Gardenig in city Seattle. Tips & Guides

Cherry Ong recently visited Seattle’s Pike Place Market, which is a famous farmers market; however, she was focused not on the fresh produce for sale, but on the beautiful plantings.

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If you’ve watched the cooking competition show Top Chef in the past decade, you’ve probably seen Kristen Kish. The Korean-born, Michigan-raised chef won her season in Seattle in 2012. Since then, she’s appeared regularly as a guest judge and, most recently, landed the role of Top Chef’s new host. Taking over for the original host, Padma Lakshmi, after 19 seasons, Kish has some big shoes to fill. But her long-running history with the hit reality series, along with starring on the celebrity cooking competition show Fast Foodies, and hosting cooking series such as Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend and Restaurants at the End of the World, for which she also serves as a producer, have her primed as a great new face of the show.

Stacie Crooks is a Seattle-based garden designer who has created beautiful, ecologically friendly, low-maintenance gardens throughout the Pacific Northwest. She is also a contributing editor for Fine Gardening magazine and has shared her insights with our readers through 10 feature articles and several departments over the past 17 years. In this episode, Carol interviews Stacie about the lessons that she has gained from her years of garden design experience.  

Henry Mustin popped open the trunk of his electric Volkswagen to reveal his arsenal: Loppers, pruners, saws and trowels, tucked into bags. Taking up the most space was Mustin’s weed wrench, an L-shaped specialty tool branded The Extractigator, which leverages the ground to yank deeply rooted vegetation from the earth.

My name is Melina. Welcome to my Zone 8a garden in the Seattle area. It has been a few years since I have shared photos of my garden with you all (A Love/Hate Relationship With the End of the Season), so it’s nice to have you back to have a peek around. Much has changed over the past couple of years, and slowly my grass is disappearing as my annual “edging” project turns into another foot (or two) of garden border. (The shovel just slipped, LOL.) Next year I have plans to take out some larger sections for dahlias and berry beds, but here is where it sits right now. I have a collector’s garden, which means I love plants but don’t have enough space to plant three or five of many things. So instead you will find a lot of one-offs jammed together in the borders. Like many, I found my way to the garden through the need for peace and healing. What started as a “hobby” has quickly turned into an obsession that I hope to parlay into a career one day. For now, though, I will keep experimenting in this lovely space—learning and growing through dirty hands, piles of garden magazines, and those of you on social media willing to share your spaces and lessons learned. The gardening community is a wonderful one, and I am glad to be a part of it.

There’s an ugly truth behind those beautiful alstroemeria, dahlias, and roses we adore—80 percent of them are grown overseas and imported on gas-guzzling jets—often soaked in pesticides—despite the fact that they can be grown right here in the U.S. These blooms are often called “fresh” cut flowers, but they’re anything but. 

While a family of five (a couple and three daughters) had made some renovations throughout the years to their 1949 mid-century, post-war house in Seattle since they moved in in 2013, there was one room that still desperately needed a facelift: their galley-style kitchen. “It was hardly big enough for two people to move about, let alone a family of five!” says Meghan Price of Maple & Plum, who oversaw the project. “There were areas of wasted space, major lack of storage, and it felt dark and uninviting. The back door and laundry were situated just off the galley kitchen, with tight, limited access to the backyard.”

Rob Last reports, “We are progressing well with preparations for strawberry planting. Some plants are due to be delivered this week. Remember, if fumigants have been used, check to ensure the products have dissipated to prevent damage to the transplants. The same is true to make sure planting restrictions on any pre-emergence herbicides applications are observed. Always refer to the label. Finally, remember to check your plants carefully for pest and disease inoculum from the nursery. Planting any disease or pest-infected plants will lead to a more challenging growing season. If you require any help, please reach to Extension Agents.”

WHO VISITED: We met Twitter friends like @GardenGuyKenn (all the way from Michigan) and other blog-commenters like Bobster (all the way from Rhode Island) and Leslie (from Connecticut) and Ailsa and Patti, from Ottawa, Ontario.We met Joyce from Iowa and Michelle from Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania (31 miles from Wilkes-Barre, apparently) and Sandra from Clarks Summit (also Pennsylvania, 8 miles from Scranton) and Julie from Reston, Virginia, and Stephanie from Bainbridge Island, Washington, and Stephanie from Seattle (both Stephanies, both from prime garden country…a coincidence?). Someone signed in as being from Scotland, but can that be so? And all of you, thank you, whether from a mile down the road or a country or ocean away…or whether you just visited our virtual tour yesterday.Some of t

