Sunday, September 13, 2026

News and Ideas Worth Sharing

Lee Buttala

Lee Buttala is a writer and organizational consultant. He is the former Executive Director of Seed Savers Exchange, an organization dedicated to the preservation of America’s garden and farming heritage, an Emmy Award-winning television producer of Martha Stewart Living and the creator, producer and director of Cultivating Life, a PBS series on outdoor living and gardening. He has written for The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, New York, and Metropolitan Home. As an editor, he has worked for Saveur, Garden Design and Interview, and for the book publisher Alfred A. Knopf. He also served as the preservation program manager for the Garden Conservancy and has studied garden design at Kyoto University of Art and Design, the English Gardening School at London’s Chelsea Physic Garden and the New York Botanical Garden. He is the author and editor of the books Cultivating Life: A Guide to Outdoor Living and The Seed Garden: The Art and Practice of Seed Saving. You can also follow him on Instagram (https://www.igcol.com/user/leebuttala)

written articles

THE SELF-TAUGHT GARDENER: Tree trimming

In a week when we have seen storms all around us taking down age-old trees, Lee contemplates the advantages of pollarding trees to keep their sizes in check.

THE SELF-TAUGHT GARDENER: A garden at the end of the world

At the garden of filmmaker and artist Derek Jarman on the shingle beach in Dungeness, Lee experiences a landscape that feels like it rose from the materials at hand and is mesmerizing.

THE SELF-TAUGHT GARDENER: Sense and sensibility

This year, on my birthday, with some trepidation (and plenty of excitement), I visited Charleston, the country home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. It did not disappoint.

THE SELF-TAUGHT GARDENER: Letting it go

On a recent trip to London, Lee discovered that some spaces, which may even appear as under-cultivated, held a magic that the more tightly cared-for landscapes lacked.

THE SELF-TAUGHT GARDENER: In a green state of mind

A birthday weekend in Scotland and the English countryside had me realizing that, no matter how many colorful flowers and gold and silver-leaved perennials I admire, the one thing most essential in the garden is the color green.

THE SELF-TAUGHT GARDENER: Cutbacks

Some shrubs and subshrubs, like yellow-twig dogwoods and Russian sage, are invigorated by getting a sharp crewcut first thing in the season.

THE SELF-TAUGHT GARDENER: What lies beneath

On a trip to the Galanthus Gala in Pennsylvania, more snow and the hope of spring cause this gardener to wonder what comes next.

Borscht for Ukraine fundraiser at Dewey Hall brings community together, raises more than $25,000 for relief efforts in Ukraine

Razom, which means “together” in Ukrainian, seemed to be a theme of the afternoon as attendees shared their hopes and prayers for the Ukrainian people, made all the more resonant by the bombing of Iran that morning.

THE SELF-TAUGHT GARDENER: How about those apples?

Every once in a while, one has the opportunity to meet someone who illuminates the connection between humans and the plant world in a manner that inspires awe. Matt Kaminsky, who is speaking at the White Hart Inn on Thursday, February 18th, about our connections to apples, is one such person.

THE SELF-TAUGHT GARDENER: R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Who would have thought that Lee would have a gardening revelation while attending a political presentation by a Kennedy cousin?

THE SELF-TAUGHT GARDENER: Je ne regrette rien

You never know where ideas for gardening will come from. I learned an important lesson from Keith McNally's book about his life and work as a restaurateur.

THE SELF-TAUGHT GARDENER: Solstice flowers

There is something about this season, when we leave behind the shortest day of the year, that energizes me as a gardener.

THE SELF-TAUGHT GARDENER: Sow, tend, harvest

Gardener and writer Clark Lawrence is coming to Dewey Hall to screen a film about his garden in Italy and to share his adventures of going from Manassas, Virginia, to Italy, where he lives a life that feels like a re-gendered Italian reboot of “Eat, Pray, Love.”

THE SELF-TAUGHT GARDENER: Conquer the soil

Abra Lee’s speech next Sunday will bring something new to the audience at Rooted in Place—an understanding that the art and science of gardening the land we cherish can be learned both in a classroom and on the outskirts of a farm.

THE SELF-TAUGHT GARDENER: The cook’s garden

On the eve of Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Rooted in Place conference, author and speaker Kevin West shares his tenets for gardening, cooking and canning that can fill our gardens, tables, and larders with sustenance for the body and soul.

THE SELF-TAUGHT GARDENER: A tree grows in Cambridge

Often viewed as the first landscaped cemetery in the United States, Mount Auburn was formed in 1831, and its 175 acres are charged with the goal of comforting the bereaved and commemorating the deceased in a beautiful setting.
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