Meet Sarah
I was a child who loved reading about fairytales and legends, solving puzzles, and imagining other lives for myself. When I wasn’t daydreaming, I was getting told off for asking why (especially by the nuns at my Convent School) but I wasn’t trying to be difficult. Often the responses – when I got them – delighted me. Each one was a clue.
Growing up on a herb farm, I got to know the plants as friends too, especially when my mother, Elizabeth Peplow, taught me the myths surrounding each one. She was a garden historian, designing monastery gardens for many of the cathedrals in England. And just like her, I found it was the eccentric, the extraordinary and the overlooked elements of the gardens we visited together that were the most fascinating. The day I found out that even the simplest weed could have several different names depending on its geography and history blew my little mind. Here was a living puzzle to figure out, and writing gave me the tools to shape many possible answers.
In my late teens, I left my country herb garden to study journalism at the London College of Fashion, followed by a career working on national publications in both London and Edinburgh. I have long given up all hopes of being a fashionista because I enjoy sea swims and earth covered hands too much, but I’ve always stayed a little nerdy. For me, fashion, words and gardens all offer new ways to see the world, which is probably why I first fell in love with my husband when he tried to teach me Ancient Greek in Regents Park.
It’s only recently I’ve had a ‘proper’ garden and I’m enjoying making friends with all the weeds that are making their home here too. My current muse, Capability Brown, definitely would not approve!
I keep a note of all the gardens I visit on my blog and have a free monthly newsletter, Everyday Words, which you can sign up for here. Do follow me on Instagram too where I’m @sarahsalway