A cat who goes out each night (like Jack the Demon Cat, top), and a lot of mousetraps.First order of importance: Make sure you know what you’re fighting, since seeing mounded soil or tunnel-like activity in lawns and beds doesn’t always mean moles. Know thy enemy. An interesting interview with a wildlife expert in the Seattle paper awhile back offered a test to determine whether it’s moles or voles you’ve got.“Gardens that border wild areas probably have both moles and voles,” the piece reported. “To find ou

Lathyrus vernus plays well with others, and doesn’t ask for any attention. It even tolerates rather dry spots in the woodland garden, hallelujah, though I grow it in sunnier areas, too. Sold?In my garden, Lathyrus vernus coincides with the mid-season to late Narcissus, and is in full color with the acid-yellow early euphorbias, hellebores and pulmonarias, among other

So I can invite guest experts to join me as well as share the program with other public-radio stations, we’re pre-taping “A Way to Garden With Margaret Roach” to stand alone, instead of airing live as part of my local station’s morning show, which it has been since March 2010.You can listen in to the first such standalone show here, right now. This week’s topic: When to sow what seeds, with guest Dave Whitinger of All Things Plants in Texas. Next time (February 4), the topic is why I’m going to grow calendul

THE FLYER PIQUED MY INTEREST: Dan Benarcik, part of the creative team at Chanticleer Garden in Wayne, Pennsylvania (a must visit!), would be lecturing nearby about “The Art & Craft of the Garden,” and how to personalize a garden using artistic elements, found artifacts, and ornamental containers. I quickly got a ticket—you can, too, for the June 16 event, including garden tours and a garden market, in Spencertown, New York—but also asked Dan to share some of his ideas and images (including the bromeliad-artemisia- urn-and-melianthus moment at Chanticleer, above) with us, no matter whether we can attend. A Q&A with this enormously talented plantsman and garden artist.

Last year I had word that my website was nominated for a “best garden blog” contest, put on by “Better Homes and Gardens” magazine. Curious, I clicked over to the sites of all the other nominees—many of whom I did not know.One, in particular, stood out as a kindred spirit, and then a funny thing happened to seem to say, “Get in touch with that blogger” even more emphatically: A reader of mine emailed wi

RENDERED A SHUT-IN or thereabouts by winter, I confess to conspicuous consumption: I eat a lot, and gobble up media, too—on topics as diverse as our world food supply and Willie Nelson’s trusty guitar. Recent fodder, both heavy and lighter fare:

Few people have a more practiced eye about ferns than Judith, a.k.a. The Fern Madame, who joined me from Fancy Fronds in the State of Washington to introduce us to some distinctive favorites from among her vast collection: ferns with pink-to-bronze early color, with glossy foliage, with forked, divisifine-textured cresting (like the crested uniform wood fern, above).Read along as you listen to the March 5, 2018 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).fern q&a with fancy fronds’ judith jonesQ. I’ve known about you and your catalo

IT’S ALMOST TIME—for seeds, that is; to delve into catalogs, order, and then try to be patient till it’s time to sow. To that end—the timing part—I’m suddenly taken in bya $4 companion from the all-organic Seattle Seed Company (above) whose job it is to keep me on schedule, and not jumping the gun (or forgetting something till it’s too late). With a low-tech pullout format, you “set” your first and last frost dates and then the “when to sow what” falls into place. At this price, how can I resist the promise of feeling like I finally have it all together?smart birds: recycling butts into nestsYES, BIRDS USE the usual twigs, grasses, and feathers. But apparently they use cigarette butts, too—or so scientists at Scotland’s St. Andrews University have reported after studying house finch and house sparrow nests in Mexico

Dan Hinkley is a longtime plant explorer (that’s him in the Himalayas, below), nurseryman, teacher and gardener. Above all, he says, he’s committed to “above-average garden plants.” I found out from Dan just what, when the subject is hydrangeas, qualifies as above average and even exceptional, and we took a peek into the future of what traits hydrangeas of tomorrow might show off, too. Sneak peek: red flowers, or foliage that’s evergreen or felted or even purple are just some of the standout features we might see more of in hydrangeas of the future.Plus: at the bottom of the page, learn about how to visit Dan’s garden undertakings at Heronswood—the former specialty nursery he founded that is now a public garden—and at Windcliff, his home garden, both across Puget Sound from Seattle.Read along as you listen to our conversation on the August 28, 2017 edition of my public-radio s

