Welcome to The Variegated Gardener, your gateway to the best in home gardening and landscaping. We chose the name to reflect what this blog is about: Everything different, innovative, special, unexpected, surprising, multifaceted, colorful, and novel…but with plenty of basic, down-to-earth advice for the new gardener, as well.

Elise and Annie, the blog’s founders, garden in Southcentral Pennsylvania, growing flowers, vegetables, and landscaping. They are always on the lookout for anything new and interesting in gardening.

Annie is the author of “Accessible Gardening,” (2nd edition, DiaMed, 2010) a book of helpful tips and information for making gardening easier on the gardener…whether it’s a touch of arthritis or a more serious disability that makes it difficult to work in the garden.  She’s also written articles for “Country Journal” magazine and a garden column for a local magazine “Warm Welcomes,” in Hagerstown, Maryland.   She gardens on 2 acres, with the help of a dozen cats and chickens.

Elise is a novice with loads of curiosity, who started gardening/landscaping about 3 years ago in south/central Pennsylvania. With very deep concerns for the environment and the impact humans have on it, she has been actively seeking ways to reduce her own impact, whether through growing her own food, recycling/reusing, or just plain reducing.