In this week’s GardenLine Friday Profile, I’d like to introduce Angela Chandler of The Arbor Gate, a real expert I frequently lean on for advice and expertise.
Angela often appears on GardenLine with the Arbor Gate’s Beverly Welch, aiding me in answering listeners’ fruit tree questions.
Angela was also the source of an awesome list of pollinators I’ve published.
Although Angela doesn’t have her own retail nursery or garden center, she is a lifelong gardener with a passion for learning and teaching. She and her husband, Fred, tend a half-acre micro-homestead in Highlands, where they grow vegetables, fruits, herbs, and bee-friendly plants. They have a flock of chickens, beehives, and pet goats. And rounding out the family are their dogs – a Lab mix named Harley, and a little mutt named Ditch who Fred rescued from … wait for it … a ditch beside their back gate.
As long as I’m hosting GardenLine on KTRH, Angela will be one of my go-to specialists. We have a kind of kindred spirit since neither of us is a certified horticulturist, botanist, or biologist. But Angela is a lifelong hobby gardener who loves to play in the dirt. She has also written that her first garden influence was similar to mine – hers was her grandmother’s garden, while mine was my mother’s.
Her Garden Academy website is a great resource for anyone interested in gardening along the Gulf Coast, and she is very active on Facebook, where she and I share postings every month.
Angela is affiliated with The Garden Writers Association, the Louisiana Society for Horticultural Research, and California Rare Fruit Growers. And she has written a monthly gardening advice column for the Houston Chronicle and a regional feature for Fine Gardening Magazine. She’s also written for Houston House & Home and handles The Arbor Gate’s monthly blog.
Angela is a great educator, but since she doesn’t make a living with a retail horticultural business, keep her in mind if your organization needs a professional gardening speaker or teacher for an upcoming event. You can connect with her at www.thegardenacademy.com/contact/.