Aster Gardens: Practical, fun, imperfect gardens for everyone! Professional horticulturist, landscape designer, author of Kiss My Aster & Backyard Adventure and Mother of Gardening Memes .
Amanda Thomsen is a horticulturist, garden designer, keynote speaker, freelance writer, backyard consultant, and author living in suburban Chicago. Amanda wants to help the world live more sustainably (but without a load of effort and twice the fun!). Amanda has been working in gardens, garden centers and landscaping for the last 20 years. Her focus is bringing rule-breaking fun, a little kitsch and a lot of humor into an industry that is often thought of as stodgy and full of rules. Amanda speaks and gives classes at all-sized events throughout the United States.
Amanda Thomsen is the author of two books: Kiss My Aster: A Graphic Guide to Creating a Terrific Yard Totally Tailored to You (Storey 2012) and Backyard Adventure: Get Messy, Get Wet, Build Cool Things, and Have Tons of Fun (Storey 2019). She is half of The Garden Girls podcast and produces a one-woman gardening show, Mud Life Crisis. She has a monthly column in the garden center industry magazine, Green Profit. Amanda was chosen to attend the Better Homes and Gardens Stylemaker event in NYC in 2017 & 2018.
