Garden Coach Susan Harris

About Me

I started garden coaching in 2004, and have since been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, Associated Press coverage, on "CBS Sunday Morning," (photo right) and lots more media outlets.
I founded a garden coach directory and the Garden Coaching Blog, and have mentored new coaches across the U.S.
I'm a founder and writer of the award-winning team blog GardenRant.
My individual blog is called the Sustainable Gardening Blog.
And the large how-to-garden site that I edit and contribute to is called Sustainable Gardening.
I'm also a Master Gardener, garden writer and activist for urban gardening. Here's lots more about me.

Some people want gardens, so I visit and assess the whole lot, find out their tastes and practical requirements,then offer design suggestions, draw borders, and suggest plants for the site, including tips about where to find plants, tools and mulch. I often come back as their garden progresses, any time they need help planning the next improvement in their garden.
Some people need to know what's in their just-purchased yard, so I tell themwhat to keep, what to yank, and how to take care of it all. This usually involves teaching them how to prune their shrubs. Often requires no follow-up.
Many have have overgrown shrubs and need to be shown how to get them under control and make them much more beautiful and healthy.
Experienced gardeners sometimes need a new pair of eyes on their garden, or permission to remove a plant they hate. ("But it's been there forever." Exactly.)
Month-by-month maintenance schedules are just what some people need — because I gear them to the exact collection of plants in their garden.

Naturalistic, full, lush, beautiful, earth-friendly. I call it Sustainable Gardening and it's inspired by Mother Nature.
Low-Maintenance, and the maintenance I teach is the high-pleasure, low-drudgery kind. Your garden is there for your enjoyment, not your enslavement.

I started the Worldwide Directory of Garden Coaches and was happy to see it grow so much I needed a more tech-savvy coach to help me with it. Done, and it's cooler than ever.
Of course we had to have a Gardening Coach Blog, too. It's for and about garden coaches. Visit us, or contribute!
If you can't find a coach in the Directory, read "Finding a Coach Near You."
Here's a happy coaching story: The Making of a Gardener. And one more, the story of a guy in New York who hired me to turn his mom into a gardener.

Photo by Jamie Rose for the New York Times.