Berkshire Botanical Event: Gardening As Blood Sport
Don’t let the theme of the 39th-annual flower show fool you: The Nurturing Garden: Birds, Bees, Butterflies and Best Friends sounds gentle, but the competition promises to be fierce. Which brings to light a seldom mentioned fact: gardeners are as competitive as athletes. This weekend they get to go head-to-head in a wide range of horticultural and sartorial events. Even at Saturday evening’s fundraising gala, “La Fete des Fleurs,” attendees will be playing to win.
At the flower show there are seven classes in the Design Division (think: flower arranging), including the Men’s Challenge Class and three classes in the Youth Division, for ages 5-12. In addition, there are more than 50 classes for horticulture, including annuals and perennials, bulbs, roses, vegetables, herbs, potted plants and flowering shrubs. Members and non-members alike must submit their plants and arrangements prior to the show; (See details below.)
Saturday evening, at the family-friendly cocktail hour “La Fete de Fleur”, held this year at a spectacular private garden in Canaan, NY, the sport continues. Guests are encouraged to wear attire, especially hats, that reflect the nurturing-garden theme. There will be prizes for both children and adults.
Berkshire Botanical Gardens
Rtes. 102 & 183, Stockbridge; 413.298.3926
Saturday, 1-5; Sunday, 10-5
Deliver plants and arrangements to the Garden’s Exhibit Hall on Saturday morning between 8 and 10.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 07/29/08 at 09:50 AM • Permalink
Garden Tours This Weekend
Good Dogs Farm in Ashley Falls, MA
There are Garden Conservancy Open Days tours this Saturday in Dutchess County and on Sunday in northern Litchfield and southern Berkshire Counties. Maria Nation’s Good Dogs Farm in Ashley Falls has become a popular spot because it is a reflection of Maria’s exuberant personality and belief that anything is possible. It is the creation of a fearless and enthusiastic self-taught gardener and it is always evolving. One constant is her free-standing sleeping porch—you might classify as a folly (Maria calls it “the yurt") except for the fact that Maria actually uses it all summer long.
Dutchess County Open Day, July 26
Berkshire County Open Day, July 27
Litchfield County Open Day, July 27
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 07/25/08 at 06:53 AM • Permalink
Mr. Siskin Blogs His Dream House
Instructions to architect: cross an Orangerie (above), with a Fiat factory (below).
For anyone now in the process of building a house from the ground up, or anyone who dreams of one day building such a house, or even anyone who thinks that anyone who builds a house is insane, you’ll find justification for your position on Paul Siskin’s Blog on the website of Interior Design magazine.
Siskin, of Siskin Valls Interior Design in Manhattan, is building his first house, sited on a new road a little up the hill from Mount Merino Boulevard (that of the spectacular Hudson River views), in Greenport just south of Hudson. His blog is funny ("my contractor refers to the area as Brokeback Mountain"), informative (he shares with his readers the inspirational tearsheets he gave to his architect), and he even asks us to arbitrate differences between them ("My architect thinks that I absolutely must have a front door in the center bump-out [see plan, below left]. I think it’s okay to have just the two side doors [see model, below right]. Who’s right?")
His architect, Joan Chan, won that round. But a later debate, whether to have a large pivoting door so the bedroom and living room can flow together, or a more conventional separation of rooms, remains unresolved. The best part: witnessing someone who has dealt for decades with nervous, indecisive, unrealistic clients as they futilely attempt to blend their oily ambitions with their watery budgets; behave on the hot seat, every bit as badly as we would. In Banter, Siskin considers firing, first his architect, then his contractor, both of whom no doubt read the blog. His dark night of the soul is expressed both verbally and pictorially--Blandings dream house, Siskin’s nightmare; a 50s futuristic horror, uh-oh, probably seemed like a good idea at the time; what about his childhood fantasy of living in a tree-house? Turns out, to paraphrase the celebrity rags, design professionals are just like us.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 07/14/08 at 12:55 PM • Permalink
Gardening: The Triumph of Project Native
Project Native’s Raina Weber Outstanding in Her Field
At 19, she was a high school drop out with a good idea. At 27, Raina Weber is the founder and executive director of Project Native, a non-profit dedicated to the collection, propagation, and promotion of the flora that has grown in this region since before alien-seed-toting Europeans started gardening here in the 17th century. Today, Project Native, headquartered for the last 4 years on its own 54-acre farm in Housatonic, is a full-service plant nursery, complete with a design-and-landscaping team. It runs off-site educational programs--such as Project Sprout, in Great Barrington at Monument Mountain Regional High School and another in Pittsfield at Redfield House, a residence for young mothers 14 - 24 and their babies. Project Native is also the recent recipient of a $600,000 grant (spread over the next three years) earmarked for the restoration of a 30-acre flood-plain forest in Sheffield and a 7-acre bog buffer in Stockbridge.
