I moved to the Cincinnati area in 2004. Prior to that, I spent six years as a Master Gardener in San Antonio, Texas, where I was involved in landscaping and gardening programs using drip irrigation, native plants, and design elements for low-maintenance, drought-tolerant landscapes. I was Director of the Outdoor Classroom program in an elementary school for five years, taught vegetable gardening weekly at an orphans' home, and volunteered at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. I organized annual clean-up and planting campaigns at a middle school for four years, helped the students plant 55 trees around campus, and designed a new front landscape for the school that won a beautification award from the City of San Antonio.

In Cincinnati, besides designing residential landscapes, I designed a courtyard at Sycamore High School and worked with the Environmental Club students to transform the large patch of weeds into a fern and hosta shade garden with a dry creek bed.