Lorraine Ballato

As a freelance garden communicator, I wrote regular gardening columns for over 10 years, reaching more than 15,000 homes in western Connecticut. My writings include contributions to the section on "woodies" for the White Flower Farm Spring catalogs in addition to having my writing and photographs published regularly in Edible Nutmeg, Connecticut Gardener, and other horticultural publications.

As a professional horticulturist and Advanced Master Gardener, I have spoken on numerous gardening radio shows from Alaska to Connecticut. I'm an instructor at the New York Botanical Garden, in the Connecticut Master Gardener Program and have taught for The Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut. I speak at regional symposiums, flower shows, to civic groups and garden clubs, among other organizations. I'm known for my good humor, charm, and encyclopedic knowledge of ornamentals and edibles, creating talks that are both instructive and highly entertaining on a broad range of subjects which I tailor to each audience, using impressive images from a  sizable slide collection. I recently published a book, Success With Hydrangeas, A Gardener's Guide in addition to my first book, Successful Self Watering Containers: Converting Your Favorite Container to a Self-Waterer.

In my role as an Advanced Master Gardener, I work with a sizeable team of gardeners of all levels in a 3000 square foot organic fruit and vegetable garden in Fairfield County, CT. From April through October each year, we grow and donate nearly 700 pounds of produce to homeless shelters and food banks, train master gardener interns and assist the gardening public on a weekly basis. It's some of the most meaningful work I do.

The Connecticut garden that my husband and I have created is not only my laboratory but has been the subject of magazine articles and has been on several garden tours.