I was born in Chicago in 1951.  In 1955, we moved to Lancaster, Ohio where I completed the first grade.  I attended second grade in Grand Island, Nebraska and third through six grades in Lincoln, Nebraska.  In 1963 we moved to Riverside, California where I finished High School, graduating in 1969.   I was drafted for the Vietnam War in 1971 which I evaded by being in jail when my induction notice was delivered (this as well as much more about growing up in California in the 1960’s is explained, embellished and elucidated in my book Disappearing Highway, a draft dodgers diary).  After being released from prison I followed my parents to Hampton, Virginia and drove a city bus for ten months before moving to Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho where I attended North Idaho College.  It was there I met Bob Murray, a botany professor who inspired me to pursue botany as a career.  I finished a bachelor's degree in Botany and Plant and Soil Science at the University of Maine in Orono in 1979.  In 1981 I was hired by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation as garden foreman for the Governor's Palace and spent the next 15 years caring for the landscape at Colonial Williamsburg.  In 1996 I founded the Colonial Garden, establishing gardening as a historic trade and for the next 20 years practiced gardening using only 18th century methods, plants and materials while interpreting the trade to the public.  I retired in 2016 and went to work for my wife, Denise, managing the production of over 100 species of native, herbaceous  plants for her design and nursery business, Sassafras Farm.  In 2019 we sold the farm and moved to Kilmarnock, on the Northern Neck of Virginia.  In 2018 I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.  For me, it is a disease of the extremities, affecting my toes, fingers and tongue.  I am unsteady on my feet, I can barely sign my own name and I have a difficult time conversing with people, which is particularly frustrating for a person who, literally, talked for a living.  Some days, just going out the door in the morning is an adventure, but it is an adventure I intend to continue and I invite you to join me by reading my blog, The Garden Advisor.