Our aim is to provide Northern Illinois gardeners with a central place to learn more about gardening and to share what we've already learned. Everyone, including the editor, writers and designer, lives and gardens here. We're all well aware of what it means to battle clay soils, prairie winds and schizophrenic weather patterns--while tending some of the richest soil on the planet.

The weekly columns are published on Sundays in The Daily Journal’s Life section and are also posted here. This site also features a calendar of area-wide gardening events and photos of local gardens and garden walks. Get to know our editor, Mary Ellen Smith, through her personal blog. Look over past issues of the magazine or search through topics in the Q&A section.

So drop by often. Because--just like the gardens we tend--we will be ever expanding and evolving.

Editor:

Mary Ellen Smith An award winning writer and features editor, Mary Ellen counts it a joy to be able to blend her 15-year-long career in journalism with a life-long love of gardening. A Master Gardener in her own right, our editor has tried her hand at growing everything from coreopsis and calycanthus to peanuts and pears. She still tends her own beds and borders and depends heavily on perennials and flowering shrubs to keep them looking good while she's off writing about other people's gardens.

Meet our regular contributors:

	Author of "In Search of Great Plants: The Insider's Guide to the Best Plants in the Midwest," Betty Earl is a Master Gardener, photographer and lecturer. She writes for numerous regional gardening magazines, is a garden scout for both Better Homes & Gardens and Midwest Living magazines and also serves as a regional representative for the Garden Conservancy. She lives and gardens in Naperville.
	A lifelong gardener, Robert F. Gabella has been involved in the horticulture industry since 1983. With an AAS in ornamental horticulture and a BA in business management, Bob is an Illinois Certified Nursery Professional, an independent consultant, hybridist, writer and photographer. He also tends prize-winning gardens at his Villa Park home.
	After completing culinary arts training at Joliet Junior College and working as executive chef at the Heartland Health Spa in Gilman, Alex Panozzo returned to his agricultural roots on the family farm in Limestone. He has been involved with the local Master Gardener program for a number of years and is active in our area’s agri-tourism industry.
	Glen O. Seibert, after graduating from Belford University's horticultural program, left the sunny south to acquaint himself with the mysteries of Zone 5 gardening. (Where he was surprised to learn that water can actually freeze and fall from the sky!) Active in the horticultural industry since 1994, this former associate editor for Garden Gate magazine now works as a writer, landscape designer and self-professed "gardening media mogul."
	Marcy Stewart-Pyziak teaches gardening and horticulture classes throughout the Chicagoland area - including those at the Morton Arboretum and the Chicago Botanic Gardens. With a degree in ornamental horticulture from the University of Illinois, this former Will County extension horticulturist also finds time to garden on her own 10 acres near Wilton Center.
	Ann Tice is a very busy gardener. Not only does she tend filled-to-the-brim borders in her own Champaign yard, but she also serves as an officer for that county's Master Gardener program and is a volunteer at the University of Illinois' Idea Garden. Ann loves experimenting with new plants, new colors and new combinations.
	Mollie Uftring developed a green thumb as a teenager working in the perennial beds at Hornbaker Gardens in Princeton, Illinois. After graduating from the University of Illinois with a degree in ornamental horticulture, she worked as a landscape designer in Ohio before returning to Illinois.

Design/Photography/Illustration:

Artists express their gifts in many ways and O&E designer and photographer Kim Carpenter is no exception. Whether she is drawing illustrations by hand, laying out pages on a computer, photographing gardens or designing plantings in her own yard, this award-winning design artist uses her natural talent and training to full advantage. A graduate of Millikin University with a degree in commercial art, Kim has been working in design for over 12 years and gardening for eight.