My name is Judith Fetterley. I live, write, and garden in upstate New York. I am also the owner and manager of Perennial Wisdom, a garden design consultation service.
I am passionate about plants, passionate about design, and passionate about words. I have been a writer since 3rd grade, a gardener for over 35 years, and a garden designer for 16 years. I love to write about my experiences as a gardener and designer because the community of gardeners and of those interested in gardening is large and generous and always ready for news.
“Out in the Garden,” my weekly newsletter and the title of my memoir in progress, tracks the emotional life of one gardener as she ventures out. My installments also offer what the poet Emily Dickinson called nature’s “news,” hopefully told in a way that is engaging, humorous, and provocative. But mostly I write about gardening as a way of telling stories about what it means to be human.
Before becoming a semi-professional gardener, I taught American literature, feminist theory, and expository writing at the University at Albany/State University of New York. I wrote on the intersection of feminist theory and American literature and developed a doctoral program focused on writing studies. Prioritizing teaching excellence in a research University context was a challenge, and so I was honored to achieve the rank of Distinguished Teaching Professor. My last academic publication, essentially my valedictory, was titled “Teaching and My Work” and it raised the question of the cost to the academic community when faculty thinking of research but not teaching as our work. (see an excerpt from this essay here.)
After 30 years of professing, I needed to do something different and so I began my second career as a garden designer. I enrolled at the Institute for Ecosystem Studies, originally affiliated with the New York Botanical Garden, where I could earn a Certificate in Garden Design. A year after leaving the University, I opened Perennial Wisdom, my small garden design business. While I no longer do installation and maintenance work, Perennial Wisdom continues as a consultancy aimed at assisting the average gardener who wants an above-average garden that doesn’t cost a fortune and that he or she can maintain themselves. As Perennial Wisdom I also continue to offer, on site or virtually, a wide variety of lectures on various gardening topics. Classes in my gardens can also be arranged.
A few years ago, I became an Albany Country Master Gardener, answering calls that come to our hotline, sharing information on soil tests and Asian jumping worms at local farmers’ markets, and helping to manage our extensive demonstration gardens.
I moved to my current location roughly 25 years ago and immediately began to garden there. Over the years my garden grew, as gardens tend to do, until one year I decided to remove those parts of the garden that were not earning their keep in rewards of beauty, interest, or demonstration value. I now have a manageable garden that also serves as my business card. It keeps me nicely occupied and always provides material for new stories and reflections.
You can learn more about my services here, and about my talks and classes here.