Margaret Roach’s Magical Garden
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Today, Margaret Roach’s all-new 21st anniversary edition of her first award-winning book, A Way to Garden, makes its way into the world.
It’s 300+ pages, nearly twice as thick as the original, packed with color photos, and totally revamped to reflect forty years of wisdom and insight, most importantly the changes in how Margaret gardens today. For gardeners of all kinds and at all skill levels, it’s a dream, a treasure trove of knowledge. Some highlights for me include:
- 18 Seed-Starting Tips
- 13 Things About Growing Tomatoes
- Organic Lawn Care
- A Must-Have Rose
- Not Your Average Morning Glories
- Growing Potatoes
- Making Compost
I could list so much more, not to mention the touching stories (like one about sisterhood, which made me cry).
Though my garden is wee, Margaret and her website are a constant source of inspiration and a resource I turn to again and again. She taught me how to freeze parsley (and other herbs) and the trick to growing cilantro — hint, as Margaret says: “sow, sow, sow again.” She also introduced me to Craig LeHoullier, his book, and Dester tomatoes, which my husband started from seed a few weeks ago in our basement. I cannot wait for summer.
I recently visited Margaret and her garden, and I’ve included a few snaps below. But before you get lost in the wonderland that is Margaret’s backyard…
A Few Things:
- Margaret is hosting a big giveaway featuring some of her favorite garden gear.
- May 11th: Visit Margaret’s Garden, Take a Class, Buy Plants, Listen to a Lecture, & More (Come! I’ll be there, too!)
- Read more about Margaret’s book here (or in The Washington Post!)
- UPDATE: GIVEAWAY is CLOSED. WINNER IS KATHRYN RICHTER.
To enter to win a copy of A Way to Garden, leave a comment below. Tell me your favorite vegetable and your favorite way to cook or eat it. Good luck! - ALSO: Instagram Friends: There is giveaway over there, too: a signed copy of A Way to Garden
Some snaps from Margaret’s garden: A sea of hellebores.
Backyard pond, where Margaret’s friends are known to take baths, and …
… where Margaret finds salamander egg beds while skimming leaves.
Margaret’s 125-year old apple tree.
Voodoo lilie bulbs.
Margaret and her book! Get yours: A Way to Garden
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
197 Comments on “Margaret Roach’s Magical Garden”
Is it just too boring if I say that my favorite vegetable is a tomato and the best way to eat it is sliced still warm from the sun on toasted sour dough with bacon, lettuce and mayo. A sandwich so good someone ought to give it a name. 😉 I know it’s not original, but if we are talking the pinnacle of vegetable eating, that has to be it.
Fennel. Raw, on a mandolin in a citrus salad or roasted w tomatoes. Never gets old for me.
Purple Viking potatoes. They have dense white flesh under beautiful eggplant-colored skin. They elevate any dish that calls for potatoes into something spectacular, and by themselves, baked or roasted or mashed, are rich and intense. They’re not always available at the farmer”s market so I grow them in my garden.
Tomato, hands down. And while I’m now imagining the perfect BLT, my go-to is the slow-roasted tomato and basil sauce that I stockpile for the freezer every year.
This is HEAVEN.
Fennel. Raw, on a mandolin in a citrus salad or roasted w tomatoes. Never gets old for me. (Sorry double post, don’t want to be excluded from the drawing as I replied to another comment!)
Sweet potatoes, all day. Roasted with a light oil, salt and cinnamon. Sometimes with turmeric and pepper, too. Caramelized, chewy, perfect sweet cubes… I always give them to my mom when she helps with the kids!
We have a backyard for the first time and just built some raised beds. Can’t wait to plant in them! My favorite vegetable is broccoli, preferably roasted. Not glamorous but I never get tired of it.
I just have to comment—first, I’m a huge fan and your peasant bread recipe is literally life changing, I make it so much that we barely buy bread any more. Thank you so much!
