — The same view as the previous photo, but in high summer, when the patio is almost obscured by foliage.

back hillside, Margaret Roach garden, fall — Shapes, shades of green, and textural contrasts interest me more than flowers. Uphill, mowing long-short amoebic patterns makes for good viewing.

Margaret Roach rhubarb — Big leaves are a particular passion (though the tropics this isn’t). Even lowly rhubarb is a garden star to my eye.

2011-corylopsis-spicata — Gold foliage, of which I probably have too much to be within the limits of good taste, is another obsession. (Shown: Corylopsis spicata ‘Aurea.’)

Japanes umbrella pine Margaret Roach gardenlia — The first thing I planted here: a Japanese umbrella pine, out back. My how things grow when you stay put for 25-plus years.

pation, garden of Margaret Roach — Big pots thrill me too, and I stuff them with everything from predictable pansies to less-so Japanese maples.

Margaret Roach front garden, May-June — I do have some flowers, especially in spring in the front garden (but set off against more gold foliage, too).

grasses and Lespedeza September — A wall of giant Miscanthus in the distance camouflages the compost heap beyond all summer, fall, and well into winter.

Margaret Roach vegetable garden — A vegetarian for 30ish years, I have grown a chunk of my food for almost as long, in raised beds, putting it up for winter.

roasted oregano-lemon potato wedges — I cook three meals daily for myself, of simple, vegetarian style (like these roast potato wedges with lemon juice, oregano and olive oil).

Every day when I look out the window, eat something I’ve grown, or meet another of the garden’s creatures, I feel blessed to be here as part of the picture. (Shown: giant leopard moth caterpillar.)

I GARDEN BECAUSE I cannot help myself. For more than 30 years, I have happily done so on a lopsided, rural 2.3-acre piece of land in Zone 5B, where Columbia County, New York, touches the border of Massachusetts’ Berkshire Mountains and Connecticut’s Litchfield Hills. The other key details, and a slideshow tour:

I was a weekend gardener for 21 years before moving here fulltime in late 2007. (Hallelujah.)
I garden without chemicals, meaning no synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides or herbicides–and mostly I don’t really bother with “organic” products, either.
I proselytize about making a ”365-day garden,” even here where frost stays well into May and can return in late September. The garden center might be shuttered in winter, but the garden never closes. Plant accordingly!
My garden is not a mere hobby, like bowling. It is a life practice, a window into larger questions of existence (that’s the “woo-woo” part of my company motto, “horticultural how-to and ‘woo woo’”) and a lens into science and nature. It is also my constant companion.
I often say that we are like an old married couple, the garden and I. We are both showing our age, but are in it till death us do part. (And yes, plants die here, regularly. Oops!)
Speaking of plants, I have a thing for foliage, even more than flowers. Big foliage, colorful foliage, textural foliage. Bring it on—and bring on the frogs too, another of my obsessions.
I also have a high color tolerance: brash is beautiful! I am especially mad for the color gold.
I have been a vegetarian for more than 40 years.
For 30ish years, I have grown (and put up) a sizeable chunk of my food, but not in any fancy potager; just a block of raised beds built 30-plus years ago, and another block maybe 10 years old.
Birds taught me to garden—or at least my early love of them did. In hopes of attracting birds early on, with fruit and nectar and shelter, I inadvertently collected some really great plants that we now both enjoy. Almost 70 species of birds visit the garden each year.
You can visit, too. For 25ish years, except during 2020, the garden has been open a few times each growing season as part of the Garden Conservancy Open Days national program, and for workshops and other special events.

Have a look at some scenes of the place and the creatures I share it with.

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.”

6 comments

Theresa says:

October 3, 2020 at 9:41 am

Absolutely stunning! I happened upon your book, The Backyard Parables while looking for information on year round gardening. My initial goal was to provide food for the birds all year long. Imagine my delight when I read that you garden on a steep property! I have an acre that is mostly a hill of at least 45-degrees. My question is this: how do you edge your beds so that mowing is not difficult, but also so that they look natural? I do not like sharp edges and I envision the hill having organic curves…none of those awful black plastic edging things. Please help! And thank you for your expertise!! I love your podcast!

1. margaret says:
  
  October 4, 2020 at 9:16 am
  
  I edge by hand with a half-moon edging tool (long-handled tool about waist-high) that cuts a line in the turf and then I crawl around and remove the bits that don’t obey that line. : )
  
Alice says:

April 17, 2021 at 1:59 pm

Do you expect to open your garden to visitors at all in 2021? We would love to visit and are fully vaccinated, if that makes a difference.

We have been gardening on a hilltop in Delaware County since 1979. Initially we were weekenders, but the return to NYC became more and more onerous, so we figured out how to live full time in the country by 1981. We have never regretted it.

1. margaret says:
  
  April 18, 2021 at 6:47 am
  
  Hi Alice. Not opening this year, no, unless things really change dramatically with the numbers and if so maybe I will do a last-minute “pop up” in fall spontaneously.
  
Dorrie says:

July 19, 2023 at 2:59 pm

When will your garden next be open?

1. margaret says:
  
  July 29, 2023 at 1:41 pm
  
  Probably not till next spring, Dorrie. I always announce it in the weekly newsletter.

about margaret’s garden

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

awaytogarden

FROM THE WEEKLY PODCAST

rethinking the lawn, with dan wilder