Claire Splan is a gardener and freelance writer in Alameda, California. After buying her first house in 2002, she began taking horticulture classes and remaking the gardens at her home, writing about her experiences there and her growing interest in gardening and environmental issues at her garden blog, An Alameda Garden (alamedagarden.blogspot.com). A member of the Garden Writers Association, Claire has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Rosebud, and Firsts magazine and reviews gardening books for the New York Journal of Books (www.nyjournalofbooks.com). She has degrees from the U...