MARGARET ROACH A WAY TO GARDEN

Once upon a time the seed catalogs came out around the start of the New Year, but these days the very first ones may arrive by Thanksgiving, and their listings may be posted online even earlier. So I guess what... Read More ›

Besides their native-heavier plant palette and looser style, ecologically designed landscapes have another difference: The way we maintain them is not the same as with more traditional, ornamentally-focused gardens. I’m asked again and again by gardeners who have planted a meadow-like... Read More ›

Today’s guest didn’t have to convince me to be wild about woodpeckers, because I already am—utterly so. These charismatic, hardworking birds make oversized ecological contributions to the environments they inhabit and to the other creatures that they share them with... Read More ›

Every gardener has certainly heard the rallying cry each recent autumn to “leave the leaves”, invoking us to go gentler with our cleanup to support a diversity of beneficial invertebrates who call the fallen leaves their home. Now a recently... Read More ›

Kevin West begins his newest book, called “The Cook’s Garden,” like this:  “This is a book about flavor,” he writes. “It is a book about how to become a better cook by stepping into the garden.”  His is not just... Read More ›

Almost 10 years ago on this program, I talked about making sourdough starter with today’s guest, Sarah Owens, on the occasion of the publication her book called “Sourdough.” Now a 10th anniversary edition of the James Beard Award-winning book is about... Read More ›

Most of us have something to hide – in our gardens, that is, some view of something we’d like to erase. It could be the telephone pole across the street that we can see from certain spots, or the neighbor’s... Read More ›

The “what plant goes where?” aspect of gardening is the hardest part for a lot of us. And as we increasingly shift our plant palette and gardening style to more native and ecologically focused, decisions about design might seem even... Read More ›

In recent growing seasons, the “new normal” of a changing climate has sometimes been making me feel like my Northeastern garden has relocated farther to the South. So maybe that’s part of what caught my attention when I saw news... Read More ›

The fall bird migration is under way, and that means the cast of characters we’re seeing and hearing in the garden is changing quickly – as we say goodbye for now to some species, and keep a close eye out... Read More ›

In the age of climate change, my guest on today’s reprise edition of the podcast told me, we can expect “more poison ivy and meaner poison ivy,” and I’d say from what I see growing around me and the rashes... Read More ›

Today’s guest and I were sitting having a cup of tea together recently and talking abou guess what? Plants! What came up pretty fast was how lately we both sometimes cringe at the results to our online searches about one... Read More ›

Patrick McDuffee believes that everyone should have at least one scented geranium on their windowsill year-round, for an on-demand invigorating whiff of fragrance, or to admire its colorful flowers…or to make a homebrewed cup of herbal tea from its leaves.... Read More ›

The last time I spoke to Alla Olkhovska from her home and garden in Ukraine, she confessed to growing about 120 different types of Clematis—a number that after seeing her recently published e-book “Clematis Passports,” which profiles 140 kinds, I suspect... Read More ›

On the weekend of Aug. 8 and 9, the beloved Seed Savers Exchange will celebrate its 50th anniversary of preserving our seed heritage with festivities at its homebase in Decorah, Iowa. I wanted to celebrate Seed Savers here a little, too,... Read More ›

For each of us, it’s probably safe to bet that our most familiar piece of the natural world is the outdoor space right beside the place we live – our own yard. But how well do we really know even... Read More ›

There may be no moment in the year when my friend Ken Druse and I are more grateful for the range of textures and colors of foliage we made room for in our gardens than we are right now –... Read More ›

Today’s guest returned from a 1979 trip visiting English gardens inspired to do some garden-making of his own. His canvas was a northwestern Connecticut hillside and not the Cotswolds, and the home he’d just purchased wasn’t a grand manor house... Read More ›

A couple of ravens have been shouting at each other across the garden each day this spring-into-summer, and their loud-mouthed antics reminded me of a somewhat less bawdy conversation about crows and ravens that I had a decade ago on... Read More ›

A big old copper beech tree is a focal point of my garden, and each time I look out the window at it admiringly these days, I feel the same love and gratitude I always have for its grandeur –... Read More ›

Today we’re going to do some pruning, but not the same old straight-forward kind. Instead we’re going to talk topiary, and its transformative powers – not just on the plant that is the subject that’s getting clipped, or on the... Read More ›

Some of us plant a row of particular annuals with the intention to cut them for bouquets in their moment of bloom – and some of us think bigger have a whole cutting garden within our landscape. I feel like... Read More ›

We may know one when we see it, but what word best describes an ecological landscape? Compared to traditional, more formal gardens, such native-plant-forward designs are variously labeled as looser, or naturalistic, or wildish—all perfectly accurate. Is there perhaps a... Read More ›

I’ve answered a lot of garden questions in my time as a garden journalist, but nobody has asked more of them than today’s guest—who’s also the person I’ve known longer than anyone else on the planet. My baby sister, Marion... Read More ›

Again and again, as I was reading the recent book “Bad Naturalist” by Paula Whyman, I kept thinking: Good thing I only have a couple of acres of land. Whyman tackled 200 acres on a Virginia mountaintop, dreaming of reshaping... Read More ›