In Raina Webers story there are several heroes: she, herself, of course, and also the community that rallied to help her get on her feet.
Eight years ago, while working for a landscaper, Weber presciently saw the need in this region for a native plant nursery. She appealed to the Railroad Street Youth Project, an organization that helps young people find funding, space, and assistance for their projects. “They sent me to a 12-week business course with Berkshire Enterprises,” Raina says, referring to a training program for county entrepreneurs, “who taught me how to write a business plan.” Then RSYP set her up with an advisory team of adult professionals. Later the Nature Conservancy signed on as a sponsor, lending credibility to the science Weber espoused. Thus fully armed for battle, she began collecting seed in the wild (never more than 10-15% of that in evidence) and propagating plants on a donated 1/8-acre plot at Root Orchard Farms in Housatonic. She sold the plants on Saturdays from a greenhouse she had built there. “That first year, we did 15 species in 2,000 pots and sold out before the end of July,” she recalls. “This year, we’re doing 160 species in 20,000 pots.”
Why native plants? Lots of reasons, perhaps the least of which is that, unlike a lot of stuff you see in gardens around here, they have a way of looking just right with each other and in this environment. An even better reason: they support native insects and wildlife. And the best reason by far: they don’t choke out their fellow flora. Yet for all their virtues, Raina says, “We’re not Native Nazis.” In a typical garden installation, they (she now has 7 employees in summer, 2 year ‘round, plus volunteers and interns) might use 75% natives, 25% non-invasive exotics, even though, she admits, many exotics make so little contribution to the eco-system, “they might as well be a piece of asphalt. But a backyard garden may need more color (say, spring bulbs) and texture than is possible using just natives.”
Naturally, she is extremely selective about which non-natives she uses. “What you have to watch out for is any exotic that is touted as extremely hardy and pest-resistant,” she says. “With those characteristics, it’s likely also to be invasive.” But at the garden center they sell only natives, plus 10 species that she calls “native neighbors,” plants from just outside the Berkshire, Taconic, Litchfield, and Columbia County area.
As a non-profit that survives partially off of contributions, as well as local, state and federal grants, Project Native is able to keep its prices competitive. Most of their perennials sell for $10 a pot, with a 10% discount to members (starting at $50 per year). They also sell compost and mulch formulated to their own exacting specifications.
As irony would have it, our roadsides and woods have been lost to the aliens; it’s only in our own backyards where we have control. And there, unless we are part of the solution, we may be part of the problem. It’s often the showy stuff we drool over at nurseries--with blooms the size of hubcaps--that migrate indiscriminately, choking out our natives. So if we don’t go native at home, it may all get lost.
Project Native
342 North Plain Road (Route 41), Housatonic; 413.274.3433
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 07/03/08 at 02:41 PM • Permalink
The Heart & Soul of Rhinebeck’s Paper Trail (Part 2: At Home)
The sentimental and private side of Paper Trail co-owner Maureen Missner is vividly on display at her 1830s house in Clinton Hollow, NY, which is filled with lake-house furniture from her childhood summers in Michigan and Wisconsin. Her dining table’s top came from a beloved butcher’s shop in Menominee, Michigan. She has kept the Honeymooners era porcelain kitchen sink and the vintage enamel Magic Chef stove, which came with the house and give the kitchen a homespun feel. “I will never get rid of that stove,” says Missner, whose eye for art and accessories gives the room a hip and happy feel.
Everything in the house holds special meaning—even the slipcovers made from fabric by Donghia, where she once worked. There are plates hanging on the walls by John Derian, whom her company, Loom, used to represent and pieces of folk art and pottery by friends like Barbara Eigen and Aletha Soule. The pillows on the sofa in the TV room were made by Judy Ross whom she used to represent and the button pillows on the living room sofa were made by another friend Tom Malatesta. When Missner says she plans to never leave Clinton Hollow, she really means it. “Some of my neighbors are discussing starting a cemetery association,” she says, “so that we’ll all be together here forever.”
Missner vows to never replace the vintage Magic Chef stove that came with the house and has a prime view of the screened porch.
