Ken Druse

We even had a question about something you may have seen and wondered about, as one reader did: photos (perhaps from English garden books or magazines) of terra cotta pots placed upside-down on the tops of garden stakes. But why? (Our listeners helped answer his one.)Ken, whose 20th book called “The Scentual Garden” is due out October 15th, 2019, is a longtime garden writer and photographer and friend. That’s Ken’s photo of osage orange fruit, above.Read along as you listen to the September 30

Ken Druse, friend of many years, and author and photographer of 20 garden books, including “The New Shade Garden” and “Making More Plants,” and most recently, “The Scentual Garden” about fragrance, is back to talk about what’s getting our gardens through the midseason slump: leaves, whether big and bold or fine-textured, and in a range of colors, too. (That’s Ken’s Syneilesis, above.)Read along as you listen to the July 20, 2020 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).Plus:

But planning for these and other key activities that form the lead-up to another active garden season are what the January chores are all about. Planning—and some dreaming, too, in the pages of the catalogs, but seasoned with lots of patience.It’s always good to pause on the cusp of the new year, and try to put some words to what will be the focus, or adjustments, in the garden ahead.“Dig in.” That was the promise I made to myself one recent New Year, and my garden mandate, too. I’d sworn to finally tackle the long-neglected, oldest parts of the garden, right in front of the house. But the forces of nature

Last time Ken Druse, author of “The New Shade Garden” and 19 other books, was here with us, we promised to talk when he visited again about my groundcover eradication program, targeted at one rampant perennial and what might go there instead.And that’s our topic today: groundcovers, out with the old, in with the new. Ken got me to detail what I am up to, and what I think are the next steps in turning large areas of too-aggressive mostly Asian plants into more desirable (and hopefully better-behaved) nat

I’VE BEEN SCOUTING around in my garden for orphaned plants, ones that used to be in visually pleasing clumps or masses, but because of expanding shade or a naughty vole or who knows what, aren’t looking as good as they used to. Over in New Jersey, Ken Druse has been digging and dividing some perennials, too, but for different reasons.

But then I thought a moment longer and looked around and realized there were mint family relatives all over the garden, even unintentionally among the lawn weeds. So the many faces of mints is our topic today. Including some real surprises, like that the shrub called beautyberry or Callicarpa is a mint (those are the flowers, above, of the native species; photo by Bob Peterson via Wikimedia Commons).As many as we managed to remember in our chat, we forgot loads, like Caryopteris, and mountain mint, or Pycnanthemum. So many mints, so little time!You all know Ken Druse, a regular visitor to the show and author of 20 garden books and

“Monocots,” he said.To which I said, “What?”“I want to talk about monocotyledons,” he said, using the unabbreviated name of one of the two gro

“What holds the garden together in such a moment?” he asked as we chatted, and as he looked out the window at the scene above.Texture, primarily we agreed. And at Ken’s, especially some refreshing splashes of variegation and definitely the freshness of some white flowers. Using all of those effectively is our topic today, along with some favorite plants (like his Hiba arborvitae or Thujopsis dolobrata, below, a conifer with great texture a

On our lists, still: collecting some seeds of natives to sow later and cleaning and preparing tools for storage; lifting tender bulbs and tubers to stash; where to overwinter the nursery pots of things we bought that never found their permanent home in the ground (oops).Ken Druse, author of 20 garden books and an old friend, is back today to help with the countdown, and especially to remind himself and me and all of us not to get lulled into procrastination, even if it has been in the 60s some days here the last we

That’s why Ken Druse and I are offering a free Urgent Garden Question Open House webinar on August 11, 2022 on Zoom, at 6-7:15 PM Eastern time (register at this link). The details:First, a presentation: Join us for a lively slideshow from our gardens—some highlights, some of what we’ve learned along the way, and also some of what’s been bugging us. (Yes, we have Urgent Garden Questions of our own that always need answering, too!)

You all know my old friend, Ken Druse, author of 20 garden books. So rather than repeat the rest of his bio, I’ll share some news: Ken’s being honored the evening of June 17th, 2021 by Rutgers Gardens, the botanical garden of Rutgers University in New Jersey.Of course I would not miss that virtual event (ticket information is here). The celebratory evening includes a video tour of his garden at peak bloom, and also a live Q&A session.Read along as you listen to the June 14, 2021 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe

You all know Ken, author of 20 garden books, keen propagator, and plant collector. And for much of the last year, he’s also been my colleague in our online Virtual Garden Club, the latest semester of which just ended (a new one will begin this fall; more on that later this summer). So I’ve been getting to talk to him all the time, but you haven’t heard from him in a bit, which is something we’ll correct in this conversation.One surprise, above: creeping Charlie (Glechoma hederacea) with leaves as big as a geranium’s.Plus: Enter to win a copy of my book “A Way to Garden,” by commenting in the box near the bottom of the page.Read along as you listen to the June 20, 2022 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using t

