MARGARET ROACH A WAY TO GARDEN

What’s in a name—specifically when it’s the common name of a plant that includes the word “weed”? When you hear of plants like jewelweed or pokeweed or clearweed, to name a few, what does it make you think? All of... Read More ›

I’ve never had a rock garden, I confess, but a book about a modern and extreme form of the art caught my attention when it was published. It’s called “The Crevice Garden: How to Make the Perfect Home for Plants... Read More ›

There’s power in numbers. That’s what the horticulture team at Stoneleigh, the historic estate turned native-focused public garden in Villanova, Pennsylvania, seems to be demonstrating time and again with its highly creative approach to using woody plants. Yes, planting a... Read More ›

“We’re so good at pretending the things around us are known and boring, or imagining that the worthwhile things are far away,” says Sam Jaffe, at the start of the documentary film “The Extraordinary Caterpillar.” Sam begs to differ, however,... Read More ›

One late-August day, Nancy Lawson—or “The Humane Gardener,” as she is perhaps better known—was making a video about a spicebush swallowtail butterfly when something just beyond it in her Maryland yard caught her eye. A green heron was visiting a... Read More ›

In the introduction to her latest book “A Forest Language,” Hannah Fries acknowledges a fascination with the words we use to talk about trees – organisms she calls the backdrop of her life. From our human vocabulary of forest ecology... Read More ›

I look around the garden and I see it happening everywhere, on so many different plants: seed is forming. Seed is the start of most everything we grow, yet most of the seed we gardeners and even more important the... Read More ›

What makes a tree or shrub exceptional – something worthy of introduction into the nursery trade, and eventually maybe making its way into your garden? There are many pathways a plant can travel to get there, including one unique one... Read More ›

When I heard that today’s guest, who’s been a guiding force in educating organic farmers, was finally publishing a book specifically for gardeners … I was thrilled. I’d been following JM Fortier since his first handbook on biointensive organic market... Read More ›

Is a greenhouse in your future? I’ve never had one, and I have always been not-so-secretly jealous of friends who do—whether to propagate their seedlings in late winter into spring, or grow more tropicals and other “houseplants” than fit in... Read More ›

The opening pages of Timothy Pakron’s about-to-be-released cookbook aren’t pictures of plates of food, but rather gorgeous flower photos – some dreamy cosmos, followed by a double-page spread of silvery mountain mint, or Pycnanthemum, gleaming against a moody dark background.... Read More ›

Rather than digging in, let’s wade in to our topic this week – because the subject is waterlilies. If you follow any botanical gardens on social media, you’ve probably seen how the giant tropical Victoria water lilies, with their massive... Read More ›

When was the last time you made room in your vegetable garden for something a little out of the ordinary that you’d never grown or maybe even tasted before? I don’t know of anyone who speaks out more passionately or... Read More ›

I don’t recall who tipped me off to the Amphibian and Reptile Conservancy’s email newsletter, but I am glad that I found it and signed up. Those of you who are longtime listeners or readers of A Way to Garden... Read More ›

Trigger warning: Today’s segment will include mention of irresistible hydrangeas and may prompt severe plant-shopping binges in susceptible individuals. You’ve been warned. My guest is Adam Wheeler of Broken Arrow Nursery, a retail and mail-order destination for exceptional plants in... Read More ›

Are you a follower of fashion—houseplant fashion, that is—seeking out the latest variety that everyone’s after, perhaps the “it” plant that’s been splashed across social media? Or was each houseplant in your care carefully chosen because it’s a perfect match... Read More ›

I call the phenomenon tomato troubles: the yellow-spotted foliage that falls off, or the plant that produces all those misshapen fruits. And yes, the attack of the hornworms, too, when you wake up to a lot of missing leaves one... Read More ›

Today’s guest is a plant ecologist whose work, she says, is driven by this question: “All of the wild diversity of life on earth is here, with us, right now. How can we take it with us into the future?”... Read More ›

I know, it feels like we just planted the vegetable garden moments ago. But a close look around as summer really takes hold quickly reminds us that our work is never done. Some crop or other is reaching the end... Read More ›

The recently published book “Madoo: The Making of an American Garden,” reminded me of the power of certain key design strategies that can make all the difference—ones that proved to be formative elements in the highly distinctive garden that is... Read More ›