The first issue of “American Gardener,” the newly redesigned member magazine of the American Horticultural Society, arrived recently, and in it are lots of good reads—including an article by today’s guest, Nancy Lawson, aka “The Humane Gardener.”  She writes about... Read More ›

When I first started gardening, it wasn’t unusual to hear other gardeners lamenting the shady areas of their landscapes – wishing for more, more, more sun. But my friend Ken Druse never looked at the lower-light areas that way –... Read More ›

Woody plants—the trees and shrubs—can be pure ecological powerhouses, but most of us don’t have room for an entire forest in our backyards. So on a garden scale, which shrubs in particular really get the job done best? Dan Wilder, a longtime native plant... Read More ›

I look forward to spring for many reasons, not the least of which is the emergence and bloom time of the trilliums. There’s a saying that good things come in threes, and trilliums are certainly proof of that.  I talked... Read More ›

So you think you’re  familiar with marigolds and zinnias? Well, it’s time to take another look, I think, as I have been longingly in the seed list from Oregon-based Peace Seedlings.  Among their offerings are multi-toned zinnias in shades you won’t... Read More ›

It’s hard to think of a brighter botanical bright spot than the one that Coleus creates—whether in a container design, or planted in a garden bed.  And it’s hard to think of a more Coleus-filled place than Rosy Dawn Gardens,... Read More ›

I can almost taste it now: the flavors of the first spring crops, whether homegrown, or from your CSA share, or even ethically foraged…with the promise of a whole growing season of the freshest, tastiest produce to come. It’s the... Read More ›

More isn’t always better, of course, but in the case of the gardens profiled in the new book “Garden to the Max,” it definitely is, whether more color, more texture, more drama or all of the above, and then some,... Read More ›

Though the calendar says that spring started on March 20, the many clues that nature offers to those who watch and listen add up to a more complex and layered unfolding over time. Inspired by a new book called “Phenology,”... Read More ›

Anyone who has heard of or even better visited Chanticleer Garden in Pennsylvania knows that it is home to some of the country’s most exceptional examples of horticultural creativity and innovation.  A multi-year biodiversity survey of the Chanticleer property has... Read More ›

We’ve all heard about what plants and other features figure into making a garden for the birds, or a pollinator garden … but what about a frog garden? I’m crazy about frogs and would like to think my place is... Read More ›

If another houseplant dropped all its leaves for several months each year, you’d think you killed it. But with some of Ken Druse’s and my favorite indoor companions, from Boweia to Jatropha and more, a regular dormant period is just... Read More ›

The sight of Eastern bluebirds rates high on my happiness scale, so I say bring them on. But what makes a place look like inviting habitat to these charismatic birds, encouraging them to maybe stick around during breeding season? And... Read More ›

One of the tallest perennials in my garden is New York ironweed, Vernonia noveboracensis, but basically my knowledge of the genus starts and ends there. Or at least it did until just recently, when Mt. Cuba Center, the renown native... Read More ›

You probably know the popular Seed Savers Exchange catalog, which this year features 600 varieties of seed to choose from, and supports the beloved nonprofit preservation organization, which in 2025 is turning 50 years old.  But maybe you haven’t clicked... Read More ›

Have you ever replied, “I don’t know; that’s just the way I’ve always done it” when someone asked why you performed a certain garden task in a particular way? Sometimes we stay stuck even when there’s evidence there’s a newer,... Read More ›

Anybody in the mood for something just plain pretty at the moment, something to search the seed catalogs for, choosing among the many wildly colorful varieties, and then get ready to sow? Something hopeful and bright? Me too! After I... Read More ›

How’s winter shaping up where you are so far – or more to the point, how’s the winter garden looking? What’s your view out the window this time of year, and could it be improved with some strategic enhancements?  That’s... Read More ›

As many of us heavy up on native plants, and transition larger areas of our landscapes toward more naturalistic styles of design, there is a lot to learn – or maybe un-learn, if our gardening experience up until now was... Read More ›

I messaged to my arborist neighbor the other day to just say, “Happy holidays.” And at the end of my note, I also said this: “See you soon.”  Winter may be the quiet season up North here in the garden... Read More ›

Whether out loud here on the podcast or just between us on one of our periodic late Friday afternoon phone calls, I always benefit from catching up with today’s guest, Joe Lamp’l (aka Joe Gardener). Probably no time for talking... Read More ›

Did you have an abnormally dry growing season this year—one where it felt like you just couldn’t keep up with the watering, maybe? Today’s guest, naturalist and artist Julie Zickefoose, and I both did in our otherwise different garden locations—places... Read More ›

The message has become increasingly clear: By shifting the palette of what we plant toward native, and refining the practices we employ in caring for our landscapes, we gardeners can make a contribution to the greater ecology. We can create... Read More ›

She has had various job titles in her career, but writer Margaret Renkl says one consistent role in her life for decades has been that of “a window-gazer,” someone who watches what’s going on out there. Even better, she gets... Read More ›

It’s practically December, but like many gardeners I’m already thinking about spring. One big element of that thinking is how to maximize the power of flower bulbs, and though you might have already planted some in the ground earlier this... Read More ›