She holds a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from Warren Wilson College and teaches at the New York Botanical Garden, the Berkshire Botanical Garden, and at the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens (San Marino, California), among other horticultural venues, and at Boston University and the University of New Mexico.

Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Gastronomica, Better Homes and Gardens, and other publications.

She is the author of Cultivating Words, coauthor with Nora Burba Trulsson of The Desert Southwest and Desert Southwest Gardens (Bantam Books) and was publisher and editor of DiRT: A Garden Journal from the Connecticut River Valley.

 A recent transplant to light-filled New Mexico, she thinks she has the best job in the world.