A Way To Garden https://awaytogarden.com/ 'horticultural how-to and woo-woo' with margaret roach, head gardener Fri, 04 Sep 2026 17:29:45 +0000 en-US hourly 1 9651199 vegetable-garden wisdoms, with jean-martin fortier https://awaytogarden.com/vegetable-garden-wisdoms-with-jean-martin-fortier/ https://awaytogarden.com/vegetable-garden-wisdoms-with-jean-martin-fortier/#comments Fri, 04 Sep 2026 17:27:32 +0000 https://awaytogarden.com/?p=59468 WHEN I HEARD that today’s guest, who’s been a guiding force in educating organic farmers, was finally publishing a book specifically for gardeners, I was thrilled. I’d been following Jean-Martin Fortier since his first handbook on biointensive organic market farming came out more than a decade ago, and even gone to hear him speak at farming conferences—then done my best to translate and distill his advice and apply it to my own garden size and conditions. Now JM, as he is known, has done all the translating from farm to backyard scale for all of us, within the pages of his latest book, “In Your Garden: The Complete Guide to Home Vegetable Gardening” (affiliate link), and those who grow edibles at home can benefit from every last insight he shares, from soil and bed prep, to crop spacing and succession schedules, and exacting details on how to have the greatest success with each crop. Quebec-based JM Fortier has been farming for about 25 years, and has popularized his method of highly efficient small-scale market farming with two how-to manuals, “The Market Gardener” and “The Winter Market Gardener,” which have sold more than 300,000 copies. In addition, more than 10,000 farmers […]

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]]> https://awaytogarden.com/vegetable-garden-wisdoms-with-jean-martin-fortier/feed/ 1 59468 is a backyard greenhouse in your future? with leslie halleck https://awaytogarden.com/is-a-backyard-greenhouse-in-your-future-with-leslie-halleck/ https://awaytogarden.com/is-a-backyard-greenhouse-in-your-future-with-leslie-halleck/#comments Fri, 28 Aug 2026 19:34:27 +0000 https://awaytogarden.com/?p=59441 IS A GREENHOUSE in your future? I’ve never had one, and I have always been not-so-secretly jealous of friends who do—whether to propagate their seedlings in late winter into spring, or grow more tropicals and other “houseplants” than fit in their house, or who knows what. A new book by horticulturist Leslie Halleck called “Home Greenhouse Revival: Growing Year-Round Foliage, Flowers & Food” (affiliate link) is a tempting look at what can be accomplished inside a backyard greenhouse, and details which architectural style, building materials and mechanical systems match which climate regions – and also match the particular kinds of plants you wish to grow. Leslie, a self-described “professional plant geek who is good at botanical business,” has worked in many facets of the horticulture industry since receiving her masters in horticulture from Michigan State University.  Her consultancy company, Halleck Horticultural, offers support to green industry businesses, plant entrepreneurs and home growers alike, and since 2020 she’s been teaching online courses in horticulture, botany and business through UCLA Extension. Plus: Comment in the box near the bottom of the page for a chance to win a copy of the new book. (Photo above by JLY Gardens; photo below of Leslie […]

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]]> https://awaytogarden.com/is-a-backyard-greenhouse-in-your-future-with-leslie-halleck/feed/ 250 59441 a harvest of ideas from timothy pakron’s ‘garden variety’ cookbook https://awaytogarden.com/a-harvest-of-ideas-from-the-garden-variety-cookbook-with-timothy-pakron/ https://awaytogarden.com/a-harvest-of-ideas-from-the-garden-variety-cookbook-with-timothy-pakron/#comments Fri, 21 Aug 2026 22:32:59 +0000 https://awaytogarden.com/?p=59414 THE OPENING PAGES of Timothy Pakron’s about-to-be-released cookbook aren’t pictures of plates of food, but rather gorgeous flower photos – some dreamy cosmos, followed by a double-page spread of silvery mountain mint, or Pycnanthemum, gleaming against a moody dark background. That all makes sense, because the cookbook is titled “Garden Variety: Plant-Focused Recipes Inspired by My Garden,” and his garden is a color- and flavor-filled space in his New Orleans backyard with 12 big raised beds that he’s now transitioning to what he calls more of a food forest. Timothy, who is known to many of his followers as Mississippi Vegan – the title of his popular 2018 cookbook, his Instagram handle and also the url of his website – describes himself as “a vegan from Mississippi living in New Orleans.” Besides developing his signature recipes, he’s a photographer and food stylist—and also a gardener, thanks to his father to whom he dedicated the new book in thanks for giving his son his green thumb, he says. I learned many new things—about some herbs I’d never even heard of that I could even grow in a pot, like pandan plant, and also that rice can be baked in the oven […]

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