top trees for the home garden, plus I'm on a cornmeal bender (get the recipes!)

I couldn't resist the soft polenta on the menu one recent cold night at a local restaurant -- creamy-style, and laced with cheese. With that warming, cozy meal's memory in mind, I bought a pound of organic cornmeal, imagining simple, filling suppers-to-be. Apparently I'm on a cornmeal bender, from soupy-style farinata with greens and garlic, to crispy cakes for supper, and even biscotti laced with coconut for dessert. A batch of polenta "fries" is coming up next. Things could be worse! (Get the recipes and join me.)

You never know who'll you'll bump into at the public-radio station in tiny Sharon, Connecticut. The latest: Dr. Kim Tripp, a botanist who directed the gardens and science at the New York Botanical Garden when I was editorial director at Martha Stewart. She is an expert in woody plants who, as I did, chose to start over at midlife.

We spent time together talking exceptional trees for the home garden, and also heard her second-act story -- how at age 50 she took student loans and went to medical school, becoming an osteopathic physician who now practices across from the radio studios where our conversation took place.

missed it last time?

• pruning Hydrangea paniculata, and other q&a's
• how birds manage in winter: survival strategies