Wednesday, October 21, 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: Judicious pruning

Our Self-Taught Gardener Lee Buttala gives good reasons to reconsider the age-old adage to prune after bloom.

The Self-Taught Gardener: Quietly overtaken

Good advice from our Self-Taught Gardener Lee Buttala: Nature renews herself. So can we.

The Self-Taught Gardener: Love in the time of corona

At a time when connections count, our Self-Taught Gardener Lee Buttala advises us to try Nature.

The Self-Taught Gardener: Spring fever!

At a recent flower show, our Self-Taught Gardener couldn't believe how obsessed people got over slight differences among varieties of snowdrops, until he got sucked in, too.

The Self-Taught Gardener: Barking up the right tree

How does an impatient gardener evolve into a patient observer of the world around him. Lee Buttala, our Self-Taught Gardener, explains.

The Self-Taught Gardener: Signs of Life

In the face of warming winters, our Self-Taught Gardener Lee Buttala finds hope in the common witch hazel, which can adapt to any weather.

The Self-Taught Gardener: Love and loss in the garden

Fred took me from my buttoned-down days in my Connecticut garden to my life as a single man in the Berkshires and gave me a new way of thinking about gardening.

The Self-Taught Gardener: Portrait of an Artist

Our Self-Taught Gardener Lee Buttala shows us how masterful pruning of trees can turn into an art form, and right now in the dead of winter is the time to start honing your skill.

The Self-Taught Gardener: Into the wild

An upcoming lecture at the Berkshire Botanical Garden will show why our Self-Taught Gardener, Lee Buttala, so loves the spirit of the wild garden.

The Self-Taught Gardener: Christmas holly and the divided house

Are you worried that the political environment may ruin your chances for stress-free holiday celebrations? Our Self-Taught Gardener brings us a lesson in cooperation from the holly plant.

The Self-Taught Gardener: Giving thanks

As we celebrate the season's bounty at our Thanksgiving table, our Self-Taught Gardener Lee Buttala is thinking about the alternative feast going on outdoors.

The Self-Taught Gardener: The third movement

Our self-taught gardener Lee Buttala feels that the landscape has a sense of movement like a musical composition, and the music of fall is perhaps the most dramatic of all.

The Self-Taught Gardener: Out on a limb

So you think all oaks are alike? Not so, and our self-taught gardener Lee Buttala explains why.

The Self-Taught Gardener: Windfalls

Just as squirrels put away nuts for the winter, our Self-Taught Gardener Lee Buttala puts away apple butter to sustain him and remind him of home.

The Self-Taught Gardener: After the fall

As squirrels gather acorns for winter sustenance, our Self-Taught Gardener Lee Buttala, takes in the beauty of fall as the emotional equivalent.

The Self-Taught Gardener: Friends for life

Unlike the showy annuals and perennials of the warm months, our Self-Taught Gardener Lee Buttala realizes that trees are more than fairweather friends...they are there for the long haul.
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