Posts By

Katherine Rowe

Katherine is a garden professional with a background in design, conservation, and public horticulture. She holds a master’s degree in landscape architecture and a love of gardens, parks, and natural lands alike. Katherine enjoys exploring gardens and wild spaces through work and travel and designing gardens with nature at the helm.

Close-up of Tatsoi plant, one of the popular Fall Asian greens, showing dense rosettes of dark green, spoon-shaped leaves with short, sturdy stems.

Edible

Asian Greens for Fall and Winter Gardens: Beyond Bok Choy

Asian greens are nutrient-dense, easy to grow, and boast rich flavor profiles. Moving easily from garden to table, the quick-growing crops produce high yields during the cool season. Gardening expert Katherine Rowe explores Asian greens with broad appeal to grow in the fall for ready harvests.

A field of perennials deer hate with tall stalks and clustered purple and pink blossoms.

Ornamental Gardens

13 Perennials Deer Absolutely Hate

No perennial is completely deer-proof, but those with primary qualities they find distasteful are the first line of defense against extensive damage. Garden expert Katherine Rowe explores top-rated perennials on the unpalatable, deer-unapproved scale.

Close-up of a gardener's hands wearing red gloves with blue pruning shears, trimming a hosta plant, showing the process of September garden cleanup.

Gardening Tips

September Garden Cleanup: Cut Back These Perennials Now

September and the start of fall mark a turn toward cool-season planting, new garden additions, and mellow days outside. Basic garden cleanup this month ensures healthy plants and soils as we enjoy the final flush of growth ahead of cold weather. Garden expert Katherine Rowe explores September garden cleanup and perennials that benefit from cutback this month.

Italian nonna garden with the elder lady wearing a hat while holding plants with other greens in the background

Gardening Inspiration

How To Garden Like an Italian Nonna

To seamlessly weave the garden into daily life, take cues from an Italian nonna. The favorite grandmothers know what to grow, how to grow it, and what to do with the yield. For access to the most flavorful, freshest food, there’s much to learn. Join gardening expert Katherine Rowe in how to incorporate lessons from the Italian orto into our own kitchen gardens.

Swiss chard, a fast-growing vegetable with bright yellow succulent stems and broad, dark green, wrinkled leaves, grows in a row in a sunny garden.

Vegetables

11 Fast-Growing Vegetables You Can Plant Now and Harvest Before Frost

For a quick turnaround now before heavy frost, we rely on fast-growing vegetables to fill the seasonal transition. Adaptable, they germinate in warm conditions and develop as the weather cools, even tolerating light frost. Garden expert Katherine Rowe outlines speedy crops to sow now for a nutritious bounty before cold weather.

A grassy field shows a large, rounded native tree in full white bloom, which you can plant in September.

Trees

15 Native Trees You Can Plant in September

Native trees, from stately giants to smaller-scale specimens, bring all-season landscape appeal. Their intrinsic and ecological value add to our garden diversity, and their adaptability grants them strong performance tailored ot our growing areas. Gardening expert Katherine Rowe explores native trees to plant in September for healthy roots leading into winter.

Delicate pink and white star-shaped blossoms surrounded by variegated green and yellow leaves in a four-season garden.

Ornamental Gardens

Creating a Four-Season Garden: 13 Plants for Year-Round Interest

A four-season garden brims with visual interest and ecological benefits year-round. A diversity of species brings attributes of varying fruits, flowers, and foliage throughout the year. Some selections play the role of all-season performers. Gardening expert Katherine Rowe highlights plants that bring unique qualities in all seasons for reliable garden appeal.

A close-up shot of a small composition of vibrant flowers being watered with a watering can, showcasing fall garden watering

Gardening Tips

Fall Garden Watering Schedule: How to Adjust for Shorter, Cooler Day

After the late swelter of summer, we look forward to cooler days and a more casual garden agenda. To keep our gardens fresh and prepare plants for overwintering, weathering through frost offers the best foundation. Gardening expert Katherine Rowe explores how to water the fall garden in fluctuating seasonal conditions and cool, short days.

Polygonatum plant with arching stems, broad green leaves, and dangling white flowers, resembling hosta lookalikes in the garden.

Ornamental Gardens

11 Hosta Lookalikes For Different Garden Conditions

Hostas enchant with bold foliage and mannerly habits punctuated with summer bloom spikes. Widely accommodating across garden styles, they fill in partially shaded borders and beds with classic appeal. To mirror their merits in garden areas outside their preferences or to complement the composition, hosta lookalikes bring their own perennial appeal.