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margaret roach, head gardener

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on garden visiting: ‘if only…’

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new-guySERIOUS GARDEN-VISITING SEASON KICKED OFF for me on Monday, meaning visitors besides the usual amphibian suspects like this guy who wait on the doorstep for me to come play each day. Them I can deal with, but the human types! Yikes. My brain spirals, and I keep hearing the same thought over and again in my head while walking guests around: If only you’d come last week (when the lilacs were still blooming). If only you’d come week after next (when the next wave of perennial geraniums and later alliums are happening, since all that’s happening now are faded early ones of each). Shoulda, coulda, woulda…if only. Seeing the holes, not the whole. Bad girl. And more visitors (you, maybe?) are coming soon. Uh-oh.

On June 14, I’m open for the 10th straight year as part of the Garden Conservancy’s national Open Days program, and though I do feel anxiety each time these days loom, I also love it. Just as each of us learns from visiting gardens, each of us who welcomes visitors learns from the experience. I am regularly startled to see where people wander and what they look at…things I never notice, vantage points I never explore. Gardens all over the country are open, so go visit one. Learn something, and leave some teaching of your own behind. Perhaps my friends the frogs will show you around personally, if they’re in the mood.

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8 comments
June 4, 2008

comments

  1. Terri Clark says

    June 4, 2008 at 9:09 am

    Oh what a pity to miss your open garden and, better yet, meeting you! I just returned from three weeks in Falls Village, Connecticut where we have a little saltbox, but our highlight, as every spring, was the Trade Secrets Garden Show. I thought I might have spyed you at the Loomis Creek display but was not quite sure. I love the Garden Conservancy scheme and always learn something from every garden I visit.
    I wish you fair skys and mild temperatures on June 14.

    Reply
  2. margaret says

    June 4, 2008 at 10:21 am

    Thanks, Terri, for the good words. And yes, that was me with Bob in the Loomis Creek both at Trade Secrets.

    Reply
  3. Andrew Ritchie says

    June 4, 2008 at 12:14 pm

    Won’t make it this year, but I can understand the anxiety. When I came in 2005, you were gracious and everything looked beautiful. It was a September tour, so all of the late bloomers were out and the garden was at its ‘heaviest’ in terms of foliage. I’ve described it before as being a truly memorable place.

    For those who plan on going to Margaret’s garden this year, pay attention to texture, colour and the use of special plants in unusual places, the use of grasses in the back field, the little surprises that lurk in the gardens, (old wire headboard and necklace-wearing statues, the water features) and the sounds of the birds and the wind.

    I think of that garden often.

    Reply
  4. Sogalitno says

    June 4, 2008 at 1:20 pm

    oh darn. i am out of the country most of June and will be missing your garden as well as many others i really wanted to see.

    hopefully there will be some good ones in ireland.

    Reply
  5. Bart Z. says

    June 5, 2008 at 11:11 am

    I certainly will stop by your wonderful gardens June 14. It’s been a while since I’ve seen your plantings and I’m sure you have interesting new things to see.

    Reply
  6. margaret says

    June 5, 2008 at 11:12 am

    Welcome Bart Z. “He” (above) will be waiting for you. So will I (oh, and I suppose Jack the Cat).

    Reply
  7. Paige says

    June 5, 2008 at 1:05 pm

    I LOVE that picture. That frog deserves a kiss.

    Reply
  8. margaret says

    June 5, 2008 at 8:49 pm

    @Paige: Don’t think I didn’t invite him in for a romantic supper…but he had other plans. Men!

    Reply

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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.)

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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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