Jim McCausland is a writer and editor for Sunset magazine and a senior editor for the Sunset Western Garden Book. He has had a long interest in the climate studies that have resulted in Sunset’s climate zones map, one of the most important features of the Western Garden Book. He lives and gardens in Port Orchard, Washington.

Daniel Mount hails from a long line of wandering gardeners, nurserymen and farmers.  He received his first shovel for his second birthday and began his gardening career in the sand box later that afternoon. Spending most of his youthful summers in a vegetable patch, on a farm, in parks, or in the woods, the curiosity of a scientist and the soul of a poet were awakened in him. Daniel went on to study fine arts and botany at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, from which he received a BS in Botany.

Drawn to the legendary gardening climate of the Pacific Northwest, Daniel moved to Seattle, Washington in 1988. Since that time he has created, maintained and consulted on gardens primarily in the Puget Sound Basin. The skills he acquired working in the passionate gardening environment of  Pacific Northwest have opened many doors. Daniel was invited to Cologne, Germany, where he worked on urban rooftop and courtyard gardens as well as rural estates. He was next called to Orto dei Semplici Elbano on the Island of Elba, Italy where he collected and designed with the unique flora of this island.  He maintains an ancillary connection to this garden to this day. Closer to home he has consulted on projects and designed gardens in and around Durham, North Carolina; Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Phoenix, Arizona.

Daniel has settled on a small farm nestled in a 150-acre bird sanctuary, which he shares with his partner, innumerable slugs and a bear, in the Snoqualmie River Valley east of Seattle. He enjoys growing organic vegetables and fruits, raising ducks and experimenting with flood tolerant plants. He creates gardens and also teaches and writes about plants and gardening.

www.mountgardens.com

Stephen Ingram lives on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada, where he focuses on photography and writes frequently about plants and plant ecology. He is a past president of the Bristlecone Chapter of the California Native Plant Society. His images can be seen at www.ingramphoto.com.

Noel Gieleghem works in the legal profession by day, but assists his partner Brandon Tyson with his garden design work out of their home in Napa, California. He is an avid gardener with a particular interest in the Chilean vine, Lapageria.

Julie Lane-Gay, a native of Northern California, has been an avid gardener in the Vancouver area of British Columbia for the past twenty years. Her particular passions are for climbing plants such as clematis. In the 1990s, she ran a mail order nursery, Quail Hollow Climbers and Perennials; she continues to try any new clematis she can find.

Andrea Testa-Vought lives with her husband and two teenage children in Palo Alto, California, where she enjoys gardening in her Bernard Trainor designed garden. She is currently studying botanical illustration at the San Francisco Botanical Garden.

Paula Panich, a garden writer and writing teacher, lives in Los Angeles and in Idyllwild, California, where she rents a writing shack in the woods, barely disguised from its origins as a 1941 mail-order garage from Sears. She has recently fallen in love with the volcanic rock, grasses, lichens, and mosses of Iceland.

Robert D Raabe is Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology at University of California, Berkeley. He introduced a faster method of composting was commonly known as the “Berkeley method” or “fast composting”, this method produces finished compost in as little as 14 to 21 days. He is also the author of The Ortho Home Gardener’s Problem Solver.

Debra Prinzing is an award-winning author, speaker, and a leading advocate for American-grown flowers. She is the creator of Slowflowers.com, a free online directory that helps consumers find florists, designers, studios, and farms that supply American grown flowers. Debra is the producer and host of the Slow Flowers Podcast with Debra Prinzing, which is available for free download on iTunes or at www.debraprinzing.com.

Frederique Lavoipierre is the creator and author of “Garden Allies,” a series that ran for 10 years in Pacific Horticulture magazine. She also teaches classes and workshops on sustainable landscaping, including ecological principles, habitat gardens, beneficial insects, soil ecology, freshwater ecology, and aquatic invertebrates. Follow her on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/Garden.Allies.

Nan Sterman is a botanist and educator who is dedicated to helping people garden successfully in California’s dry, Mediterranean climate. Nan designs gardens, speaks to groups around the country, and leads international garden tours. Her public TV program A Growing Passionconnects people, plants, and the planet. Nan has authored three gardening books and founded the San Diego Gardener Facebook group which serves thousands of members across Southern California. Nan Sterman’s Garden School offers a monthly membership as well as stand-alone classes.

Bob Lilly is one of the original designers of the Northwest Perennial Alliance Borders at the Bellevue Botanical Garden. By day, he is a sales representative for several major nurseries in the Pacific Northwest. He also maintains the gardens at the houseboat community where he lives on Lake Union.

Richard G Turner Jr is the editor emeritus of Pacific Horticulture. After receiving degrees in architecture and landscape architecture from the University of Michigan more than thirty years ago, he escaped to California, where he has worked in the fields of garden design, public garden education and administration, and garden publishing. His small, chemical-free San Francisco garden provides habitat for wildlife while serving as a test ground for mediterranean-climate plants.