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”
I love growing cucumbers! I make my grandmothers Hungarian Cucumber Salad with a garlicky sour cream sauce all summer…yum!
My favorite vegetable is kohlrabi, followed by cucumbers and tomatoes. I steam kohlrabi and cream it with butter and cream. Tomatoes and cucumbers are eaten plain with salt or oil and vinegar
I love springtime asparagus, the small baby stems, so tender and delicious. I simply stirfry them with a bit of olive oil and garlic. Nirvana!
My favorite vegetables are peas in the pod in the spring. I like to buy a sack of them, wash them and then shell them, eating the peas fresh as I shell each pod. No cooking involved.
I love growing mint and drinking mint tea. When my dog runs through the mint patch, I smell mint! MMMM! Hot mint tea is incredible too! Settles the stomach nicely.
My favorite salad is a caprese so tomatoes and basil are my absolute favorites.
First of all, I have to comment on Margaret Roach: I have been a huge fan since the years she wrote at Newsday. She’s a national treasure. And now: my favorite vegetable is asparagus, and each year I find a new way to serve it. The memory that shadows all others is from a dinner I made at a house stay in the Dordogne area of France about 8 years ago. Lightly sauteed young asparagus from the Saturday farmers market, served on slices of toasted baguette, crowned with a poached egg, and doused with a handful of grated cheese. Pure heaven.
I love Brussels sprouts, steamed and then pan fried with garlic, vinegar, and parmesan cheese.
I grew up hating beets, as they were canned in the cafeteria. When I moved to Oregon II had my first raw beet in a salad. YUM. My favorite way to eat them (along with most veggies) is roasted with a little olive oil and garlic salt, pepper and cumin. I miss my garden!
Chives, chopped up and made into dumplings. Add a couple of dipping sauces such as soy sauce or some spicy mustard and I’m good to go.
Recently I made a pickled kohlrabi slaw with caraway seeds that was magical.
I love green beans—and they never usually even make it in the house—I snack on them as I pick them!
Beautiful photos, thanks for sharing and assisting with my garden vision!
So tough to choose a favorite veggie…..I love so many, but I’ll go with cauliflower! It’s like candy to me! Great raw in salads, roasted, sautéed or mashed! Yummo!
Right now my favorite vegetable is carrots- roasted and tossed with lemon juice, olive oil, feta and dill. But it is always subject to change!
Always looking for ideas to make a more beautiful garden! Thanks!!
What a lovely friend you have in Margaret! Thank you, Ali and Margaret for the giveaway. Tomatoes, only tomatoes. We just planted about 30 plants in our garden this past weekend. There are so many ways to eat them and we will eat them any which way. In the heat of the summer I will can, and in the bareness of winter I will open a jar and summer’s sunshine comes out. I am not familiar with Dester tomatoes, but will check them out. Hope all is well with you and yours!
This is a tough choice so I’m going with my two favorites. Bright red cherry tomatoes that practically fall off the vine into your hand and popped straight into your mouth. Or a carrot pulled right out of the ground, dusted off, and bit into right away, still slightly cool from the earth. YUM!
Asparagus. Ends trimmed, drizzled with olive oil, roasted on a sheet pan at 400 degrees for 8 minutes. Topped with kosher salt flakes and sometimes a squeeze of lemon. Spring on a plate!
What an inspiring book! Makes me want to pick up my spade and get to work. By far my favorite additions to my garden have been my Espalier fruit trees. Particularly my pear. Nothing brings me more joy than seeing them mature with every passing season.
Carrots have always been my favorite veggie. Sweet and earthy; a grown ups candy. Roasted with salt and pepper or steamed & topped with butter.
Beets!! Made in the instapot…with feta, argula, lemon, oil, salt. So yummy! Pictures are beautiful!
Ohhhh… I love fresh fava beans. I just mash them with fresh peas, mint, an old pecorino and some olive oil. Then they go on toast with some fresh mozzarella and more olive oil. YUM!
My favorite vegetable is beets. Love them in salads, with baguettes and ricotta cheese, tossed in pasta.
My daughter just started gardening after graduating from college, she’s part of a community garden this year. I can’t wait for her to gather her first vegetables, flowers or herbs. She’s so excited and would love this ever-so-helpful book!
My favorite vegetable is the common tomato. All varieties are delicious fresh picked from the vine or used for sauces, salads, stuffed, fried…oh that’s how my Mother made them & my favorite; they also add wonderful flavor and color to soups.
I can’t think of a veggie I won’t eat love to oven roast or on the grill in a foil packet then a handful of fresh herbs
I love tomatoes and grow them every summer. The first one off the vine has to be a tomato sandwich with mayo and salt!
My favorite year-round vegetable is organic grape tomatoes, roasted with some olive oil and garlic cloves. So versatile, added to pasta (wiith pesto!), pizza, topping bruschetta…add freshly grated Parm or Asiago — always delicious! (It’s the only vegetable that I manage to harvest before the local wildlife devours them. Hopefully, Margaret’s book can help me solve that issue.) Thanks for the chance to win!
I am a potato girl. Baked, roasted, fried, mashed – I’ll take it! Last summer I would roast potatoes and make a slightly spicy fresh tomato sauce on the stove. Served together with feta and it is just perfect.
I love Margaret’s forest of lenten roses!!! Her garden looks incredible.
Always loved frozen peas, but not fresh peas, try as I might. Then last week I bought a bag of fresh peas at the farmers’ market and tried roasting them. A little olive oil, some salt, and a splash of vinegar at the end. Delicious!