Most gardeners with real dirt under their nails, if they’re being perfectly honest, will admit to several addictive behaviors.

• Never pass a seed rack without giving it a good once over (even if you already own enough seed to plant out several acres of farmland).
• Obsessively track the weather; day to day if not hour by hour.  Something is always happening…
• Too cold (dark, wet, frozen) to garden? Then READ about gardening!

I love to read.  I love books.  ALOT!  When I’m not out in the garden, I’m indoors surrounded by books, magazines, catalogs and all manner of printed material and a great deal of it has to do with the ceaselessly intriguing topic of gardening.  I count myself incredibly fortunate that I also get to write about gardening and even… be still my heart… write books about gardening! It’s not glamorous, glitzy or even remotely profitable but it is deeply satisfying.

Ken’s latest book, Natural Companions, is due out this spring

Ken Druse is an esteemed gardener, award winning photographer, and author of several books on my shelves. The Collector’s Garden: Designing with Extraordinary Plants(1996) struck an acquisitive note with me back in the day when I never met a perennial that didn’t follow me home only to be shoehorned in among it’s brethren in the horticultural hodgepodge I fondly called my garden.  Years later, as the dust settled on my buying habits and a deeper love for the landscape took root, I devoured Ken Druse: The Passion for Gardening (2003).

My new book!

All to say, I was thrilled when Ken interviewed me about my new book, Handmade Garden Projects: Step-by-Step Instructions for Creative Garden Features, Containers, Lighting & More, on his weekly radio show/podcast Real Dirt, where he talks plants and gardening trends with “well-known or soon to be discovered” gardeners.  Where I fall on that continuum is neither here nor there; mostly I’m honored to have been invited to chat with one of my gardening heroes.  You can listen and/or download the episode here.

Thanks Ken!