Erica Strauss of NWEdible dot com and I discussed how—plus we’re each offering giveaways of key canning gear to help in the effort. (And no, that’s not us in the 1940s photo above from the Library of Congress–but we both think food preservation is more fun when tackled with friends.) Even if you’re a CSA shareholder or a farm-market shopper, and not a vegetable gardener, now’s likewise the moment to make plans for when the bounty you’ll purchase comes in. Do you have fresh lids for canning jars? Enough pickling salt or citric acid? Have you eaten your way through last year’s canned, dried and frozen goodies to even make room fo

Dennis’s recent blog post about pine siskins (top photo) in recent abundance–a favorite species here in my garden some lucky winters-of-plenty, too–detailed the relationship the birds have with red alder trees (Alnus rubra), and how their beaks are perfectly formed to fit into the tight spaces in the alder’s conelike structures and get at the little seeds.(I love such evidence of co-evoilutionary strategies between birds and plants.)Also appearing in greater-than-“normal” numbers this year, at least in the Pacific Northwest: snowy owls. “Voles. look out,” says Dennis (whom I told I have voles to spare should they run short out West; happy to dispatch a truckload from my garden anytime).my calendula feverI’M GROWING CALENDULA again, I reported recently on the blog, and to start off the latest radio show, I

Ellen—part of the BirdNote public-radio show team and my collaborator on a series of bird-related stories—is the person I always tell about new birds or other avian happenings out my window, even though I’m in the Hudson Valley of New York and she’s in Seattle.“Is it starting out there?” I asked as March began, just in from a session of crawling around to cut back hellebore foliage, accompanied by mourning dove (above), chickadee and titmouse songs.“Yes,” was the quick answer, in an email with a photo of Ellen’s own tidied-up hellebores—all in full bloom, way a

The brown creeper is about 5 inches long (much of it tail!), but weighs just 0.2 to 0.4 of an ounce, or 5 to 10 grams—though it never lets being petite get in the way of business. With a beautiful voice and the best camouflage ever, it’s what I’d call a do-er. The brown creeper starts at the base of old trees—preferably with loose or shaggy bark—heading upward in search of insects and spiders. Once it reaches the top, it flies to the base to start again.Hazel Wolf, a Seattle-based longtime activist for social justice, admired that trait when she saw the bird in action on her first birding trip, at age 64. The creeper’s determination inspired her to take on advocacy projects in behalf of the environment from that day on, until her death.“I saw it work its way up the trunk, moving quickly, always up, up, up—then fly back to the base…” Haz

Seattle-based Debra Prinzing is a longtime garden writer and author most recently of the books “The 50 Mile Bouquet” and “Slow Flowers” (Amazon affiliate links). When a garden designer friend who has also been a guest on this show, Kathy Tracey of Avant Gardens, recently wrote about a workshop she’d attended with Debra, I knew I had to invite her to my public-radio show so we could all learn more. The transcript follows:my slow-flowers q&a with debra prinzingQ. Your own adventure into slow flowers began with an “aha” from the food world.A. It did. I’m in Seattle, which is a big food community, and there are big food communities all across the country where we’re celebrating the chef and the farmer—they’re like the rock stars.The slow food movement began in Italy, I think, in the 80s, and migrated to the U.S., bu

“Yes—right here on the vent cap today,” came the affirmative reply to my “Any drumming there yet?” My friend Ellen Blackstone of the BirdNote public-radio program, enjoyed her first performance in Seattle February 11, 2015, only five days after mine. (Update: In 2016, my first performance came on February 7. In 2017, one pileated began, near the southwest edge of the garden, on Jan. 2. In 2018, one pileated in the woods to the east of the garden has been drumming nearly daily since New Year’s.) Gutters, siding, and even the occasional satellite dish: all fair game for sounding the tattoos, all good amplifiers.As with every conversation with Ellen—the tour guide for our ongoing series of bird stories (browse all past installments)—a simple question yielded multiple lessons: what’s all the noise is about; who drums (just males, or females, too?), and how to tell the genders of species in the woodpecker family, the Picidae, apart.

