I was invited recently to be a guest on a podcast called The Wildstory from The Native Plant Society of New Jersey that talks about plants, of course, and ecology … but unlike other garden-related podcasts, it also explores poetry. I was intrigued,... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

When cold weather approaches, we humans often have it easy: We can retreat to the shelter of central heating, or pile on more layers of clothing. The path to survival is a lot more complicated for birds, of course, and a new... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

In the face of shifting weather patterns influenced by a changing climate, the garden can be a really confusing place these days. What stressors are coming next, and which plants will have the resilience required to stand up to whatever... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

The garden is my favorite escape from stress, of course, but as I have confessed before on the podcast, I sometimes succumb to the lure of swiping my way through Instagram during non-garden hours, like so many millions of us... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

Today’s guest, Sara Weaner Cooper, and her husband, Evan Cooper, bought their first home a couple of years ago, and before long undertook transitioning the front lawn organically from mown grass into a meadow. Sara’s here to tell us about... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

It was almost two years ago to the day when today’s guest, Joan Strassmann, last visited me on the show, right around the time her book “Slow Birding” was released. Now, as then, I’ve seen what are pretty much my... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

When I read the other day that Native Plant Trust, the nonprofit plant conservation organization in New England, had successfully raised the money to complete the endowment fund needed to save its region’s most imperiled native plants in a seed... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

Increasingly in recent years, my garden “weeds” include more and more tenacious opponents – and the landscape along the roadsides nearby and pretty much everywhere I drive is one of hedgerows formed of a tangle of non-native shrubs and vines.... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

If you have ever tried creating, and then caring for, a habitat-style garden with native plants … well, let’s just say it’s not exactly the same thing as combining a group of hostas with some astilbes an a couple of... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

“Plants tell the story of a place,” says field botanist and native plant nursery owner Jared Rosenbaum. “If you want to be rooted on the earth you live on, you can look to plants to interpret that story.” With his... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

Organic farming and gardening have always been based on the principle of “feed the soil, not the plant.” In a recent interview, I got some expert advice for doing that, and also learn why our diligent soil-consciousness matters so much,... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

Have you done your bulb shopping yet? It’s ordering time—both for fall-blooming treats like Colchicum, which you can only buy now if you hurry, and for the ever-wider assortment of fall-planted, spring-into-summer blooming species. Ken Druse and I both have... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

I was scrolling through Instagram the other day – yes, sometimes I just cannot help myself – when I saw a post by Matt Mattus about Christmas cactus. Even though it was still high summer, it made me long for... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

I suspect I’m not alone when I say that weather extremes in recent growing seasons have made me feel a bit like a stranger in a strange land in my own garden—wondering what will bloom when, and when to do... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

When most of us think of growing herbs each spring, what we probably put into our shopping cart, whether from online seed catalogs or at the garden center, are the culinary must-haves: the basil, the parsley, the dill and such. ... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

It’s Hydrangea season, and in the Northeast, in particular, this summer, it’s REALLY been a crazy hydrangea season in 2024, with billows of blue bloom from big-leaf hydrangeas on view everywhere, it seems—which is not always the case, in colder... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

We’re going to talk about collectibles today, but not the kind you score at a flea market or from an online auction. We’re going to talk about collectible trees. Yes, trees. A new book by Amy Stewart called “The Tree... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

Are you thinking about the possibility of transitioning an area of your lawn into something more diverse, like maybe a meadow? A question I’m asked a lot is how to go about it – the actual preparatory steps – so... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

It’s one of the best-known naturalistic gardens anywhere, and yet it’s perched in the most unnatural spot imaginable, 30 feet high above New York City traffic on an abandoned elevated railway line. The High Line on Manhattan’s West Side is... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

Some of the many unusual fruits that Allyson Levy and Scott Serrano grow in their arboretum in the Hudson Valley of New York, like goji berries or maybe Schisandra, are ones you’re more likely to see on ingredient labels of... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

Nobody wants to get the IRS notice in the mail that they’re being audited, heaven forbid. But when it comes to gardens, Rodney Eason believes that the occasional audit is a very positive process, and encourages us to perform one... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

What’s one of the best sources of inspiration and information about gardening you can get outside of a classroom, and that is also wonderfully entertaining? By making time to go visit other people’s gardens, we can open ourselves up to... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

I suspect every gardener has for years now, over and again, heard the warnings about the most widely used pesticides in the US, neonicotinoids – or neonics for short. In 2013 the American Bird Conservancy issued a report, warning of... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

Interest and awareness around native plants has been trending in recent years, and it makes them almost feel new. But of course natives are the original plants of an area—and even in certain specialty corners of the nursery industry they... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

Most people call in an arborist when they think it’s time for a tree to be removed—a costly process both financially and environmentally, since trees are critical drivers of diversity. Today’s guest runs a tree-care company and also a tree-focused... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

