The sight of Eastern bluebirds rates high on my happiness scale, so I say bring them on. But what makes a place look like inviting habitat to these charismatic birds, encouraging them to maybe stick around during breeding season? And... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

One of the tallest perennials in my garden is New York ironweed, Vernonia noveboracensis, but basically my knowledge of the genus starts and ends there. Or at least it did until just recently, when Mt. Cuba Center, the renown native... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

Welcome to today's episode of the Action for Happiness podcast, featuring an enlightening conversation between Mark Williamson and Jamil Zaki, a renowned psychology professor at Stanford University and author of "Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness." Join us as we explore ways to overcome cynicism and foster hopeful skepticism…

You probably know the popular Seed Savers Exchange catalog, which this year features 600 varieties of seed to choose from, and supports the beloved nonprofit preservation organization, which in 2025 is turning 50 years old. But maybe you haven’t clicked... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

Have you ever replied, “I don’t know; that’s just the way I’ve always done it” when someone asked why you performed a certain garden task in a particular way? Sometimes we stay stuck even when there’s evidence there’s a newer,... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

Anybody in the mood for something just plain pretty at the moment, something to search the seed catalogs for, choosing among the many wildly colorful varieties, and then get ready to sow? Something hopeful and bright? Me too! After I... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

How’s winter shaping up where you are so far – or more to the point, how’s the winter garden looking? What’s your view out the window this time of year, and could it be improved with some strategic enhancements? That’s... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

Welcome to this Action for Happiness podcast, where we explore the transformative power of everyday mindfulness with Jon Kabat-Zinn, a pioneer in the field. In this insightful session, Jon delves into how mindfulness can be a profound practice embedded in our daily lives, offering more than just stress relief but a way of being. Join us as we discu…

As many of us heavy up on native plants, and transition larger areas of our landscapes toward more naturalistic styles of design, there is a lot to learn – or maybe un-learn, if our gardening experience up until now was... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

I messaged to my arborist neighbor the other day to just say, “Happy holidays.” And at the end of my note, I also said this: “See you soon.” Winter may be the quiet season up North here in the garden... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

In this insightful episode of the Action for Happiness podcast, host Mark Williamson engages in a deep conversation with Dr. Kristin Neff, a world-renowned expert on self-compassion. Dr. Neff, known for her pioneering work in defining and measuring self-compassion, shares her personal journey and the profound impact self-compassion has had on her l…

Whether out loud here on the podcast or just between us on one of our periodic late Friday afternoon phone calls, I always benefit from catching up with today’s guest, Joe Lamp’l (aka Joe Gardener). Probably no time for talking... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

Did you have an abnormally dry growing season this year—one where it felt like you just couldn’t keep up with the watering, maybe? Today’s guest, naturalist and artist Julie Zickefoose, and I both did in our otherwise different garden locations—places... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

The message has become increasingly clear: By shifting the palette of what we plant toward native, and refining the practices we employ in caring for our landscapes, we gardeners can make a contribution to the greater ecology. We can create... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

She has had various job titles in her career, but writer Margaret Renkl says one consistent role in her life for decades has been that of “a window-gazer,” someone who watches what’s going on out there. Even better, she gets... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

It’s practically December, but like many gardeners I’m already thinking about spring. One big element of that thinking is how to maximize the power of flower bulbs, and though you might have already planted some in the ground earlier this... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian joins Josie and Robin live on stage at the Glasgow Comedy Festival to talk about basically everything but his new novel, Nobody's Empire, which is out now. Get an extended video version of this episode by subscribing at patreon.com/cosmicshambles

I was invited recently to be a guest on a podcast called The Wildstory from The Native Plant Society of New Jersey that talks about plants, of course, and ecology … but unlike other garden-related podcasts, it also explores poetry. I was intrigued,... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

When cold weather approaches, we humans often have it easy: We can retreat to the shelter of central heating, or pile on more layers of clothing. The path to survival is a lot more complicated for birds, of course, and a new... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

Here is Part 2 of our Friday session in the bookshop at this year's Latitude Festival. Jakko Jakszyk and Prof Chris Lintott are still on the couch with Robin and are now joined by Prof Claudia Hammond to talk about her new book, The Keys to Kindness. This extended video version is exclusive to Patreon and Substack paid subscribers.…

In the face of shifting weather patterns influenced by a changing climate, the garden can be a really confusing place these days. What stressors are coming next, and which plants will have the resilience required to stand up to whatever... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

Join Mark Williamson in this enlightening episode of the Action for Happiness podcast as he engages in a profound conversation with Professor Arthur Brooks from the Harvard Kennedy School. Arthur, renowned for his "How to Build a Life" column in The Atlantic and his best-selling book co-authored with Oprah Winfrey, shares invaluable insights on con…

We did over 6 hours of live book chats in the newly created Robin's Book Corner at this year's Latitude Festival back in the late summer. In this first episode, Robin is joined by Jakko Jakszyk of King Crimson to talk about his upcoming memoir, Who's the Boy With the Lovely Hair, and Prof Chris Lintott to chat about his latest book Our Accidental U…

The garden is my favorite escape from stress, of course, but as I have confessed before on the podcast, I sometimes succumb to the lure of swiping my way through Instagram during non-garden hours, like so many millions of us... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

