Karen Bussolini

Karen Bussolini is an award-winning freelance garden photographer, writer and lecturer published in books and magazines throughout the world, a NOFA-Accredited Organic Land Care Professional and an eco-friendly garden coach. Her former newspaper column, “Good Gardening,” explored the connections between our gardens, our community and the environment. Elegant Silvers: Striking Plants for Every Garden (Timber Press 2005), which she photographed and co-authored, has kept her busy lecturing throughout the US. The Homeowner's Complete Tree and Shrub Handbook (Storey Publishing) features more than 600 of her photographs. Her sixth book,Naturescape Your Yard, written by Beth Young, was published in 2011.  

karen@karenbussolini.com

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Karen Bussolini Bio

Karen Bussolini has been a gardener as long as she can remember. She trained as a painter and had a career as an architectural photographer before specializing in garden photography, writing, lecturing and eco-friendly garden coaching. She is a NOFA (North American Organic Farmers Assoc.) Accredited Organic Land Care Professional and an eco-friendly garden coach.

Her photographs have appeared in Garden Design, Horticulture, House Beautiful, House and Garden, This Old House, Traditional Home, Better Homes and Gardens, The American Gardener, Perennials, Wildflower, Organic Gardening, Country Living Gardener, McCall’s, Home, Metropolitan Home, Yankee, The New York Times and in many other magazines and books published throughout the world.

She was sole photographer for six books: The Homeowner’s Complete Tree and Shrub Manual (Storey Publishing 2007), Elegant Silvers: Striking Plants for Every Garden (Timber Press 2005), which she co-wrote with Jo Ann Gardner, The Unsung Season: Gardens and Gardeners in Winter (Houghton Mifflin, 1995), A Country Garden for Your Backyard (Rodale Press 1993), Backyard Design: Making the Most of the Space Around Your House (Bulfinch Press, 1991, 1998) and Naturescape Your Yard (Timber Press, 2011).

Karen Bussolini’s writing has been published in Garden Design, House Beautiful, Better Homes and Gardens, This Old House, The American Gardener, Woman’s Day Specials, McCall’s, Wildflower, Threads, Connecticut Home and Garden, Green Scene, Reader’s Digest Books’ Home Improvements Manual and other publications. Her weekly columns in The Millbrook Independent and The Lakeville Journal explored the connections between gardens, the environment and the local community. She is known for her writing on gardening from personal experience.

She has presented slide lectures across the continent, to such groups as: National meetings: The Garden Writers Association, The Perennial Plant Association. Annual Meetings/Symposia: The Ecologial Landscape Alliance (ELA), The Master Gardeners of Connecticut, Oakland County Michigan Master Gardeners, Western Massachusetts Master Gardener Association (Keynote), The Herb Society of America Connecticut and Long Island Units, The Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut, Ohio State University’s P.L.A.N.T. Seminars, The Perennial Plant Association (PPA), The Kansas City Gardening Symposium, The Rochester Civic Garden Center Annual Spring Symposium, Green Bay Botanical Garden Fall Symposium, UConn Garden Conference, New Directions in the American Landscape. Lecture series: The New York Botanical Garden’s “American Gardening Lecture Series,” The Bonfils-Stanton endowed lecture series at Denver Botanic Gardens, Santa Fe Gardens’ “Garden Gurus” seminars, The Huntington Library Art Collections & Botanical Gardens, The Freylinghuysen Arboretum and The Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden lecture series, The Indianapolis Museum of Art, Brookside Gardens, Green Spring Gardens and “Gardens of the Mississippi” aboard the riverboat The American Queen. Horticultural organizations: The Horticultural Society of New York, The Massachusetts Horticultural Society, The Virginia Horticultural Foundation,  The San Diego Horticultural Society, The Southern California Horticulture Society, The Vancouver Hardy Plant Group, The Northwest Horticultural Society, The Whatcom Horticultural Society, The Willamette Valley Hardy Plant Group, The Connecticut Horticultural Society, The Horticultural Alliance of the Hamptons and innumerable Garden Club of America and Federated Garden Clubs local meetings. Trade Shows: The Pennsylvania Landscape and Nursery Association Annual (PLNA) Symposium, Ohio State University’s Nursery Short Course at the CENTS nursery trade show. Flower Shows: The Chicago Flower and Garden Show, the New England Spring Flower Show, The Connecticut Flower & Garden Show, The Rhode Island Flower Show, The Maymont Flower Show (Richmond, VA).

She has taught at The New York Botanical Garden, The Berkshire Botanical Garden, Denver Botanic Gardens, The Gardens on Spring Creek in Fort Collins, CO and Tohoono Chul Park in Tucson, AZ and conducted Master Classes for Master Gardeners.

Media appearances include PBS television programs “Cultivating Life,” KLRU’s “Central Texas Gardener” and “Oklahoma Gardening” and live radio shows in California, Colorado, Mississippi, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

She won Garden Writers Association awards for photography in 2001, 2004 and 2007.

When photographing, she sees the world through the eyes of a gardener and painter. Although she travels far and wide, her roots are sunk deeply into the soil of a deer-infested mountainside in South Kent, Connecticut.