Saturday, October 31, 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: Two for the Road

As plant explorer Dan Hinkley commented on the virtues of the native viburnum along the roadside, a new game, roadside botanizing, was born for me.

The Self-Taught Gardener: Scents and sensibility

My being on the road quite a bit this year in the peak of spring may have left my garden in disarray, but it has given me a new regard for an old garden favorite.

The Self-Taught Gardener: Caveat emptor

From last weekend’s Trade Secrets and this week’s Plants and Answers sale at Berkshire Botanical Garden to visits to local nurseries like Windy Hill and Ward’s, gardeners at this time of year are pulling green out of their wallets to bring home greens for the garden. But how do we make sure we take home what we want?

The Self-Taught Gardener: Flowering times

These remontant varieties provide color throughout a good portion of the season and meet one of my mother’s standards for a useful garden plant: they perform over the long haul.

The Self -Taught Gardener: The quiet ones

Learning to take notice of the trees that are not screaming for our attention.

The Self-Taught Gardener: The origin of a species

A new tool from the National Wildlife Federation and entomologist Doug Tallamy helps quantify how plants perform in the local ecosystem.

The Self-Taught Gardener: Are all natives equal?

On the eve of the Wildflower Festival and Plant Sale at Bartholomew’s Cobble, it is worth ruminating on how to select native plants for our gardens. And while nativism is widely discussed these days, establishing a selection policy is not easy.

The Self-Taught Gardener: The rules of division

Spring divisions, while not necessarily good for the U.S. Senate, are very good for the garden. Spring is the ideal time to divide and transplant many perennials, and a great time to create more plants.

The Self-Taught Gardener: Maintaining my cool

As political and seasonal temperatures continue to heat up in the months ahead, I plan on using shade to the best effect.

The Self-Taught Gardener: Gone with the wind

Can the right garden design save energy and the planet?

The Self-Taught Gardener: The fretting season

Everyone talks of the weather, but can we do something about it?

The Self-Taught Gardener: Spring sow

Seed starting for the overworked or lazy gardener can be easy if the timing is right.

The Self-Taught Gardener: Setting a Spring agenda

The last month has been stressful enough without having to think about spring and everything that needs to take place in the garden, especially since my only support so far, except for some bamboo stakes, is my Secretary of Wildlife Management, my dog Fred.

The Self-Taught Gardener: Landscapes that remember

Landscapes have the ability to help us hold onto our past while setting a course for a hopeful future. Their restoration and refurbishment is a part of our healing process as well.

The Self-Taught Gardener: The seed itself, or plant sex education

When it comes to the sexual reproduction of plants, our new Education Secretary may struggle for ways to teach the complexity of sexuality, both botanical and human.

The Self-Taught Gardener: Making an entrance

Good entrances provide visitors a clear path forward that helps the story of the garden unfold, perhaps, along the way, revealing the nature of the character who created them.
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