Landscape design may be part of the green industry, but sometimes rethinking a garden space, or creating a garden where there didn’t used to be one, can create a lot of very un-green waste material—especially true when you’re designing in... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

Today’s topic is orchids, but not the ones you might be growing as a flowering houseplant. Our subject is native terrestrial types that are more often than not under great pressure in the wild, their numbers dwindling. Now, thanks to... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

The area around Philadelphia is well-known for its richness of public gardens, including many historic ones, but the region is also home to an impressive roster of distinctive private landscapes—from formal 19th century European-style estates to mid-century modern residences and contemporary... Read More ›…

You’ve probably heard the expression No Mow May in recent years, a campaign borrowed from an effort in the UK meant to increase diversity by leaving lawns unmown for the one spring month, but is that the answer for US... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

It’s that time of year when we gardeners are shopping, shopping, shopping, often in hot pursuit of just the right plant that will make the design of a bed or the larger landscape hang together—that elusive missing ingredient. But what... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

I for one have a number of houseplants that would look a whole lot better right now if given a pinch or two or three, plus I could potentially enjoy the benefit of more plants from those trimmings, whether to... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

I confess to something of a weakness for Japanese maples, and I suspect I’m not alone. Now, thanks to breeding work by experts like today’s guests, there are more and more varieties being made available that are suited to a... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

You know how it goes, especially in those tempting first spring-like days: You’re barely out of bed before you’re out in the garden having at it. And then, by day’s end, your body’s screaming that maybe, just maybe, you overdid... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

Wait! Before you find yourself at the garden center grabbing up every irresistible thing that calls out to you, figuring you can somehow find a role for it in this season’s container designs, think again: What’s your plan for this year’s seasonal... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

In a recent phone call, today’s guest, Tim Johnson, used the phrase “bio-productive gardens,” and it stopped me. What does he mean by that, I thought? And then he explained: There are ways to manage our landscapes, he said, so... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

Some people collect art, others collect vintage cars, or maybe stamps or coins. Darryl Cheng collects houseplants, and in his latest book, “The New Plant Collector,” Darryl suggests some gorgeous possibilities, with detailed guidelines for figuring out how to make... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

Early on in making my garden decades ago, I bought a nursery pot of bluestar, or Amsonia, at a native plant sale, and planted it in a border here. It has never asked anything of me, never had any pests... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

When shopping the seed catalogs, I realize I’m probably more likely to consider a tomato or pepper I haven’t grown before, or some unusual annual flower, than to try some new-to-me herb. But what a shame. I need to modify that... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

Maybe more than any other topic, the use of native plants has consistently figured among the top garden trends in recent years. Just how popular is the movement toward a more ecological focus in the way we design and care... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

Watching birds lifts my spirits, as it has for decades, and who couldn’t use their spirits lifted right about now? But there’s another much bigger potential benefit, which is that sharing my sightings helps scientists understand what’s going on with... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

What’s not to love about zinnias? Organic seed farmer and breeder Don Tipping of Siskiyou Seeds and I both vote an emphatic “yes” in favor of making zinnias a part of every garden year. But what goes into creating the... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

As she often does, naturalist and nature writer Nancy Lawson—perhaps known better to some of you as the Humane Gardener after the title of her first book—caught my attention the other day. “My yard isn’t overgrown and neither is yours,”... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

David Culp is a self-professed Galanthophile—a lover, and passionate longtime collector, of snowdrops in all their various incarnations. He is also a host of the annual Galanthus Gala symposium, which happens the first weekend of March in Downingtown, Pa., and... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

If you think nothing’s on the to-do list in winter, fellow gardeners—that we’re all meant to be dormant like the cannas in the cellar and the herbaceous perennials outside in the flower beds—well, think again. Most of us in colder... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

Every year when I get to the sweet pea listings in the seed catalogs, I think this is the year, the year I’ll organize some supports in the garden for them, and indulge in their unmatched extravagance of color and... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

Like everyone around this time of year, I get into a “looking back while looking ahead” combined mindset. Today I want to do just that, but with a sort of ecological filter, taking stock of how things in the garden... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

Ho-ho-ho: It’s seed season, among other festive reasons to celebrate in December. Today I invited a similarly seed-obsessed friend, Jennifer Jewell, to help me curate some seed-catalog recommendations you might not otherwise browse, and to talk seeds in general. Jennifer’s... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

You no doubt have seen news that the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map was just updated, and that half the country once again got reclassified a half-zone warmer—just as many of us did after the previous update of the map,... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

Let the seed-shopping season begin! The 2024 offerings are being loaded into seed-catalog websites, and the earliest print catalogs are already arriving in our mailboxes, as if to help soften the separation anxiety we may feel if we’ve already put... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach

I don’t think I’ve read a mystery novel since the “Nancy Drew” books of my long-ago childhood, though I will confess to having watched more than a few who-done-it TV series over the years, most of them from the BBC. ... Read More ›Par Margaret Roach