The kitchen table top came from an old butcher’s shop in Menominee, Michigan, where Missner spent summers as a child.
Colorful accessories keep the humble porcelain sink and kitchen cabinets from seeming dreary.
The pillows on the sofa—slipcoverd in fabric from Donghia where she once worked—were made by either friends or clients.
The retailer’s eye is evident in how Missner displays collections in her living room.
On the desk in her bedroom, photos of friends and family are kept in folk-art and hand-crafted frames.
Missner calls this “the money shot,” which she expects a real estate agent would use to advertise the house in the unlikely event that she decided to sell.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 06/26/08 at 09:25 PM • Permalink
Nesting: The Second Home Takes Center Stage
Edith Wharton’s horses once lived here; now Annette & Michael Miller do
Many people profess that a second home changes their life, but actress Annette Miller can make the case more emphatically and convincingly than most. Nearly twenty years ago, she and husband, Michael, who were living in Newton, MA, started looking for a little weekend house in the Berkshires. The place they found was Edith Wharton’s one-time ice house and carriage house in Lenox, which had been combined into a funky four bedroom cottage with a spiral staircase in the living room that led to the master bedroom. The property came with an enormous barn where some neighbors still kept their horses, and it had views across the road to Laurel Lake, which had sealed the deal. “I wanted to be able to look out at water,” says Miller, who wasn’t sure she even wanted a second home. “I always thought one house was enough!”
The fact that the Millers’ property abutted The Mount, the Edith Wharton Estate that was then the home of Tina Packer’s Shakespeare & Company, was a mere coincidence. “I knew Tina, of course, but more of my friends—people like Annie Bancroft, Bill Gibson and A.R. Gurney—were involved with Berkshire Theatre Festival,” recalls Miller. But as she became more acquainted with Shakespeare & Company’s gutsy style of acting, Miller could envision herself as part of the troupe that was still putting on plays in The Mount’s stables, woods, and drawing rooms. “So in 1996, I signed up for the workshop that you have to take to become part of the company,” explains Miller, who is opening this week at Shakespeare & Company as the mother-in-law in The Ladies Man, a farce that’s been “freely translated and adapted” from Georges Feydeau’s Tailleur Pour Dames. “The company has a particular way of working and you have to speak the common language.” 
At Shakespeare & Company, Miller’s own voice has matured and it’s powerful enough to carry a show by itself. She has done three one-woman plays at Shakespeare & Company in the past seven seasons: She originated the title role of the first female prime minister of Israel in Golda’s Balcony; and she played the legendary fashion editor Diana Vreeland in Full Gallup (far right) and the Watergate whistle blower in Martha Mitchell Calling (above).
When Miller first started working with Shakespeare & Company, her husband started to pay attention to his wife’s work in a way he’d never done before. “Until then, our work lives were separate—he did his thing and I did mine,” she said. Mike Miller joined the Shakespeare & Company’s board in 1997, and soon became the chairman and helped mastermind its purchase of a 63-acre, 22-building campus on Kemble Street in Lenox in 2000.
Like her theatrical alter egos, Annette Miller is a passionate, larger than life character, and she and her husband have made their home a dramatic and gemütlichkeit stage for their private life. “By 2000, we had six grandchildren and we thought of expanding the house,” she recalls. “We had this barn so we called in several architects. I knew what I wanted. I wanted it modern. I wanted windows. I wanted to break the fourth wall, as we say in the theater.”
Architect Stephan Green understood Annette’s vision, and worked with a restoration expert, David Babcock, to preserve the barn, which required moving the foundation. (Coincidentally, Green has designed the new $7.5 million dollar production center and 199 seat theater that Shakespeare & Company is opening this summer.) They maintained the century-old barn’s integrity while upping the drama quotient with a sweeping metal staircase that goes to the rafters and putting the majestic old sliding barn doors inside to flank the gigantic windows that overlook the landscaped courtyard designed by Walt Cudnohufsky. Green managed to give Annette a sleek, fire-engine red open kitchen that is cleverly positioned in a corner so that it does not upstage the rest of the rustic structure. And he even kept some of the original horse stalls at one end of the building by the front door; you look in from a big plate glass window as if it were a diorama.