Today’s guest, Sara Weaner Cooper, and her husband, Evan Cooper, bought their first home a couple of years ago, and before long undertook transitioning the front lawn organically from mown grass into a meadow. Sara’s here to tell us about... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

If you've heard Robin at any point in the past few years, you've probably heard him singing the praises of Alexis Pauline Gumbs' book Undrowned. So when she was briefly in the UK recently with her new book, Survival Is a Promise, we just had to catch up for a chat! Support the show by subscribing at patreon.com/cosmicshambles…

It was almost two years ago to the day when today’s guest, Joan Strassmann, last visited me on the show, right around the time her book “Slow Birding” was released. Now, as then, I’ve seen what are pretty much my... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

In the first episode of a new limited series of Book Shambles Robin and Josie take the stage at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery to talk about Josie's debut book, a collection of short stories titled Because I Don't Know What You Mean and What You Don't. They chat about the differences in writing a book to writing for stand up, early literary influenc…

When I read the other day that Native Plant Trust, the nonprofit plant conservation organization in New England, had successfully raised the money to complete the endowment fund needed to save its region’s most imperiled native plants in a seed... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

Increasingly in recent years, my garden “weeds” include more and more tenacious opponents – and the landscape along the roadsides nearby and pretty much everywhere I drive is one of hedgerows formed of a tangle of non-native shrubs and vines.... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

If you have ever tried creating, and then caring for, a habitat-style garden with native plants … well, let’s just say it’s not exactly the same thing as combining a group of hostas with some astilbes an a couple of... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

“Plants tell the story of a place,” says field botanist and native plant nursery owner Jared Rosenbaum. “If you want to be rooted on the earth you live on, you can look to plants to interpret that story.” With his... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

Organic farming and gardening have always been based on the principle of “feed the soil, not the plant.” In a recent interview, I got some expert advice for doing that, and also learn why our diligent soil-consciousness matters so much,... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

Have you done your bulb shopping yet? It’s ordering time—both for fall-blooming treats like Colchicum, which you can only buy now if you hurry, and for the ever-wider assortment of fall-planted, spring-into-summer blooming species. Ken Druse and I both have... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

I was scrolling through Instagram the other day – yes, sometimes I just cannot help myself – when I saw a post by Matt Mattus about Christmas cactus. Even though it was still high summer, it made me long for... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

I suspect I’m not alone when I say that weather extremes in recent growing seasons have made me feel a bit like a stranger in a strange land in my own garden—wondering what will bloom when, and when to do... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

When most of us think of growing herbs each spring, what we probably put into our shopping cart, whether from online seed catalogs or at the garden center, are the culinary must-haves: the basil, the parsley, the dill and such. ... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

It’s Hydrangea season, and in the Northeast, in particular, this summer, it’s REALLY been a crazy hydrangea season in 2024, with billows of blue bloom from big-leaf hydrangeas on view everywhere, it seems—which is not always the case, in colder... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

We’re going to talk about collectibles today, but not the kind you score at a flea market or from an online auction. We’re going to talk about collectible trees. Yes, trees. A new book by Amy Stewart called “The Tree... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

Are you thinking about the possibility of transitioning an area of your lawn into something more diverse, like maybe a meadow? A question I’m asked a lot is how to go about it – the actual preparatory steps – so... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

It’s one of the best-known naturalistic gardens anywhere, and yet it’s perched in the most unnatural spot imaginable, 30 feet high above New York City traffic on an abandoned elevated railway line. The High Line on Manhattan’s West Side is... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

Some of the many unusual fruits that Allyson Levy and Scott Serrano grow in their arboretum in the Hudson Valley of New York, like goji berries or maybe Schisandra, are ones you’re more likely to see on ingredient labels of... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

Nobody wants to get the IRS notice in the mail that they’re being audited, heaven forbid. But when it comes to gardens, Rodney Eason believes that the occasional audit is a very positive process, and encourages us to perform one... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

What’s one of the best sources of inspiration and information about gardening you can get outside of a classroom, and that is also wonderfully entertaining? By making time to go visit other people’s gardens, we can open ourselves up to... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

I suspect every gardener has for years now, over and again, heard the warnings about the most widely used pesticides in the US, neonicotinoids – or neonics for short. In 2013 the American Bird Conservancy issued a report, warning of... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

Interest and awareness around native plants has been trending in recent years, and it makes them almost feel new. But of course natives are the original plants of an area—and even in certain specialty corners of the nursery industry they... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

Most people call in an arborist when they think it’s time for a tree to be removed—a costly process both financially and environmentally, since trees are critical drivers of diversity. Today’s guest runs a tree-care company and also a tree-focused... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

Landscape design may be part of the green industry, but sometimes rethinking a garden space, or creating a garden where there didn’t used to be one, can create a lot of very un-green waste material—especially true when you’re designing in... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

Today’s topic is orchids, but not the ones you might be growing as a flowering houseplant. Our subject is native terrestrial types that are more often than not under great pressure in the wild, their numbers dwindling. Now, thanks to... Read More ›By Margaret Roach

The area around Philadelphia is well-known for its richness of public gardens, including many historic ones, but the region is also home to an impressive roster of distinctive private landscapes—from formal 19th century European-style estates to mid-century modern residences and contemporary... Read More ›…