Second, I will third (fourth?) the comments about tomatoes even though I think technically they are a fruit? 🙂 We grow so many tomatoes in our garden. I always say there’s no such thing as too many and then there’s always a point in September where it’s 1am and I am deliriously tired trying to process a batch of salsa before going to sleep that I almost—but only almost—say we may have planted too many tomatoes. My husband just rolls his eyes. I love making salsa but my favorite is slow-cooker tomato sauce. It’s maybe the laziest recipe ever with the best results. Every other day or so during peak tomato season I gather five pounds or so and heat up some olive oil, kind of a lot, maybe 1/4-1/2 cup. Then I throw in the tomatoes, salt, and a few whole peeled cloves of garlic and put the lid on and turn it to low. I let it stay in there usually for a day or longer, stirring as necessary, until it becomes the best, darkest sauce. I blitz it with the immersion blender, let it cool and then freeze it for pizza, enchiladas, pasta, really anything that calls for tomatoes.
Okay, Ingrid, you got me! I’d like to try your tomato sauce in my new Insta-Pot. Do you peel the tomatoes? Or does the skin nicely dissolve with the immersion blending?
Thank you for this reminder of my Mom’s lovely sauce (and all those tomatoes!)
Hi Cat! I don’t peel them. After I blend them with the immersion blender the peels become little tiny bits that don’t bother me at all, but not much about a tomato would bother me. 🙂
New red potatoes….Freshly dug, boiled with skins, then eaten hot with butter and loads of fresh chives,dill and parsley.
I love to grow squash. It grows like a weed and gives me confidence when other plants don’t work out. It’s tasty, nutritious, and bountiful!
Strictly speaking it’s not a vegetable but my favorite thing we grew last year was basil. I loved running my hands through the leaves and the fragrance it released. And of course its best use (in my opinion) is basil!
We didn’t have much luck with fruits and veg last year due to a severe lack of pollinators. We are interplanting flowers this year to hopefully boost our harvest!
Asparagus, roasted, then drizzled in hollandaise any day of the week!
Hard to pick a favorite but probably tomatoes…we love to oven roast them and use them in recipes.
I love all greens but especially arugula for its distinctive peppery flavor. And it’s so easy to grow by seed. I make a deconstructed breakfast sandwich on a bed of arugula that is so amazing: a fried egg, bacon, avocado, cherry tomatoes and siracha mayo. 😋
Bok Choy is my favorite vegetable- blanched and then sautéed with ginger, garlic and a little soy sauce.
Tomato and basil — varieties of each! On your bread with olive oil and fantastic cheese. Add some fresh oregano too!
I’m all about carrots. It sounds so plain but homegrown carrots are just so delicious. If I’m not eating them raw I like to give them a nice roast in the oven tossed with a little oil and salt.
My favorite vegetable is asparagus and I like to put parmesan cheese on it and then roast it in the oven
My favorite is carrots. I like to roast them, covered in oil and herbs. This is the first year that I have a garden, and I’m trying to grow them!
Cucumbers! I love my husband’s cucumber salad with Feta. Or I’ll take them plain or dressed simply with salt, pepper and oil.
I garden in the high country of Colorado. I love all the vegetables I plant that will grow up here at altitude, especially the lettuce blends. It’s pure pleasure to pick the ingredients for my salads all summer long.
My favorite vegetable is carrots. I love making a spicy carrot soup – the sweetness of the carrots combined with Moroccan spices is delicious. Truth be told, I love vegetables!
I love carrots – in a spicy soup, but truth be told, I love all vegetables!
Cucumbers! So simple but fresh from the garden with a sprinkle of salt – yum!
How cool is it that two of the best people are friends and we get to support and enjoy both of them! Very. Congratulations, Margaret. You both rock.
Sweet potato! My thumb is a greenish brown and sweet potatoes are yummy AND easy to grow here in Texas!
Brussels Sprouts which I’ve come to appreciate in my wisdom years! Halved, if large, steamed or roasted. So versatile and delicious.
Spinach, raw and cooked.
Asparagus lightly sautéed then sprinkled with lemon and soy sauce.
I am only growing tomatoes, lunchbox peppers, and yellow squash this year, plus 2 dozen dahlias! I love eating raw cherry tomatoes immediately after picking them, after a quick rinse. I saute the sliced yellow squash with garlic, salt & pepper & add tomatoes to that, too.
Its hard to pick a favourite but I would say either Tomato or Beets. I grow 4 to 5 different varieties of tomatoes each year, some for eating from the vine and some for canning later in the season. Nothing tastes better than fresh sun warmed tomatoes. Beets are so sweet and flavourful, love them roasted, grated into salads, pickled. Actually all vegetables are my favourite 🙂
I love fresh picked, super ripe tomatoes with some fresh basil, chopped, on hot spaghetti.