Margaret's Humble Abode

Margaret Roach, former editorial director of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, traded in the corporate life for a full-time job as a gardener and blogger at her home in Copake Falls, New York, several years ago. I had the good fortune of visiting her beautiful little house in the Catskills in 2005 and can say, with assurance, that Margaret made the right choice. (I want to retire there myself!) The landscape is a verdant wonderland of artfully sown land, brilliantly designed and skillfully kept thriving with the know-how and wisdom that can only come from a truly passionate plant lover.

Margaret frequently cooks from the garden in her fantastic cottage kitchen.

Margaret's house, a small 1880s farmhouse perched midway upon a steep and wooded incline, is the perfect place to ensconce herself as she pens her new book. It is as beautifully rustic inside as it is outside. Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, founder of the uber-popular interior design blog Apartment Therapy, recently paid a visit to Margaret's home and snapped glorious photographs of its inner sanctuary. Click here to see how the loving, idiomatic quirks of Margaret's design philosophy have created an interior space filled with warmth and charm. I absolutely adore it.

An old writing desk in Margaret's living room plays host to a masterful vignette of collected treasures, from antique globes to a clunky vintage typewriter - a whimsical allusion to her 35-year career as a writer and editor.