Early on in my career I began writing for magazines and newspapers to share what I was doing in the garden. This soon developed from a hobby to a profession, and I eventually served as a columnist for magazines such as Horticulture, House & Garden, and Martha Stewart Living. 

In 1989, I published my first book, In Search of Lost Roses, an account of people and adventures I had encountered while traveling around the country collecting antique roses. Thirty years later, this book remains in print, having become something of a classic itself.

More recently my writing, like my work, has focused on the environmental aspects of my craft.

In 2011, I served as editor and contributed two chapters to The New American Landscape, a collection of writings by leading authorities on sustainable gardening. The American Society of Landscape Architects praised this as one of the 10 best books of the year.

Essential Perennials was an opportunity to collaborate with my mentor, the great British horticulturist, Ruth Rogers Clausen, in assembling a comprehensive guide to garden perennials. For this project, we examined and rated 2,700 different plants and wrote what others have described as an invaluable gardening tool.

2016 saw the publication of Garden Revolution, a book I co-authored with the eminent ecologically-based landscape and garden designer Larry Weaner. An introduction to his style of crafting living and evolving landscapes, this was hailed by the American Horticultural Society as a best book of the year.

Nature Into Art (fall of 2019) provides an intimate view of New York's premier public garden, Wave Hill, together with the lessons that can be learned from its peerless gardeners and their style of gardening.

Currently, I write a weekly column, Be a Better Gardener, for the Berkshire Botanical Garden, which is syndicated to 26 newspapers with a readership of 250,000. You can find a copy of the most recent column here.

I blog regularly for GardenRant.

I also speak to garden clubs, horticultural societies, garden shows, and trade groups. For information about booking lectures, or to check the dates and locations of upcoming appearances, click here.

My interest in sustainable gardening led to a partnership in writing Garden Revolution with the celebrated landscape designer Larry Weaner. This book shares Larry’s extraordinary, ecologically-based method of design. 

Through exhaustive study of each site’s ecological character and the context of the surrounding ecosystem, Larry creates living and evolving designs that are not only beautiful, but also largely self-sustaining. While addressing the needs and tastes of clients, Larry also manages to accommodate wildlife and the native vegetation.

Working on this book changed my understanding of gardens, and it has found a passionate following among both amateur and professional landscapers.