Pink of Perfection

You may know Margaret Roach from the editor’s letters she used to write from the helm of Martha Stewart Living magazine. She then became editorial director of all of MSLO, overseeing magazines, books, and web content. And now, she’s out from behind the desk and bad corporate lighting, getting her hands dirty everyday and writing from her garden in upstate New York on her blog, A Way to Garden. Her writing has the same understated, evocative quality that I love in M. F. K. Fisher and Mary Cantwell. How she manages to do so much, to be so generous, and to create so much beauty (and share it), I’m not sure. But I want to find out and then be just like her when I grow up.

Do you think gardening has some of the same meditative qualities as yoga?

Funny you ask that, because I have often said that gardening was my first form of moving meditation, and then came yoga. I try to practice both mindfully; neither one for me is “exercise” or “a hobby,” as that would demean their importance. Certain aspects of gardening that you repeat again and again in a single “practice” (in a single gardening session outdoors) are like the asanas: a series of movements, performed over and again, with a particular alignment and order to them. Think of weeding (bend, pull, toss; bend, pull, toss…) or shoveling mulch or compost, shovelful after shovelful after shovelful (step, scoop, toss…). Gardening (like yoga) is also very much about connection, union…the experience of our inner world connecting with the outer one.

I don’t have an outdoor space but I’d really love to nurture my green thumb. What are the best things to grow in pots in windowsills and on fire escapes?

First, the disclaimer: It’s against the law to garden on the fire escape, or at least to in any way block safe access to it and use of it in case of an emergency. Now that we got that out of the way…yes, many herbs will do in pots, on a sunny windowsill or in a window box, so long as the pots are of a decent size (like 6-inch diameter or larger). Parsley, basil (especially naturally dwarf “bush” types like ‘Spicy Globe’), chives, rosemary, and even thyme and sage will do OK. Bigger containers, like a half whiskey barrel, could support a whole miniature herb garden, really. A little trick: If you like garlic, try growing a few cloves in a pot (even over the winter) to get a crop of “garlic greens,” which you can clip like you would chives to season or garnish salad, egg dishes, etc.

Has writing always been a part of your life? And what do you think about self-publishing on blogs — are you loving it?

I just wrote my short bio and resume for MargaretRoach.com, the gateway into my eventual larger portfolio of activities online and off. The first sentence or two:
“There was little hope of escaping a career in the world of words, being born as I was to a couple of journalists who both also loved to read. The pull was strong enough to sweep in not just me but also my sister, Marion…” So yes, writing has always been my thing, and my family’s thing. Nature and nurture. I have written newspaper articles, books, magazine articles, sections for marthastewart.com…but nothing has been as empowering or astonishing as this medium of blogging. I only wish I had come to it sooner, and were at least a decade younger so I could really master it and have a long career at it. But meanwhile I will try to make up for lost time…

Favorite books?

Classic reference: Wyman’s Gardening Encyclopedia: Dated, wonderful, all you need to know in one chunky hardcover (please disregard any chemical suggestions–he didn’t know better probably). No fancy photos, but all the answers, or practically. A classic guide to living for me: A Path With Heart, by Jack Kornfield, longtime Buddhist teacher. A must-read for everyone. More escapist, perhaps, and newer than either of those: Birds in Fall, by Brad Kessler, a recent novel about the aftermath of a plane crash but with an ornithological riff.

What’s your ideal day look like?

I like to do many things at once; I am a grazer both when eating and working. So I have my cup of black tea early, and start on multiple things (writing, paperwork for my business, gardening in the season, bird-watching year-round), catching myself staring out the window a lot or into space if outdoors, and I generally flutter from thing to thing till I fall down in a heap. That’s basically my life story.

What’s your go-to, quick weeknight meal?

Baked potato with butter, salt, and a can of vegetarian baked beans on top. True. My English heritage showing, I suppose (ask in any pub for “jacket potato with baked beans”). Or baked beans on toast (again, butter, please). Or baked potato with cottage cheese (and yes, butter). Or pizza–homemade, with my own garden-grown tomato sauce and pesto on it, the crust also from scratch from Nick Malgieri’s Neapolitan Pizza recipe from How to Bake. I quarter the pre-baked pizzas and freeze them, then just pop one “slice” in the oven at suppertime, so one pizza-making yields eight suppers. Or just crackers and cheese and gherkins…in fact, I probably eat more of that combo than anything else.

Mmm, I think cheese and crackers make one of the best meals ever. Favorite movies?

Pulp Fiction. McCabe and Mrs. Miller. Mean Streets. As Good As It Gets. Once. Truly Madly Deeply. Moonstruck. (I am so bad at recalling movie titles, but these, at least, are in my head.) If we extend to BBC series, I will watch anything with Robson Green, or Helen Mirren, and lately devoured multiple seasons of the original English crime drama “Cracker” with Robbie Coltrane. Frankly I am far more seriously addicted to music than to movies…but you didn’t ask that, did you?

Well, why don’t I? What are you listening to these days?

Oh, my..I am (as ever) a grazer, and frenetic. My standards are Leonard Cohen, Al Green, Lucinda Williams, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson (oh, and a dozen others whose work I also have every drop of, like John Prine, John Hiatt, Van Morrison, Nick Lowe and…and…). I like Keith Richards when he goes country (and as a Rolling Stone). I like Teddy Thompson (and his parents). Alison Kraus lately, especially with Robert Plant.

I like songs that make me laugh, like Bill Kirchen’s “Get a Little Goner” (”If you’re gonna get gone, get a little goner…”) and Jean Knight’s “Mr. Big Stuff,” (”Mr. Big Stuff, who do you think you are?…”) and “These Boots Are Made for Walking” (particularly the cover by Velvet 99).

I like songs that make me dance, like Kemo the Blackican’s “La Receta” or anything Tina Turner, especially early stuff with Ike like their hot version of “Stormy Weather.” I like Motown Girl Groups, and am glad to hear this sound coming around again.

I like any version of the song “You Are My Sunshine,” and have many. I collect songs from around the world and through the ages that have the word “hallelujah” in them (or its variations, like alleluia). And then I like to listen to WFUV, from Fordham University, and other alternative-ish stations on my Sangean wifi radio, and get newer stuff, like Great Lake Swimmers, Nicolai Dunger, Josh Ritter, Alejandro Escovedo, Ray LaMontagne, Joseph Arthur, Architecture in Helsinki, Brett Dennen…so many I cannot keep track. Eclectic, usually about love done in or love in bloom (more the former than the mushy stuff). Singer-songwriter, with emphasis on the lyrics.

Blues, too (more Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon than now). And vintage Pablo Casals cello solos. And I have gone on forever and could keep going. The iPod is full. If I hadn’t started blogging I’d have more music; that was my previous favorite thing to do on the Mac: make music mixes.

Favorite flowers?

Alliums, the ornamental onions, probably. So insane looking. I’m am more of a foliage and fruit person than a flower girl, especially big, bold foliage that brings a hint of the tropics to my cold-zone garden, and fruits meant not for humans but for the birds.

What’s the best thing about leaving the corporate world?

Top benefit: Living in my garden for the first time in the 20-plus years I have been making it–waking up every day and looking out at it. And not ordering lunch ever again in midtown. And grazing all day, as I said, like a high-calorie-burning kid, up and down to the fridge that’s full of food I cooked or at least that I like (unlike all those midtown takeaway spots).

What’s one dream you have for your life?

Love, love, love. To love my new work, to love my garden, to love some great new guy who’s showing up any day now I think (tee hee). Or as David Byrne says in some song or other of his: “Peace, love and monkey business.”

Share This