Sally Rowe
Rhododendrons and azaleas steal the show
Stands of perky echinacea and the scent of Phlox paniculata are a mid-summer treasure.
Cultivar 'Some Like it Hot'
Rhododendrons and azaleas steal the show
About Sally's Garden
In 1992, while living and working in New York City, Sally and her husband Anthony purchased an old rural farmstead in Sullivan County, NY.
Though she knew nothing about growing plants, and had never once stuck a trowel in the ground, she surprised herself (and everyone she knew) by falling in love with gardening. Soon after, they left their city jobs and city life for good.
This path leads down to the pond.
A view near my upper garden gate, with numerous ground covers and shade tolerant plants.
Early in the season, it's exciting to see the buds of the rhododendrons and daffodils unfurl.
This path leads down to the pond.
Thirty-plus years after donning garden gloves and Muck Boots, her accumulated gardening experiences are recounted in Digging Up the Grass: Stories from the Flower Garden. Laced with humor, authenticity, and optimism, the book is individual stories within a larger personal one about how a novice-turned-amateur gardening enthusiast—uneducated in horticulture, botany, and garden design, and woefully innocent of the inherent complexities of creating an ecosystem—alters a space both aesthetically and ecologically, and how the act of making that space likewise alters her.
The reader accompanies Sally as she designs an ornamental garden from scratch, shops for fragrant plants, digs holes, overplants, contends with the most egregious re-seeders, and much more—while she shares everything she has learned about gardening along the way.
“Sally’s Garden,” as it is called, includes over fifty flowering trees and shrubs, as well as dozens of perennial plant species and cultivars, with an emphasis on native and fragrant plants. On any given day, the scent of Azalea, Calycanthus or Viburnum can be found wafting through the air.
If you want to be notified about the future availability of Digging Up the Grass: Stories from the Flower Garden, please see my contact page, and follow me on Instagram @SallyRoweGardener.