Colleen Plimpton

A post-WW2 baby boomer, my life has taken me from a rural hometown in upstate New York to many areas of the USA as the wife of an itinerant IBM'er.

My first career was clinical social work, but now, as a professional garden communicator I pen a weekly gardening column, write magazine articles on various aspects of gardening, and maintain a busy garden lecture schedule. I also coach gardening and work in my own 1-acre ornamental garden. I'm busy!

Last year I was a chapter author in a Woodstock retrospective, Woodstock Revisited. This year's book is a garden memoir, Mentors in the Garden of Life, a series of linked stories concerning people and plants and the lessons of horticulture and life I've learned from them. Each chapter, from the 1950's to present day, profiles a specific plant, person, and lesson.

We all have much to share; we are all mentors. My book is meant not only to impart gardening knowledge, but also to limn the importance of passing knowledge on in the fullness of time.

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