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margaret roach, head gardener

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new video: ‘i garden because i can’t help myself’

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WHEN THE SOULS WERE HANDED OUT, I was given the one of gardener. This reading from my new book “And I Shall Have Some Peace There,” accompanied by video from my world, explains that I garden because I cannot help myself. You?

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40 comments
March 13, 2011

comments

  1. Liz says

    March 22, 2011 at 3:34 pm

    Hi Margaret
    Your video is lovely, I only wish I lived closer so I could hear you in person. What a great comparison of meditation and gardening—of course. I cannot imagine surviving without the solace of gardening. I work at a shelter for abused women and am attempting to introduce gardening as a peaceful healing adjunct to the other heaing activities we try to offer to th women and children who stay with us.
    When I come homeat the end of a day of listening to painful and hopeful stories it is my garden that most surely reconnects me to nature, definitely a survival strategy for me.
    . I have ordered your book and am looking forward o reading it.. I admire your courage. I hope it does very well. Again many thanks for the inspiration and connection.
    Liz

    Reply
  2. gloria battista collins says

    March 22, 2011 at 5:28 pm

    Hi Margaret,

    I so enjoyed being read too. Thanks so much for the universal realities brought on by the garden. Life, happiness, spiritual growth and death. I’ve learned that the garden is my teacher and without it I don’t grow.
    All the best.
    @slowhomeliving.

    Reply
    • Margaret says

      March 23, 2011 at 8:04 am

      Welcome, Gloria. Will have more podcasts of readings and maybe videos of them coming up. Nice of you to be so kind! See you soon.

      Reply
  3. tbrose says

    March 25, 2011 at 12:06 pm

    I am reading “and I shall have some peace there” and love it. I appreciate your sharing your story so openly with us.

    Reply
    • Margaret says

      March 25, 2011 at 12:13 pm

      Welcome, Tbrose and thank you. So sweet! Spread the word…tee hee. :)

      Reply
  4. Terri Meyer says

    March 29, 2011 at 8:24 am

    Hi Margaret,
    I found your blog by chance a couple years ago and have looked at it daily ever since.
    Then I realized you had written a book by the same title. Bought it! Loved it! So, of course I had to have to next book. Bought it! I got to page 2 and decided to put it down until this weekend when I don’t have to! If you’re working on book #3, I will buy that one too! I haven’t been disappointed yet! I wish I lived closer to you as I would love to come to some of your speaking engagements and your garden tours, but Wisconsin is too far!

    Thanks again for being there when I need alittle something!
    Terri

    Reply
  5. Ellen says

    June 9, 2011 at 9:29 am

    Thanks, Margaret.
    On New Years eve I walked out of 25 years of corporate life, no plan, no direction, no NOTHING. Just the ache of “when will I ever get to THAT?”

    It’s taken 6 months for it to sink in.
    Now I am painting my garage ceiling…perhaps to sell the house…for my next mysterious journey.

    Just saw your book at library…read it…and wanted to thank you letting me know it will take TIME for me to see where all of this will lead me. My spending habits have done a 180 but I am buying your book for comfort and courage.

    I’m NOT crazy, as has been suggested!
    Although I enjoy being thought of as a renegade. Thanks again,
    Ellen

    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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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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