Discovering treasure (like that fernleaf full-moon maple seedling at Ken’s, above) while we ferret out the trash—the treasure being the self-sowns and other desirable volunteers the garden wants to give us—is our topic today.My “guest,” Ken Druse, is not a guest, exactly, but a regular on the show, a longtime friend and the author of an astonishing 20 gorgeous books about gardening [affiliate link]. I’m so glad he’s here at this moment—when I am frankly having a bad case of garden overwhelm—to just commiserate and talk about what he’s finding out t

You all know Ken Druse, author and photographer of 20 garden books and a daring gardener and plant propagator. He spoke to me from his garden among the trees in New Jersey to talk about oh-so-carefully tucking small things in among tree roots, about creating a bit more light with artful pruning, some favorite plants and more.Plus: Enter to win a copy of his 2015 book “The New Shade Garden” (affiliate link) by commenting in the box near the bottom of the page.Read along as you listen to the January 17, 2022 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).shade-garden tips with ken druse

Ken, who gardens in New Jersey, is the author and photographer behind 20 garden books, and a longtime friend who grows lots of plants that definitely surprise me. We discussed plants that in one way or another weren’t quite what we expected, as in: surprise!Read along as you listen to the Oct. 17, 2022 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).surprising plants, with ken druseMargaret Roach: Hello, Ken. How are you?Ken Druse: Hi Margaret. Well, I’m waking up.

Ken is a familiar voice here at A Way to Garden, one of my longest gardening friendships and the author of 20 garden books, including “The New Shade Garden: Creating A Lush Oasis In The Age Of Climate Change” (affiliate link). He gardens in New Jersey, mostly in the shade, which is our subject today.Plus: Enter to win a copy of Ken’s shade book by commenting in the box near the bottom of the page.Read along as you listen to the Aug. 1, 2022 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTune

It’s your chance to sample a mini-version of one of our Virtual Garden Club classes—the subscription online garden school we launched in 2021.First up will be a short course by Ken on how to start seed this winter of perennials (including many native plants), plus hardy annuals and biennials–and even start your own cool-season vegetable-garden transplants. No lights required! We’ll have time for your live winter-sowing questions afterward.Ken is the author of “Making More Plants,” and a pa

Ken Druse encourages us to extend our season of scentual gardening. That’s S-C-E-N-T—scentual, as in fragrance, and as in the title of his book, “The Scentual Garden.” He urges us to include extra-late and extra-early garden producers and especially some indoor stars for a full year of fragrance.Longtime friend Ken Druse, who gardens in New Jersey, is the author of 20 garden books, about the many fragrances the plant world can offer, which is our topic today. (Above, one of Ken’s

There are losses every year, no matter how expert you are, but some of them really stand out in memory, indelible.Plants we have loved and lost, but never forgotten (like my Aesculus pavia or red buckeye, above): That’s our topic this time, with my friend, Ken Druse. You all know Ken, who gardens in New Jersey and is the autho

As I was ranting, my text buzzed to alert me there was a message, and there was a photo from Ken of a flat of his just-emerged primula seedlings—hundreds of them, that he’d successfully winter-sown outdoors. All for the price of a couple of seed packets. I asked him how he did it, and about other things you can sow that way.Ken, who gardens in New Jersey (those are some of his Primula japonica in his canal garden, above), is the author of 20 garden books and also my co-host of the Virtual Garden Club that we put on a few times each year. He’s a master propagator who loves to crack the code of how to make more plants of any kind. He shared the how-to’s of his success with primula seed

SPRING IS ALMOST HERE, even up north where I garden, and with it the combination of exhilaration and overwhelm that the combined gorgeous botanical unfolding and the extra-long to-do list bring. In the next semester of the Virtual Garden Club, an online series I co-host with Ken Druse, we’ll tackle the season’s most pressing subjects and help you stay ahead of the curve.

But there’s always more to do in other parts of the garden, too.On the list are some strategic summer pruning tasks, and a likewise strategic plan for deadheading or otherwise reducing self-sowers (like celandine poppy, Stylophorum diphyllum, above) so there’s not too much of a good thing, for instance. Plus there are perennials in need of haircuts.My friend Ken Druse, autho

Ken is author and photographer of 20 garden books, including one on plant propagation, and is a daring plant propagator himself. Together since 2021, we’ve co-hosted the Virtual Garden Club, a series of online classes about our favorite subject: plants. Ken gardens in New Jersey, mostly in the shade.Read along as you listen to the March 20, 2023 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).making more plants, with ken druseMargaret Roach: Hello Ken, over there in the shade