We all want eye-catching plants—but we also want (and need) plants with a purpose.Ken and I invite you to a free webinar showcasing the real standouts they recommend that combine both form and function in sometimes unexpected ways.To just
21.07.2023 - 22:28 / awaytogarden.com / Ken Druse
‘THE GARDEN of the future will be a shade garden,” proclaims author and photographer Ken Druse in his latest book, “The New Shade Garden.” And that’s not just because there are now so many plants to choose from that grow in a lower-light environment.The selection is unlike in the early 1990s, when Ken published his first big shade-garden book and most people knew maybe two, hostas and astibles. Then, gardeners cursed shady areas of their yards as a liability to be eliminated instead of a refuge to be celebrated and expanded upon.
Ken has been called the “guru of natural gardening” by “The New York Times,” but I just call him my old friend and the longtime master of the shade, and I’m was glad to welcome him back to my public-radio program to talk about making gardens in the shade, 21st-century style. Read along as you listen to the May 25, 2015 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).
read/listen: shade gardening,a q&a with ken druseQ. Let’s go sit in the shade, Ken—even though it’s only springtime. We’ve had a spring where on some hot days, it has only been nice in the shade.
A. I’ve just heard that spring now starts 14 days earlier than it did 20 years ago.
Q. Scientists who are studying things like spring peepers are finding that they can begin peeping weeks earlier some years. Crazy, and not in a good way.
The subheading of the “The New Shade Garden” is “Creating a Lush Oasis in the Age of Climate Change.” So let’s start there. What makes shade so attractive now, Ken?
A. I just don’t like being hot in the garden. You’re thin and trim, but I’m overweight—perspiration and all that. I like
We all want eye-catching plants—but we also want (and need) plants with a purpose.Ken and I invite you to a free webinar showcasing the real standouts they recommend that combine both form and function in sometimes unexpected ways.To just
Like a carefully crafted sentence, the garden needs proper punctuation to read well, and clearly convey what’s going on. On the November 28, 2016 edition of my public-radio show and podcast, Ken and I discussed design challenges that these tall and narrow things answer; the technical difference between the columnar and fastigiate plants; and some of his favorites.Read along as you listen to the Nov. 28, 2016 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).columnar tree and shrub q&a with ken druseQ. You got me thinking on our phone call the other morning—we were talking about earthworms and all these other crazy things…A. [Laughter.]Q. …and then you started talking abo
Your Urgent Garden Questions have been arriving in blog comments, on Facebook, and in emails, and we’ve rounded up the most representative ones to tackle today, in the monthly Q&A episode of the program. (All past editions of our Q&As together are at this link.)Ken, an award-winning garden photographer and author of more books than I can count, including “The New Shade Garden” and “Making More Plants,” produced his own “Real Dirt” podcast for 10 years, all available on KenDruse dot com (and on iTunes, too).Let’s dig right in:Read along as you listen to the April 24, 2107 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).Oh, an
And like the Postal Service, we did so despite the weather, each of us snowed in at our respective homes, unable to reach the radio studio (where it was also likewise a whiteout) therefore recording via a less-than-ideal remote hookup. Forgive the audio hiccups; a consequence of our weather workaround.This episode is the second of Ken Druse’s and my promised monthly reader Q&A series. Submit a question for a future show on Facebook, in the comments on this post, or in the contact form here, too.I could best describe Ken as my kooky old friend from whom I have learned much about plants over the years…but here’s the formal version: Ken, an award-winning garden photographer and author of more books
And extra good news: For those subscribing or listening to the podcast version instead of ion live radio, each month’s Q&A show will be longer than a normal broadcast—like a doubleheader with bonus minutes, so we can get to even more of your questions if you subscribe free on Stitcher or iTunes. Part 2 of the first call-in program—where we talked more about peas, and took questions on gardening under black walnuts, growing strawberries in pots, and badly pruned hydrangeas, is at this link.Ken, an award-winning garden photographer and author of more books than I can count, including “The New Shade Garden” and “Making More Plants,” produced his own “Real Dirt” podcast for 10 years, until summer 2016. The Real Dirt podcast archive and much more from Ken is available on the newly re-launched website KenDruse dot com…and is still
I’ve asked garden writer, photographer and longtime friend Ken Druse of KenDruse dot com to help me answer all your Urgent Garden Questions about overwintering tactics, which is the topic of this month’s Q&A on my public-radio show and podcast. In a regular segment plus an overtime bonus 15 minutes, we covered lots of plants, from figs and rosemary to cannas and callas and dahlias and elephant ears, to potted trees (including citrus) and shrubs and more. After each brief discussion of a plant, I’ve also included a link to more comprehensive how-to about caring for it in the offseason.Read along as you listen to the Oct. 2, 2017 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).overwintering tender plants: basic strategies(and fungus gnats)Q. You
Because you keep asking your questions in comments here on the website, in emails, on Facebook, and now at @awaytogarden, on Instagram, too, my friend and fellow garden writer Ken Druse keeps coming back to help me answer them.Read along as you listen to the May 20, 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).the may urgent garden questions
Read along as you listen to the August 19, 2019 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).And for those of you listening from near the Capital Region of New York State, Ken will join me at the New York State Writers Institute’s second annual Book Festival on Saturday, September 14th, 2019, and we’re going to have information about how you can join this wonderful, big, free day-long book festival and meet us.the latest q&a with ken druseMargaret Roach: New York State Writers Institute’s se
“Hey, let’s make it another edition of our Desert Island Plants series on the radio show and podcast,” we decided. And so favorite natives of spring are the topic this week.Talking about our most-loved spring native woodland perennials—from blue cohosh (just emerging one April, above) and merrybells, to various trilliums and Virginia bluebells and more—is a perfect fit for Ken Druse. His books “The Natural Shade Garden” in 1992 and “The New Shade
The first installment appeared April 20, 2020. On March 31, 2021, the paper ran a Q&A with me to kick off Year 2 of the series.The topics I’ve covered so far:Where to begin your spring cleanup in a chaotic season. Bed-prep using cardboard, newsprint and sometimes plastic sheeting. Shopping in your own garden for “free” plants. How to make a late-start flower garden of “annuals,” including many to direct-sow. Pruning Q&A with Jeff Jabco of Swarthmore’s Sco
My regular alter ego, Ken Druse, needs no introduction, but he is of course the author of not a small number of gardening books himself, 20 at last count, including some I know changed the way I look at plants. He’s back today to take a stroll through our mutual garden bookshelves.Plus: We’ll have a giveaway of a couple of favorites; enter to win in the comments box at the bottom of the page. Note that we checked that all of these books are available–often used–with a little Google searching for those that are out of print. With the ones I’ve given Amazon links for, there are used copies in all prices and conditions available, so dig deep. Read alon
Longtime friend and fellow garden writer Ken was just back from a garden-filled lecture trip across the nation, with stops at Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and in Northern California when we spoke. That’s an exceptional private garden in Piedmont, above, that he visited.Read along as you listen to the July 15, 2019 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).q&a with ken druse: ken’s recent garden travelsMargaret Roach: Hi, Ken.