Nonstop Planting Offers A Garden For Every Day Of The Year

Gardening is not a hobby for Margaret Roach. It is not about growing a perfect tomato or pruning a stunning rose.

It is a science, she explained last week during a telephone interview from her Hudson Valley, New York, home. It is a window into spiritual and philosophical lessons. And it is a life practice—one that does not end once the trees are bare, the plants below covered with fallen leaves.

Her passion is alive every day of the year.

On Sunday, November 17, Ms. Roach—a preeminent garden expert and former editor at Martha Stewart Living, Newsday and The New York Times—will visit the Bridgehampton Community House for the illustrated talk, “Nonstop Plants: A Garden for 365 Days.”

“When you’re invited to speak to a group like that, you give it serious consideration,” Ms. Roach said, noting that she receives between 50 and 75 requests from garden clubs annually. “I will talk about thinking of the garden as open 365 days. It’s not like it shuts down. It’s not like a garden center that closes in the winter. It’s always there. It’s not like outdoor decorating. It’s not just the plants. It’s bigger than that.”

This revelation dawned on Ms. Roach in her early 20s, she recalled, when she returned to her childhood home in Douglaston, Queens, to care for her ailing mother.

There was only so much daytime television she could watch, she said.

“I ended up out in the yard doing things, experiments, during a time when I found myself, for unfortunate reasons, living in the home I’d grown up in and, kind of, being tethered to the house,” she said. “Being there more during the days and looking for some outlet. So, that’s how I began.”

She hasn’t stopped since. It’s not a hobby, she said. It’s a daily routine that has become part of who she is.

“I don’t think of it like macramé and bowling. ‘Maybe I won’t bowl this month,’” she said. “It’s my entire identity. Everything derives from it for me—practical, philosophical, ethical. It’s not ever something I could give up.”

She laughed, and continued, “It’s my whole life.”

The Horticultural Alliance of the Hamptons will host Margaret Roach for the illustrated talk “Nonstop Plants: A Garden for 365 Days” on Sunday, November 17, at 2 p.m. at the Bridgehampton Community House. Admission is $10, or free for members. For more information, call 537-2223 or visit hahgarden.com. Pick up next week’s Residence section for full coverage of Ms. Roach’s lecture.