A Way To Garden

'horticultural how-to and woo-woo'
the source of organic gardening inspiration
margaret roach, head gardener

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THE SISTER PROJECT was a collaborative website I shared with several other writers, including my sister, Marion Roach Smith, from 2008 to 2011.

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From the Podcast: Ideas to Strengthen Your Garden’s Design

Even though my own garden is put to bed, I’m looking for the seeds of ideas for the year to come. To that end lately I’ve been rereading “Nature into Art: The Gardens of Wave Hill,” and from it and its current Director of Horticulture, Louis Bauer, I got some practical inspiration. He shared tips on upcycling prunings into plant supports; how easy hedges create serious architecture; how to encourage desirable self-sowns like poppies or larkspur to flourish; how repeating shapes (not just colors) can strengthen designs; and why we each need one blank bed to “play” or experiment in. (Stream it below, read the illustrated transcript or subscribe free.)

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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.

And another roommate: This morning I came downstai

And another roommate: This morning I came downstairs to be greeted by #fireflylarvae (well, actually just one larva) who was apparently reading my notes to self from yesterday. In my hand was a cup into which I had already scooped 11 Asian lady beetles to put outside. Spiders of all descriptions, stink bugs, you name it....and that tachinid fly from a couple of posts ago. I am sheltering in place in this old house that is an entire microbiome, full of life. Hilarious, and a great distraction keying each new visitor out on bugguide.net and learning about their lives. Who are you #homebound with? #awaytogarden #shelterinplace #arthropod

Survivors! Lichen and moss are ancient creatures,

Survivors! Lichen and moss are ancient creatures, living on earth for hundreds of millions of years already through thick and thin. When I filled the bird feeder this morning, I looked more closely than I usually do at the community that has formed using a slat of a very old wooden bench as its substrate, and just thought: right, hunker down and stay put. Thank you, #lichen and #moss for setting an example (and for just being so beautiful in your unfancy way). How are you all out there doing your version of hunkering? #awaytogarden #socialdistancing

European Union? The first Apis mellifera aka Europ

European Union? The first Apis mellifera aka European honey bee I see each year is always having at the first Eranthis hyemalis or winter aconite to open, likewise a European species. I don’t know enough to know if their distant ancestors did the same dance way back when, but I like to wonder (and I like to imagine they might have, cause that’s how my brain works). And now I will spend 57 hours reading esoteric botanical and entomological research papers on the native ranges of each if I can even find them, because it beats reading the news lately. By a mile. #apismellifera #eranthishyemalis #awaytogarden #honeybees #winteraconite

New roommate: At this time of year all manner of #

New roommate: At this time of year all manner of #arthropods announce themselves in my old rural house, from #asianladybeetle to #stinkbug to the occasional #squashbug even (and spiders galore). This guy is a new one on me, some kind of #tachinidae aka #tachinidfly. So now I have some homework to do to learn about these hairy beasts! UPDATE: I think this is Paradejeania rutilioides, a North American native, or Hystricia abrupta. #awaytogarden #parasitically #littlethingsthatruntheworld

Happy Valentine’s Day from me and Melaphis rhois

Happy Valentine’s Day from me and Melaphis rhois, the creator of the staghorn sumac gall, a pod-like “nursery” this particular aphid species creates by laying an egg under a sumac leaf. By high summer red galls appear ... but this is not a story of steamy romance. Nope. The aphid that hatches from that egg reproduces asexually inside the gall by #parthenogenesis ... until that gall houses many little clones of it. And then they all drop or fly out to continue the cycle, but the next round in spring happens on moss — the #alternatehost required in this fascinating creature’s life cycle. Guess what? There is moss in my lawn in the shade beneath this sumac. We all live happily together. The end. ❤️❤️❤️ #awaytogarden #galls #staghornsumac #sumac

I miss my moth friends! As much as I look forward

I miss my moth friends! As much as I look forward to reconnecting with plants at winter’s end, I so long to see preposterous creatures like these flying again in the garden. Clockwise from top L: painted lichen moth, Pandorus Sphinx, tolype, and spiny oak slug moth. I have only photographed and ID’d maybe 150 species in the garden so far but there are probably 6 or 7 times that moth diversity here. #awaytogarden #mothsofinstagram #moth

And so it begins (after a weekend of 66F and 65F d

And so it begins (after a weekend of 66F and 65F days): the intermediate hybrid witch hazels, like coppery ‘Jelena,’ unfurl their petals. Not the earliest year ever (I had them start by Christmas in 2015, after it was 70F that Xmas eve). The year before that they waited till mid-March to begin, after a fierce winter. Usually it is somewhere in between. Any signs of life at your place? #awaytogarden #hamamelis #witchhazel #wintergarden

I’m BACK: Precisely on new year’s day, one of

I’m BACK: Precisely on new year’s day, one of my oldest houseplants, Bowiea volubilis, poked its first green tip out of one of the 7 daughter bulbs surrounding the original Mama I began with, all of whom live cheek-to-jowl happily, an ever-expanding family for the last 25ish years in the same sandy “soil” in the same pot. Late each year they take a nap for a month or two, and then: happy new year, Margaret! Soon there will be a mad mass of frothy vines and then tiny flowers and yes, the thing will outlive me, happy for my neglect and a very occasional drink. I admire self-sufficiency and tenacity in plants as in people, and this is one of my role models. Love you, my ever-faithful and oddball Bowiea.

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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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