Lacto-fermented pickles, hot sauce, kimchi, preserved lemons all command a high price at the fanciest markets, as well as at farmstands.And of course lacto-fermentation is what turns milk into yogurt, and what turns the familiar, lowly cabbage into sauerkraut (which we’ll learn a bit more about in a moment).I got a lacto-fermentation 101 from Seattle-based

Dianna Gibson of B&D Lilies, in Port Townsend, Washington, took the time away from tree-felling and bulb-harvesting and all the rest of her giant to-do list on the farm to answer my questions this week. Dianna, a longtime source for American-grown lily bulbs and keen gardener herself, has a large selection of martagons, among other goodies.The so-called martagons—which can loosely refer to the actual species Lilium martagon, or to hybrids of martagon and other species including L. hansonii—bloom just before and with the Asiatic lilies, says Dianna. She calls them, “classic choices for old-style gardens.” The species originated in Europe, and is hardy down to Zone 3, but on the other end of hardiness, “they need some winter chill,” says Dianna, “so Zone 9 works in gardens if they are on the ‘cold side’ of the house and in shade, but not on a south-facing, white house, with a sidewalk.” Zone 8 is safer, and again: don’t bake the

Yes, plants die, even in the care of experienced gardeners (and others just need to be gotten rid of). Plants we’ve known, but no longer grow for one reason or the other, is the subject today of a conversation with my friend, Ken Druse.Ken needs no introduction except to say he’s the author and photographer of 20 garden books, including most recently “The Scentual Garden,” about S-C-E-N-T. He joined me via Skype to talk about all the plants we’ve loved before (including Phlomis russeliana, above; photo from Wikipedia). Plus: Tell us in comments at the bo

The back story: In my increasingly obsessed pursuit of moths the last couple of summers, I’ve gone out into the darkness more than I used to, camera and flashlight in hand. In another podcast and blog post, I’ll tell you about some of the 180 moth species I’ve photographed and ID’d so far–yes, 180, and counting, fueled simply by curiosity–but this story is about another group of creatures I’ve encountered on my after-dark adventures and likewise become fascinated with: spiders. The spider in the photo above, a female Larinioides sericatus, spent the summer making a web above my back door, and was just one who caught my eye in the darkness.The more spider species I saw those evenings (some of which like the one above, a male Agelenopsis, were also looking for moths), the more I started reading, looking to answer my growing list of questions. Pretty quickly I came upon a series of articles debunking common myt

Kelly Dodson, who’s here with me today, and Sue Milliken (that’s them in the photo below) are the proprietors of Far Reaches Farm in Port Townsend, Washington, and also of the nonprofit Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy, that seeks to acquire and conserve horticulturally and botanically important rare plants, many of them from Asia. (Above, Polygonatum huanum, synonym kingianum, a Solomon’s seal from China, which can reach more than 10 feet high.)Read along as you listen to the February 22, 2021 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).unusual perennials, with kelly dodsonMargaret Roach: I’m so glad to have you join me, Kelly, and to get acquainted. Welcome.

And last week I wrote a tomato growing story as part of a garden series I’ve been doing in “The New York Times,” and this week I wanted to continue that tomato theme and talk about them with Mr. Tomato himself, Craig LeHoullier, a.k.a. NC Tomato Man and author of the classic book, “Epic Tomatoes (affiliate link). Comment in the box at the bottom of the page to enter to win a copy.Craig has gardened and grown tomatoes in areas of the U.S. as different as New England and Seattle, Pennsylvania and Raleigh, North Carolina, and lately in the mountains of Western North Carolina, too. He’s one of the founders of the Dwarf Tomato Project that we’ve talked about on the show before, and generally just an all tomato all the time

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To celebrate Spring the team from Bale Breaker’s Yakima farm is bringing 6′ hop plants sell at our their Ballard Taproom. We’ll be here selling our new Freyr trellis, our friends at Beyond Peat Professional Organics will have some of their latest soil to sample, and Ecolibrium Farms will also be in house selling plant and flower starts for the spring season!

I love surprises, and that’s precisely what I got when I received an envelope from 10 speed press the other day containing of all things, a graphic novel about vegetable gardening written by my friend Joseph Tychonievich and illustrated by Liz Anne Kozik. But first, I should share some background here, about me. In my previous life, I was a creative director for Hasbro (you know, Transformers, My Little Pony, Marvel Comics, Star Wars, etc). Comic books were part of my everyday life, from Comicon to day-long meetings at Marvel Studios. Not that I am anything close to a comic book fan, but I can appreciate the medium and especially the higher-end category of graphic novels, like this.

When it comes to outdoor maintenance, consider the elements and the critters. To fully tackle all your yard, patio, and garden space, break it up into sections a make a to-do list.

We are excited to partner with our friends at Ecolibrium Farm to offer expertly tended, organic veggie & herb starts direct from their greenhouses, and our new Freyr trellises and accessories. Plant sales are first come, first serve, but we’ll have lots!