Annette is glad that she only has a five minute commute to get to work these days because acting in a farce with a younger cast is exhausting. “There are five doors and a window—it’s a challenge to remember which ones you go in and out of,” she says, laughing. But the rehearsal process is exhilarating too. “I am in awe of how we are given the spontaneity and freedom to explore and illuminate the script and the energy of my fellow actors.” She feels lucky that she’s been able to integrate her personal and professional lives in Lenox. “You buy a house in the backyard of a great theater company...” she says and pauses for a beat. “It’s just one of those serendipitous things in life.”
The original and quite elaborate barn doors were saved; they are now merely interior decoration.
Miller wanted a sleek, fire-engine red kitchen and Green acquiesced to his client’s wishes with cabinets by Valcucine.
Green designed a theatrical, sculptural staircase to link the barn’s three levels.
Miller has a wall of her theater memorabilia in the original living room, which was once Edith Wharton’s ice house.
Their involvement with Shakespeare & Company brought Annette and Michael Miller closer together.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 05/28/08 at 03:40 PM • Permalink
Playing by the Rules: The Faulkner 14
Many interior designers, when pressed for useful advice, will say, “It’s impossible to generalize--there are no hard and fast rules.” Not Frank Faulkner. An artist who also practices interior design (he says) by default or (we say) by popular demand, Faulkner speaks of his sideline in maxims, as though he were patiently relating for the umpteenth time the formula for a perfect vinaigrette. The other thing Frank Faulkner does all the time is buy and sell houses in Hudson, his first in 1982, well ahead of the pack, for $35,000. Presently living with his partner Philip Kesinger in his fourteenth, on 5th Street, he has recently purchased his fifteenth, on 4th. True to form, he claims he’s not sure he ever wants to leave his present address for the new one, which (as always, when he first buys them) is a wreck. But if past performance is any indication, the magical place you see here will be on the block before the paint on the new one is dry. So to preserve #14 for posterity, we asked Faulkner to reduce what he’s done there to a list of rules, one for each house in Hudson he’s loved and left--the Faulkner 14.
Rule 1
Make it a Pavilion; Add French Doors
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“This was the last cheap house in Hudson--an old carriage house with nasty metal awnings and an attached garage lined with baby blue vinyl. I thought I might use it as a painting studio. I didn’t have it inspected before I bought it, then afterward I discovered the sills were totally rotted--just another in my succession of Mr. Wrongs. Since I had to rebuild the whole thing, I thought why not make it a pavilion. In 18th-century France, court etiquette was so murderous that nobles had to have a place to get away. So they built modest (by palace standards) pavilions. These little pleasure palaces outside of Versailles are like lanterns--you can see through them from front to back--and their classical layout tells you how to move through them. Every house I do, I think of as a pavilion.”
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Rule 2
Bring in Light and Life
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“They are the two most important things a room can have. Sunshine, breezes, plants, books, of course, but also sparkle--mirrors, candles--lend vitality.”
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Rules 3 & 4
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Curtains Should Blend
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“Curtains should match the color of the wall as closely as possible. The cheaper the fabric, the better, so they can be very full. And they should always be unlined. I usually do them out of muslin with brass grommets at the top, so I can hang them from a simple rod with white plastic shower rings. I always tell myself the rings are ivory.”
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Treasure Threadbare Rugs
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“I am a member of a confederation called The Rotten Rug Society. Nothing is more hideous than a new Oriental rug or a brightly colored one.” The painting is Faulkner’s Cold Sun.
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Rules 5 & 6
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Upholstery Should be Anonymous
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“What’s interesting here is the Mark Beard painting and the board-room photographs, not the chairs. As a rule, upholstered furniture should be the least eye-catching thing in a room. And I nearly always slipcover it. I like slipcovers to be a little baggy--they should look as if the housekeeper ran them up in her spare time.”
Use Color Cautiously
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“I love color but I use it very respectfully. Generally, I employ a huge range of non-color colors that go from the whitest whites to the darkest darks and everything in between.”
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Rule 7
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Trust Symmetry
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“When you shop, look for pairs. If perfect symmetry isn’t possible, then aim for balance by using things of equal volume.”
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Rules 8 & 9
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Mix the Humble with the Refined
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“I like Mark Hampton’s maxim, ‘If it looks good, it is good.’ I’d just as soon take a piece of junk and tart it up as buy an expensive antique. I’ll often spend as much as $40 a weekend at Mark’s Antiques or at Dan the Man’s Flea Market [both on Warren Street, Hudson], and I’ll find things that give me more joy then an antique with the highest provenance. If I do have something good, I’ll put something humble next to it, to de-glaze the good thing--make it less pompous. This sepia print was in Hudson Antiques Center for at least two years. I finally bought it and hung it over this rather good Biedermeier chest of drawers. I can’t tell you the number of decorators who’ve since asked to buy it from me. Yet it sat there for two years, unloved and unwanted, for no money.”
