Our Contributors

Association of Professional Landscape Designers, Connecticut Chapter

The Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) is an international organization founded in 1989. Its mission is to advance the profession of landscape design and to promote the recognition of landscape designers as qualified and dedicated professionals. APLD members adhere to a code of professional standards, encourage continuing education, and stay up to date about new developments and latest trends throughout the field. It offers members a certification program -- the only one of its kind -- that provides professional recognition to those designers who can pass a rigorous peer review program. It offers consumers trained professionals who can help them achieve the gardens they truly desire.

Lorraine Ballato

Lorraine Ballato is a freelance garden writer and communicator. She's also an Advanced Master Gardener. Lorraine had a gardening column that reached more than 15,000 readers and her articles can be found in a number of gardening publications. She also teaches classes and speaks to civic groups, garden clubs and other organizations on diverse subjects. For information about her book, Successful Self-Watering Containers: Converting Your Favorite Container to a Self-Waterer, visit www.SuccessfulSelfWateringContainers.com

Richard Bergmann

Richard Bergmann, ASLA, FAIA, is an award-winning landscape architect, architect and designer. He is the principal of Richard Bergmann Architects in New Canaan and a member of the The Connecticut Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Andy Brand

Andy Brand is the nursery and sales manager at Broken Arrow Nursery in Hamden. He is a past president of the American Rhododendron Society, Connecticut Butterfly Association and Connecticut Nursery & Landscape Association. He received the Young Nursery Professional Award from the New England Nursery Association. He's been involved with growing plants since childhood. Andy is also an amateur naturalist with a strong interest in native plants and attracting wildlife to yards. He received a BS and MS from the University of Connecticut in Horticulture and Plant Tissue Culture.

Gregory J. Bugbee

Greg Bugbee is an assistant scientist at The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven. He's an expert in soil fertility, turfgrass, potting media, composting, utilization of composted biosolids and control of weeds and algae in lakes and ponds. He holds state supervisory licenses in the care of trees, turf and ornamentals and aquatic weed control. Bugbee works with the public to solve soil and water related-problems and will visit sites on request.

Karen Bussolini

Karen Bussolini is an award-winning garden photographer, writer and lecturer published in books and magazines throughout the world. She's also a NOFA-Accredited Organic Land Care Professional and garden coach who has taught at The New York Botanical Garden. Karen gives illustrated garden talks and workshops. You can contact her at kbgarden@charter.net or at (860) 927-4122 from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm EST.

Nancy DuBrule-Clemente

Nancy DuBrule-Clemente is the owner of Natureworks Horticultural Services, an organic garden center, landscape design, consultation, installation and maintenance service in Northford. Started in 1983, the Natureworks crews and retail store have sold and used only organic fertilizers and pest control products since the business began. Education is the primary focus of Natureworks. Newsletters, handouts, plant catalog, website, articles for local newspapers and magazines, talks to groups all combine to spread the word about organic and sustainable practices. Nancy graduated from the Ratcliffe Hicks School of the University of Connecticut with a degree in Floriculture. She is a former board member and past president of NOFA/CT. She is the coauthor (with Marny Smith) of A Country Garden for your Backyard, published by Rodale Press in 1995. She is also the author of Succession of Bloom in the Perennial Garden, self published in 2004.

Sydney Eddison

Sydney Eddison has written several books on gardening. She has been honored by National Garden Clubs with their Award of Excellence for 2010. For her work as a writer, gardener, and lecturer, she has also received the Connecticut Horticultural Society's Gustav A.L. Melquist Award in 2002; the New England Wild Flower Society's Kathryn S. Taylor Award in 2005; and in 2006, The Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut's Bronze Medal. Her garden has been featured in magazines and on television. A former scene designer and drama teacher, Eddison lectures widely and is a frequent contributor to garden publications. She taught a course on color at the New York Botanical Garden. Her latest offering, Gardening for a Lifetime: How to Garden Wiser as You Grow Older, is available from Timber Press

Dan Furman

New for 2012. Cricket Hill Garden

Todd Harrington

Todd Harrington is a globally recognized pioneer in organic landscape management with more than 25 years of hands-on experience. He has helped revolutionize our understanding of soil and grass. Todd co-authored the nation's first organic lawn care standards and travels the world as a soil consultant, helping people and companies transition from chemical to sustainable methods. He is president and owner of Harrington's Organic Land Care in Bloomfield, an organic proactive lawn, tree and shrub care business founded in 1987 as "Organicare." Todd is certified by the Soil Food Web®, headed by Dr. Elaine Ingham, and Harrrington's Organic Land Care is an affiliated Soil Food Web® lab that tests every batch of compost and compost tea extract they manufacture. He's an author, a trainer, and a public speaker who has been invited to testify in front of the Connecticut State Legislature. Some of his papers have been used as the basis for legislation. He is a graduate of University of Massachusetts Stockbridge School of Agriculture and is a member of the Tree Care Industry Association, International Society of Arboriculture and Connecticut Tree Protection Association. He serves in a number of capacities for the Northeast Organic Farming Association.

