A Way To Garden

listening to the language of trees, with hannah fries

Margaret — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 18:34:17 +0000

IN THE INTRODUCTION to her latest book “A Forest Language,” Hannah Fries acknowledges a fascination with the words we use to talk about trees—organisms she calls the backdrop of her life. From our human vocabulary of forest ecology and botany Hannah has collected some of her favorite arboreal terms to fill the new volume, ones referred to in its subtitle as “Words That Illuminate the Astonishing World of Trees.” Do you know pitch from sap, for instance, or heartwood from sapwood? What’s a burl, a snag, a nurse log, a lenticel? In “A Forest Language,” Hannah brings to life the many layers of meaning she found within each word in its own little essay, and she joined me to talk trees. Hannah grew up among the trees of New Hampshire and now lives in western Massachusetts. She is a poet, an executive editor at Storey Publishing, and the author of an earlier inspirational book about trees called “Being with Trees.” (Affiliate link.) (Photo of Hannah, below, by Susan Quinn.) Plus: Comment in the box near the bottom of the page for a chance to win a copy of “A Forest Language” (affiliate link). Read along as you listen to the […]

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knowing, and saving, the seed, with bill braun of freed seed federation

Margaret — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 20:19:30 +0000

I LOOK AROUND the garden and I see it happening everywhere, on so many different plants: seed is forming. Seed is the start of most everything we grow, yet most of the seed we gardeners and even more important the nation’s farmers plant originates elsewhere—often very far away from our home soil—and many of us who garden know relatively little about seed except how to order more for the coming growing season and sow it. Now, while there’s perhaps still time to save some for next year or to share with a friend, and well before the seed catalogs arrive loaded with temptations galore, I thought it a good time to think about where our seed comes from, and reflect on how we gardeners can each do our small part to support a healthy seed system. I met today’s guest, Bill Braun, when I was working on a recent “New York Times” garden column about seed saving. Bill is an organic seed farmer and co-founder of the non-profit Freed Seed Federation in Dartmouth, Mass., which describes itself as a “farmer-run nonprofit dedicated to the preservation, adaptation, and diversification of place-based seed”—in his case, specifically seed for the Northeast U.S. I […]

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‘arnold selects’: exceptional woody plants, from the arnold arboretum

Margaret — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 16:53:51 +0000

WHAT MAKES a tree or shrub exceptional – something worthy of introduction into the nursery trade, and eventually maybe making its way into your garden? There are many pathways a plant can travel to get there, including one unique one from the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. As part of its 150th anniversary celebration in 2022, the arboretum announced its Arnold Selects program for identifying and launching such potential treasures, each with its own provenance or story to tell, inspired by the arboretum’s vast and historic living collections. I wanted to know what catches the eyes of the modern-day experts there and why. I asked Chris Copeland, Manager of Plant Production at the Arnold Arboretum, who did his Bachelors, Masters and Doctoral degrees at UMass-Amherst. His role at the arboretum includes a focus on the Arnold Selects program that each year distributes extraordinary woody plant selections to nurseries that it partners with, in the hopes that more gardeners will in time come to know these special plants. Read along as you listen to the Sept. 14, 2026 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or […]

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