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Distrust New Wood
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“I don’t like wood that isn’t old, dark or distressed--for anything; furniture, floors. I hate floors that get sanded, then covered with orange polyurethane. I paint floors unless they are very dark or very light, as in our kitchen, like scrubbed Swedish pine.”
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Rule 10
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Nothing is Sacred--Paint it, Strip it, Bleach it!
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“When I found this Gothic cupboard in a flea market, it had a starved dark brown varnish finish. I’ve painted it, over the years, white, gray-green, several shades of red (you’ll never see me use a clear, true red--I like orange-reds, corals) and, finally, as it is now, black-overlay with some red showing through. I sometimes buy good quality department store lamps in lacquered brass or bronze, then bring them home, prime them with Bin, and gesso them.” [Bin is a primer available at hardware stores; Gesso, the thick white material artist’s use to prime canvasses, is available at art supply stores.]
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Rule 11
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Play with Scale
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“The dealers I most respect--Vince Mulford in Hudson, Michael Trapp in West Cornwall--have an incredible understanding of scale. It’s an instinct: Nothing’s more fun than an overscaled piece of furniture when it’s right, yet I’ve bought huge sofas and had to get rid of them. Even if you’ve spent a lot of money for something, if it doesn’t work, throw it out. Otherwise, it holds the entire room hostage.”
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Rule 12
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Spend as Little as Possible on Kitchens and Bathrooms
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“Fancy kitchens depress me. I think kitchens and baths should be simple and utilitarian.”
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Rule 13
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If It’s Gloomy, Paint it Gray
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“When we finally got it all stripped down, there was a little bit of gloom. You can’t force cheer just by painting everything yellow, it never works, so throughout the house, I painted all the walls gray [Benjamin Moore’s ‘Nimbus’], and used the same color cut by half with white on the ceiling and the woodwork. The floors are also painted gray [Benjamin Moore’s ‘Shadow’] On furniture, I like to use a Walmart flat latex in a color they call Aluminum that is the perfect French gray.”
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Rule 14
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Collect Busts
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“They’re classical and whimsical at the same time. And I love plaster as a material--in nearly every room, there’s some object that’s made of plaster, and often it will be a bust. This wrestler is by the same artist, Mark Beard, who did the painting of the fencer in the living room.”
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 04/30/08 at 04:43 PM • Permalink
Hands On: Stone Walls and Stone or Brick Paving
Nothing classes up a property like a bit of stone hardscape. It is that rarity in design--a thing that is at once humble and grand (indoors, a fine old wood floor makes a similar contribution). This Saturday (or, in case of rain, Sunday), at the Berkshire Botanical Garden, Mark Mendel (left), the master mason with Monterey Masonry will give a hands-on workshop on the basics of building stone walls. After teaching us how to evaluate stone, then plan and layout a freestanding wall, Mendel will demonstrate cutting and fitting. Then students will apply what they have just learned by helping to build a garden wall.
In the afternoon, Mendel will continue with another program that focuses on flatwork--paths, terraces, edging, walkways--and his range of materials will now extend to include brick. After instruction in how to evaluate a project and choose the best material for it, students will participate in the construction of a patterned brick terrace.
Pre-registration required
Saturday, April 26 (or, in case of rain, Sunday, April 27)
Morning workshop (9 a.m. - 1 p.m): “Stone Walls for the Garden”
Afternoon workshop (2 p.m. - 5 p.m.): “Paving with Brick and Stone”
Half day, $50 ($45 for Botanical Gardens members); full day, $90 ($81 for members)
Dress: outdoor work clothes, heavy-duty gloves, and safety glasses.