Joene Hendry

New for 2012. joene's garden

Scott Hokunson

Scott Hokunson, founder of Blue Heron Landscape Design, has been involved in the horticultural industry since 1981. The company uses ecologically friendly materials, and native or non-invasive plants that bring out the natural beauty of their customers' properties. Based in the Farmington Valley, they provide sustainable garden design and restoration for clients throughout Northern Connecticut and Central Massachusetts.

Nancy Ballek MacKinnon

Nancy Ballek MacKinnon is an expert gardener and a partner in Ballek's Garden Center, located on a farm that has been in the family since the 1600s. Ballek's grows more than 10,000 species of plants and prides itself on gardening in harmony with nature. MacKinnon holds a degree in environmental horticulture from the University of Connecticut. She is the author of The Gardener's Book of Charts, Tables & Lists: A Complete Gardener's Guide (Capital Books, Inc. 2002).

Nick Mancini

Nick Mancini is an author, teacher, lecturer, garden consultant and coach. A certified Master Gardener, he specializes in organic vegetables, fruits and brambles. He teaches organic gardening at Norwalk Community College and for Fairfield and Westport Continuing Education. He has lectured to the CT Northeast Organic Farmers Association, garden clubs, horticultural societies and libraries throughout Connecticut and the New York Metro area. Mancini is a member of the Connecticut Master Gardeners Association, CT NOFA, Connecticut Community Garden Association and the Westport Community Garden, which he also advises. For more information, check out his website at www.organicgardeningsimplified.com

Tovah Martin

Tovah Martin is a freelance writer and author of more than a dozen books on gardening. The most recent is The New Terrarium (Clarkson Potter, 2009). She earned accreditation in Organic Land Care from NOFA and gardens fanatically indoors and out. Her lectures and terrarium-making workshops are scheduled throughout the state and country. For more information, check out www.tovahmartin.com

Dawn Pettinelli

Dawn Pettinelli is an Assistant Cooperative Extension Educator in the Department of Plant Science at the University of Connecticut. She manages and coordinates the activities of the UConn Home & Garden Education Center and the UConn Soil Nutrient Analysis Laboratory. Dawn has a B.S. in agricultural production / land resources from Montana State University and an M.S. in forest science with a minor in soils from Oregon State University. She is a former newspaper columnist.

Colleen Plimpton

Colleen Plimpton is a garden writer, lecturer, coach and teacher. She writes a weekly gardening column for the News-Times in Danbury. Her articles have appeared in numerous magazines and her new book, Mentors in the Garden of Life, was issued this summer by Park East Press. Visit her website at www.colleenplimpton.com for more information.

Rich Pomerantz

Rich Pomerantz photographs using digital and film cameras for shelter, travel, regional and horticultural magazines, and for corporations and advertising agencies. His stock images have appeared almost everywhere, from National Geographic for Kids to The New York Times, to Frommer's Travel Guide covers to Sunset and other horticultural book publishing companies and Sierra Club calendars. His stock library of horticultural images is extensive. He licenses many of these himself. His lifestyle and horticultural images are licensed through www.jupiterimages and www.agefotostock.com. His first book, Wild Horses of the Dunes, was published in 2004 and is in its second printing. His second book, Great Gardens of the Berkshires was published in the fall of 2008. A third book, Hudson River Valley Farms, was published in the fall of 2009. For more information about Rich Pomerantz Photography, visit www.richpomerantz.com.

Deborah Roberts

Deborah Roberts is the owner and principal designer of Roberts & Roberts Landscape and Garden Design in Stamford. They specialize in sustainable designs for both residential and commercial clients. Roberts is a member of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) and is a founding member of the APLD, Connecticut Chapter. She is the garden writer for the Stamford Patch.

Steve Silk

Garden writer and photographer Steve Silk blogs and writes about gardens, travel and the cosmos. In his own words, "Basically, I'm a home gardener who's gone round the bend. I became interested in plants more than 20 years ago, during extended travels in tropical South America and Southeast Asia. Some of the tropical plants seen during those journeys, along with hundreds of other plants from all parts of the world, now grow in my ever-expanding garden. I'm a former newspaper photographer, travel writer and was managing editor at Fine Gardening magazine. I now design, write about, and photograph gardens. I give lectures about them too."

Bryan Stolz

Bryan Stolz has worked as a landscape designer at Winterberry Gardens in Southington since graduating from UConn in 2007. He is a Connecticut Accredited Nursery Professional and has taken classes in landscape design at The New York Botanical Garden.

Pamela Weil

Pamela Weil writes and lectures about gardening and has been an instructor for master gardener classes. She was the owner, publisher and editor of Connecticut Gardener magazine from 1995 to 2009. She has lectured at numerous garden clubs and libraries, and has spoken at the Connecticut Flower & Garden Show in Hartford. She served as president of the Connecticut Master Gardener Association from 1996-98. She is a past co-chair of the Westport Tree Board and was a member of the Westport Conservation Commission. Weil also served as president of the Board of Directors of the Experiment Station Associates, a group formed to promote the work of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. To contact Weil about lectures, email her at pamelaweil44@gmail.com