Beth Botts

Beth Botts writes about gardens and nature for publications including the Chicago Tribune, Organic Gardening, Country Gardens and Chicagoland Gardening and has received several writing awards from the Garden Writers Association. She is the author of Illinois, Indiana & Ohio Month-by-Month Gardening: What to Do Each Month to Have a Beautiful Garden All Year (February 2016, Cool Springs Press). Raised on the South Side of Chicago by her environmentalist mother, an organic gardener, Botts now has a garden that is mostly in deep shade on the north side of a four-story apartment building, but she manages to grow roses, prairie perennials and vegetables in spots where the sun sneaks in. A Master Gardener and a volunteer tree steward, she was formerly a longtime editor and reporter for newspapers including the Chicago Tribune. Currently, she is senior writer at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, in addition to her freelance writing. Her website is thegardenbeat.com.