About The Spruce

Barbara Gillette is a Master Gardener, Herbalist, beekeeper, and journalist with three decades of experience propagating and growing fruits, vegetables, herbs, and ornamentals. From sowing seed to harvest, from heirloom tomatoes to wild orchids, her gardening experience encompasses first hand knowledge of best practices for success. 

She has worked with the University of Kentucky Department of Agricultural Communications and with several commercial greenhouse operations and was past president of the Anderson County Farmer's Market Cooperative. She has cultivated and planted more than 150 shrubs and trees on her eight acre property over the past 23 years.

Sonya Harris is an award-winning gardening expert with two decades of experience teaching and sharing her extensive knowledge about small space gardening. She is a Master Gardener with experience in low-income gardening and growing foods and plants in poor soil conditions. Sonya has written for Martha Stewart Living, won South Jersey Magazine’s One to Watch Award, and is also a member of The Spruce Gardening and Plant Care Review Board.

Sonya established the nonprofit The Bullock Garden Project, Inc. to assist schools and community organizations serving large populations of children/youth who are at-risk, receiving special education services, and/or low-income and food insecurity with establishing and implementing gardens to not only teach across the curriculum but to also inspire careers as future green industry leaders.

Julie Thompson-Adolf is a Master Gardener and author with over 30 years of experience with year-round organic gardening, seed starting and saving, growing heirloom plants, perennials, and annuals, and sustainable and urban farming.

She’s a Master Gardener, served on the National Garden Bureau’s Plant Nerds team, and joined with television host P. Allen Smith for Garden2Blog. Julie is a member of Garden Comm: Garden Communicators International, Slow Food, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, and many other environmental and gardening groups. 

Cathy is a Master Gardener who received her certification in 2019. She has over three decades as a home gardener designing, planting, and maintaining ornamental flower, vegetable, and herb gardens.

She previously volunteered at Central Texas College, providing fresh produce, edible flowers and herbs for students participating in the Culinary Arts Program.

Debra is a Master Gardener who received her official title in 2015. She has over 30+ years of experience as a home gardener experienced in designing, planting, and maintaining cottage-style perennial, vegetable, and four-season container gardens.

She is the lead gardener in a Plant-A-Row, which is a program that offers thousands of pounds of organically-grown vegetables to local food banks. She is also the author of several gardening presentations on topics including perennial plant primers, hardy perennials for different zones, and vegetable gardening.

Johnathan C. Brewer II is a licensed General Contractor specializing in kitchen, bath remodels, and general construction. With over two decades of professional experience, his current business, Brewer Builds, specializes in residential and light commercial renovations and remodels.

Kelly Bacon is a licensed general contractor with over 40 years experience in construction, home building and remodeling, and commercial building. 

He has commercially installed custom wall panels in healthcare, education, government, and commercial office projects in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, Idaho and Utah.

Richard Epstein has been a licensed master plumber for over 30 years and specializes in estimating as well as design and engineering for plumbing systems. In 1988, Richard became New York City's youngest licensed plumber at 25 years old.

He currently works for Par Plumbing & Heating, one of New York's largest union plumbing construction companies.

Larry Campbell is an electrical contractor with 36 years of experience in residential and light commercial electrical wiring. He worked as an electronic technician and later as an engineer for the IBM Corp.

His residential projects include wiring homes, electrical repairs and maintenance, electrical renovation projects, and home inspection corrections. His commercial projects include store build-outs, commercial bath projects, and automotive dealership projects.

He is currently a member of The Spruce Home Improvement Review Board.

Rhea Mehta, PhD, is an award-winning toxicologist and healthcare innovator who for the past decade has worked to empower people to lead healthier lives, starting in their homes. Rhea holds a PhD in Toxicology, with over 15 scientific publications, and a certificate in integrative health coaching. 

Rhea is a current practitioner at the Center for Advanced Medicine and the Canadian Center for Integrative Health in Toronto, where she works with patients as part of an integrative care system to identify and eliminate toxins within their homes and lives.

Since 1999, Anjie has been designing beautiful, nourishing indoor and outdoor spaces informed by the ancient practice of feng shui. Her focus is to create nurturing and supportive environments, tailoring her practice to each client’s specific needs.

She is the co-founder of the Mindful Design Feng Shui School and a certified feng shui consultant for the BTB Feng Shui Masters Training Program. She’s also a practicing New York State-registered architect and LEED accredited professional. Her work and writing have been featured in dozens of publications including the New York Times, Elle Decor, Buzzfeed, and more.

Anjie graduated with a degree in architecture from the College of Environmental Design at the University of California at Berkeley.

David Beaulieu has been writing for The Spruce since its launch in 2017 and spent 10 years working in nurseries before he started writing about gardening full time. 

Prior to joining The Spruce, David spent more than 15 years writing about landscaping and gardening for About.com. He has been interviewed by numerous publications such as Woman’s World and American Way and was a regular contributor to Do!, the home and garden magazine published by Highbury House. David has also appeared on "Ask Andrea," the nationally syndicated radio show targeted to do-it-yourself home and garden enthusiasts.

David earned his B.A. and Masters in classics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Amy joined the Dotdash team as Design Director for The Spruce, The Spruce Pets, The Spruce Crafts, and MyDomaine in March 2021. She leads the design of both sites and develops brand visuals of digital and physical products. She is an avid DIYer and home decor enthusiast.

Prior to joining Dotdash Amy was the Art Director for Insider Studios, the branded content team for Business Insider and Insider where she designed for numerous legacy brands such as Cartier, Chase, Lincoln, and United.

Jamie is the Senior Editorial Project Manager for The Spruce, The Spruce Pets, The Spruce Crafts, and MyDomaine. Jamie is an organization pro, having worked in higher education for seven years.

Before joining The Spruce team, Jamie worked as a consultant with individuals and nonprofit organizations. Her work consisted of helping immigrants and first-generation high school students pursue higher education. As a multilingual writer and translator, she continues to aid underserved communities. At The Spruce, Jamie manages our Diversity and Anti-Bias initiatives, as well as works to help make sure all of our content is accurate through Fact-Checking.