Tom Christopher

Tom Christopher has been reporting on gardening and environmental issues for more than twenty-five years, writing for a wide range of publications including the New York Times and Britain's Daily Telegraph, while serving as a columnist for magazines such as Martha Stewart Living and House & Garden. He is also the author of Water-Wise Gardening, a guide to new styles of gardening emerging from the need to conserve this resource. A graduate of the New York Botanical Garden School of Professional Horticulture, he contributes a blog about sustainable gardening, "Green Perspectives" (http://www.nybg.org/wordpress2/) to the botanical garden's website.

His own backyard has always been Christopher's laboratory. His experiments there have included the installation of a geothermal heating system for his house, the construction of a cold frame to produce salad crops right through the New England winter, and an emphasis on landscaping with low-input, high-yield species of flowers, shrubs, and trees. Christopher's goal has been to increase enjoyment of the home landscape while educating gardeners about the essential contribution they can make toward creating a more environmentally sustainable lifestyle and economy.