Berkshire Botanical Gardens
Intersection Routes 102 & 183; Stockbridge; 413.298.3926
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 04/22/08 at 08:17 AM • Permalink
A Tiny House With A Big Heart
When you visit Kimberly Rock and Eric Haggard’s doll-sized house on Main Street in Falls Village, it’s immediately apparent that they’re a child-centered family. The grandest room in their 1840s eyebrow colonial is their daughters’ playroom, an addition they built for Jessy, 5, and Jordan, 3. Like many busy, doting parents in the digital age, they obsessively document their children’s lives, downloading thousands of images that rarely find their way out of their computer’s hard drive and into photo albums or picture frames. Ironically, Kimberly and Eric own a company called Pulp Products that designs and manufactures winsome photo albums and scrap books (but you know what they say about the shoemaker’s children . . .) Now, Kimberly and Eric have started a business that makes it convenient to creatively custom frame your digital photos without breaking the bank (or leaving your house). They call their company Real Memories, because their mission is to help people commemorate and celebrate life’s joyous moments. “We think our website will help 
Jordan and Jessy painting at an Offi chalkboard table in their playroom.
people connect to the people they love,” says Kimberly. “It’s especially good for sending gifts to grandparents, aunts, uncles, bridesmaids.” A year in development, Real Memories was designed to be as personalized as a website can be. Once you upload your photo, you choose the size of the picture and mat and then you select from one of two dozen wooden frame styles. Then your picture is printed, matted, assembled and gift-wrapped at the Real Memories factory in downtown Torrington, CT. “Other companies will frame your photos but no one else gives you this many options for personalization,” says Eric, noting that you can add a custom caption—elegantly letter-pressed in gold or silver—to any mat for $4.50.
Their belief that small details make all the difference is evident in the way they renovated and decorated their house, adding a stone wall and white picket fence that enhance its historic character. Alas, there was little to save on the inside. “We basically gutted it, and we did almost everything ourselves” says Kimberly. “The first day we owned it Eric took a crowbar and started knocking down walls.” And what began as a weekend house for two stressed-out New Yorkers evolved into a full-time residence for a family of four. “That’s why we had to build the playroom. There are only two bedroom upstairs and the girls’ is so tiny that they sleep in bunk beds.”
The center of the house is the kitchen, which bridges the cozy, autumnal living room and the airy, pastel playroom. The kitchen has dark wood cabinets and walls of pale yellow wainscoting that are hung with the children’s artwork, along with a large painting, Tuscan Table, by Eric’s mother, Marijune, who now divides her time between Seattle and Mexico. The breakfast nook is piled with colorful pillows that make it a comfy place to hang out with a cup of tea or take a nap. Around the corner, there’s a bathroom with a clawfoot tub, which makes it possible for Kimberly to make dinner and bathe the girls at the same time. “Eric thought of that,” she says. “It is such a small house that we had to use every inch creatively. He designed it so the girls could run around the house in circles. and we used to let them ride their tricycles around the house when the weather was bad.” Now that’s what you call giving your children real memories.
The girls’ artwork is hung with clothespins on a wire line from Ikea on the kitchen walls.. The jaunty block-printed linen pendant shade is from Room & Board
The kitchen island is one giant cutting board made of end-grain cherry. They splurged on a Viking stove and hood. “We cook for our kids almost every night,” says Kimberly, who has a serious Guido’s habit.
The Haggards planned ahead so when the girls start getting homework, they will have a cheerful corner to work. The antique cupboard hides the television. The walls of the skylit playroom are painted Pale Sea Mist by Benjamin Moore. The rag rug came from the Rhinebeck Antiques Fair
The long table in the living room was purchased at an antiques fair in Kinderhook and it came with a story; the seller said it had been his family’s wheat threshing table back in Wisconsin. The Haggards found the fireplace mantle at Keystone, in Hudson. “I spent 20 hours sanding and refnishing it with Bree Wax,” says Kimberly.
A REAL DEAL
Real Memories is offering Rural Intelligence readers a 15% discount on orders.
Enter code: Intro15rm
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 04/16/08 at 07:14 AM • Permalink
A Garden Blog Especially for Us
Margaret Roach was planning to finally spend some quality time in her Columbia County garden when she left her executive job at Martha Stewart Omnimedia in New York City and moved to her weekend house this winter. But like her former boss, Roach is apparently indefatigable and ambitious so it’s hard to believe that she only decided to start her gardening blog—which is dedicated to Hudson Valley/Berkshires Zone 5B— a few weeks ago, because A Way To Garden already feels like it’s a website in full bloom. Of course, Roach was the gardening editor of Martha Stewart Living for ages, and she has both an encyclopedic and instinctive understanding of the gardener’s life. She feels liberated to be writing about gardening again after many years in management positions. “I wanted to bring my garden self back to life,” says Roach, who did not want to blog into a void so she’s started advertising on WKZE. “I’m not exactly sure what motivated me to to do that but I wanted an audience,” she says. The only downside of her new venture is that she is not spending as much time as she planned to in the garden because she’s so busy blogging. “It’s very addictive,” she says.
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