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Margaret Roach @margaretroach

Ex-Martha exec, now just mad gardener, rural nature addict, award-winning writer & podcaster, creator of awaytogarden.com and matching book & podcast

Joined April 2008
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333 Photos and videos
If I had it as together as @NikiJabbour, even w/the snow piled up outside I'd be harvesting carrots and greens and more. In today's @nytimes, I wrote about her "vegetable-garden toolkit" of simple gear we all need to season-extend and pest-prevent. nytimes.com/2021/02/03/reale…

The Year-Round Garden (Published 2021)

As one intrepid gardener in Nova Scotia discovered, you can extend the growing season more than you may think — if you have the right tools.

nytimes.com
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Margaret Roach retweeted
Kurt Andersen@KBAndersen
21 Jun 2020
Compromise: declare that henceforth Fort Bragg is named after Billy Bragg, Fort Hood after Robin Hood, and remove one N and Fort Bening is named after Annette Bening.
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Margaret Roach retweeted
Project Gutenberg@gutenberg_org
21 Jun 2020
Beloved Writers on Nature as an Antidote to Depression via ⁦@brainpickings⁩ brainpickings.org/2020/06/14…
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I have admired the way @adrian_higgins of the @washingtonpost has covered the garden in this pandemic year, and we talked about it this week on my podcast/website -- about refuge, about hope, about letting IT take care of YOU for a change. awaytogarden.com/the-garden-…

the garden as refuge in a pandemic year, with adrian higgins of the washington post

THE WORLD IS SHIFTING focus again now, toward opening up this time, several months after much shutting down. But as we do, I for one hope we won't go too fast--or turn too quickly away

awaytogarden.com
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How to grow a great tomato (with advice from Tom Stearns of @highmowingseeds). nytimes.com/2020/05/12/reale…

How to Grow a Better Tomato (Published 2020)

A step-by-step guide for those who are growing their first tomatoes this year — and for anyone who needs a refresher course.

nytimes.com
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Things in the garden (like this Astilboides) looked bad after Friday night's 29F snowstorm, and then much worse after a day of high wind and a second snowfall Saturday evening. My strategy: maybe just stop looking out the window in that direction. See no evil...
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Apparently people are passionate about weeds, either pro or con. Loved the response to this latest @nytimes piece I wrote last week on one of my favorite subjects. nytimes.com/2020/05/08/reale…

The Dirty Secret About Weeding (Published 2020)

The most experienced gardeners know that you just have to keep doing it. They know something else, too: It’s easier if you can identify the enemy.

nytimes.com
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This time of year -- any year, not just this unusual one -- you'll find me shopping in my garden, browsing for self-sowns and overgrowns...seedlings and divisions to move about and make the place hang together better. And free! nytimes.com/2020/04/28/reale…
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Nesting season is under way. It's not easy making a home for baby birds, eluding all the would-be predators. A wildlife biologist I admire offers a look inside the incredible drama (including birds who use shed snakeskins to ward off attackers!): awaytogarden.com/the-wonder-…

miraculous bird nests (vs. wily nest predators), with brett degregorio

I AM MAD FOR birds, so much so that I’ve been looking expectantly lately at the interactive migration maps on the Birdcast.info website, and browsing reports coming in from areas to the south of me

awaytogarden.com
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Thank you, @nytimes , for the chance to do a new series of how-to gardening articles, and for knowing your homebound readers everywhere need this support to tackle, and find refuge in, the spaces just outside the door. nytimes.com/2020/04/21/reale…

In a Chaotic Season, Where to Begin Your Spring Cleanup? (Published 2020)

This year, even the easy parts of gardening are challenging. A veteran gardener offers advice and encouragement.

nytimes.com
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So glad that just before the world went mad I bought a copy of @LukasVolger 's START SIMPLE, which teaches us to cook with what we have. My podcast and interview transcript with Lukas: awaytogarden.com/cooking-wit…

cooking with what you have: 'start simple,' with lukas volger

JUST BEFORE THINGS SHIFTED in our world, I bought a new vegetarian cookbook called “Start Simple,” by Lukas Volger. Little did I know that just weeks later, its promise of “an uncomplicated approach...

awaytogarden.com
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Margaret Roach retweeted
Kurt Andersen@KBAndersen
3 May 2019
I‘m not a gardener but I’m fortunate to live with one and I love plants and flowers and adore this brilliant gardening guru and her beautifully written new book, just out. It’s useful and gorgeous, a great combination. timberpress.com/books/way_ga…

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Who needs flowers when you have the autumn fern (Dryopteris erthrosora) and a good selection of Japanese painted?
Timber Press@timberpress
3 May 2019
"Thoreau wrote that, 'God made ferns to show what he could do with leaves,' and I think we should make gardens of them to show the same." --@margaretroach, from A WAY TO GARDEN
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Easter candy (or giant botanical matzoh balls?). Happy holiday weekend, from me and the #clivia that is outdoing itself this year.
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I buy organic seed, and seek out regionally appropriate varieties, too, for best garden success. Here’s why. buff.ly/2FfYlmV

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Nonstop wildlife antics go on in my “snag” or wildlife tree. Why I try never to cut down dead or dying trees, but transform them. buff.ly/2FfRM3c
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I started watering my Clivias again this week, after a couple of months of no drinks. Caring for these long-lived houseplants. buff.ly/2E6WjWF
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How long does leftover seed last? A viability chart: buff.ly/2sbrPdk
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More, more, more SOUP ideas. (Getting cold again here after a spring-like couple of days. Weird weather!) buff.ly/2J39ZRr
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Why I “feed” my blue jays the egg shells every time I eat eggs (and why they chip paint off my house, too). buff.ly/2FSCgMq
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