About

Hi, my name is Larry Hodgson and I’m the Laidback Gardener. The web site you’re visiting is my home turf. I write a daily gardening blog: yes, an article a day, 365 days a year. I’m that passionate about gardening!

Why “Laidback Gardener”?

Because I watch other people garden and they waste so much time carrying out useless, barely useful or even harmful tasks. Or feeling guilty about the things they think they ought to be doing, but don’t have the time or energy to do. And yet gardening can be so incredibly simple. 

So, I work on training people to let the plants do the work. It’s not lazy gardening—there’ll also be a bit of physical activity involved in gardening—, but laidback. It’s a question of attitude … and respect for life, human and plant.

The Guy Behind the Laidback Gardener

Are you interested in learning a bit more about me? Well, here’s my story.

My dad and I.

I am not a trained horticulturalist. I learned by doing, starting with my father who taught me how to garden and I’ve gardened ever since I was old enough to pick up a child’s shovel. I actually studied modern languages at the University of Toronto and Laval University and, in fact, ended up living in Québec City, in the heart of French Canada, so speak French far more often than English. Of course, I studied horticulture voraciously all that time and still do today, but through reading and testing, not in a classroom setting.

I trained to teach languages and did so for a while. But the call of gardening was just too great. I started writing articles for gardening magazines as a sideline until it wasn’t a sideline any more, but a career. It’s the perfect forum for me: I love to garden and I love to write. Give me a computer and I can concoct a gardening article in no time, anywhere: airplanes, hotel lobbies, restaurants, etc., even standing in a phone booth (remember those?) during a rainstorm.

I worked as editor-in-chief for several gardening magazines over the years—HousePlant MagazineFleurs, Plantes et JardinsÀ Fleur de Pot and Houseplant Forum—and contributed articles to more than 30 others in both North America and Europe, including Canadian Gardening, HarrowsmithQuébec VertFine GardeningRebecca’s GardenJardins de France and Organic Gardening.

On the set of my TV show.

I’ve also done a lot of radio and television work for various sources over the years, notably the Canadian Broadcast Corporation and Radio Canada, and currently have a weekly radio show on gardening at CKIA-FM in Québec City, a weekly segment on Radio Ville-Marie in Montréal and a spring through summer weekly television show, Dans mon jardin avec Larry Hodgson, on the TéléMag network in Québec.

I have lectured widely on gardening throughout North America and Europe, recently adapting to virtual lectures during the COVID-19 crisis. But I’m trying now to cut down on lectures in public: there’s just too much travel time involved.

Yes, these are all mine … and there are plenty more!

I’m the author of over 60 books on gardening in both English and French, including The Garden Lover’s Guide to CanadaComplete Guide to HouseplantsMaking the Most of ShadePerennials for Every PurposeAnnuals for Every Purpose, and Houseplants for Dummies,

I also had the honor of being president of the Garden Writers Association (now Garden Communicators International) from 2013 to 2015 and have won several awards for my writing, including the prestigious 2006 Garden Media Promoter Award offered by the Perennial Plant Association. 

On a garden tour in Hawaii.

For over 30 years, I also led garden tours to over 30 countries, although health issues have recently forced me to give up that particular aspect of my career. No regrets! I took full advantage of the possibilities while I could, some years doing 10 or more tours and traveling for a total up to of 13 weeks, and now I have my memories and hundreds of thousands of slides to show for it. Such a wonderful life!

The greenhouse is my favorite room.

And then there is my garden, all around my bungalow in the suburbs of Québec City. It is my passion, jammed full of strange and unique plants (yes, I’m an untamable plant collector), having long removed any semblance of a true lawn to gain more space for my trials. It’s quite the jungle and I couldn’t care less. The joy of watching all these amazing plants do their thing outweighs any desire I might have had for an organized landscape.

My garden in winter.

My climate is a cold one (USDA hardiness zone 3, AgCan hardiness zone 4) with snow for about 6 months each winter, so I do write a lot about cold-climate gardening … but also about just about any other aspect of gardening. There is really no limit to my gardening curiosity. I’ll grow anything!

There you go! You now know more about me and why I took on this crazy task of writing a daily gardening blog. Two blogs, actually, as I do one in French as well.

I intend to garden—and to write about it!—till I drop. And I bet I’ll do so!

32 comments on “About

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  13. I love your blog! Long live the laidback gardener, long live bashar Al AssAd!

  14. Lindsay Sovil

    One of my poppy flowers did something very unusual this summer. The blossoms look like pom poms. I have a photo I could send if you’d like to see it, but I don’t know how to send it to you.

  15. Vivi Potter

    I came here to know more about pampas grass, hopefully to try to plant it on my backyard. Luckily, I read your article first and now I won’t be planting any since I also live in Quebec. Very interesting blog you have here! Glad you are sharing your expertise here. Thank you!! P.S.: Modern Languages is the best career indeed! 😉

  16. is there a way to signup for your blog

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  20. Vanya Graham

    The best information in this one article than anywhere else. I have tried to grow air plants indoors all summer with limited succuss maybe i wont take their dying to heart as much and know what to do to give the beauties a chance to thrive.
    Thank you thank you.

  21. Shirley McCarthy

    I’m thrilled to discover this English version of your French blog! I’ve always enjoyed your articles in Fleur Plantes et Jardins (I learned nearly everything I know about gardening from that magazine), but with French as my second language and not being as fluent as in English, I have a more complete understanding. Thanks for sharing your extensive knowledge in an easy to understand and often humerous manner.

  22. Heather Allan

    Hey Larry:
    The citronelle plant did last through the winter so I bought 2 new ones this year. One for the front door and one for the back.
    heather.

  23. Caroline Williams

    Proud that the best information comes from a Canadian! I am a Canadian living in Switzerland and found your article on non-commercial plants interesting. I didn’t know it at the time but the begonias I propagated from her’s are begonia Lucerne. I see now they can grow to be huge. I have them in 12 cm pots and pinch them back regularly. Now I will let a few reach their maximum. Thanks for the great blog.

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