Margaret Roach

The Met Cloisters isn’t just about medieval art. There’s also a garden that’s like a living history book — with ideas for today’s gardeners.Carly Still had been working as a gardener in the Hudson Valley when she decided to move to the city 13 years ago. She happened onto a part-time position at the Met

Setting a clear intention can improve your design decisions and plant choices — especially if you’re “a nursery grabber” who makes impulse buys at the garden center.Nicole Juday, Rob Cardillo and I were most of the way through taping an episode of my podcast when the conversation veered toward a group confessional.We had been talking

In her most recent book, “The Backyard Bird Chronicles,” the best-selling author revels in a newfound preoccupation with birds — and drawing.To them, she isn’t a best-selling novelist, but simply “the flightless creature” — and, most important, a reliable source of food.They would not know her at all, nor she them, if not for the

This botanic garden is determined to bring back the American chestnut tree and heirloom apples that taste like those grown 500 years ago. It won’t be easy.“Explore what’s in bloom now,” exclaims a banner on the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill’s website. And, indeed, there is much to see.The dramatic property in Boylston,

The world-famous New York City gardens offer a master class in how to grow and maintain a naturalistic landscape. Here are a few takeaways.Be careful: The garden wants to have its own way, to blur the lines and refocus those pictures you planned so carefully and then planted.Anyone who has ever tried to create a

Their passion for fruit you’ve never heard of started small. Now they have a botanical garden that’s open to the public.This is what happens if you stay put, and keep digging holes: An effort that begins innocently enough — planting a garden at home — may grow on you. And it could morph into an

This year, more than 360 private gardens across the country are opening to visitors. Don’t miss your chance to learn from some of the best.I was at my station, a folding table dressed up with a burlap cloth, checking in visitors at a Garden Conservancy Open Days event maybe 10 years ago and answering questions

The author of “The Heirloom Gardener” offers tips for growing a garden of lush perennials you can put in a soup or add to a salad.Many weeks before tomato seedlings can be safely transplanted outside — or almost any freshly seed-sown vegetables dare break the surface of the slowly warming soil — harvest is underway

How well do you know your own backyard? Noah Charney thinks you should take another look.When Noah Charney and his wife were house-shopping near Philadelphia, one real estate agent after another claimed to have the ideal home for them, and couldn’t wait to offer a virtual tour of its features: the renovated kitchen, the ample

Pollinators recognize a good thing when they see it — and so do gardeners in search of organic pest control. As one put it, “My prairie is my pesticide.”The first time I met Neil Diboll, he set his front yard on fire. On purpose.It was part of a lesson that Mr. Diboll, a prairie ecologist