Bios
• Garden Designer • Garden Coach •
A soulful horticulture and nature lover, Charlotte Kidd is a professional gardener, garden coach, garden designer, and independent writer in Southeastern Pennsylvania. She and In The Garden Design, Care & Coaching staff maintain environmentally harmonious, long-standing residential gardens in Philadelphia, PA. She belongs to The Hardy Plant Society, Mid-Atlantic Region, and the Philadelphia Botanical Club.
Her membership in the Society of Environmental Journalists began in 1987 as a stringer covering environmental issues in Montgomery County for the Philadelphia Inquirer's Neighbors section. Latest writing specialities include researching, writing and talking about Weaving in the Natives (Northeastern US plants), Powassan disease and the black-legged deer tick, and poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans ssp. radicans.) Other recent topics: Bees and open-pollinated sunflowers. Milkweeds and Monarch butterflies. Goldfinches and cupflower (Silphium).
Among other communications work, she was Mid-Atlantic Editor for the Garden Writers Association from 2006-2014 (https://garden.org/learn/regional/author/21). For the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, she wrote the Philadelphia Green Presents the Tree Tender Handbook (1999), created the Tree Tenders Newsletter, contributed to the Green Scene magazine.
Charlotte studied horticulture and garden design at Temple University Ambler's Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture and at Longwood Gardens' Horticulture Certificate Program. She's presented horticultural programs for the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the Philadelphia International Flower Show and Longwood Gardens.
She earned an M. Ed. in Counseling, Glassboro State College (now Rowen University), New Jersey, and a B. S. in Education, East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania.
Her background includes newspaper reporting for The Philadelphia Inquirer and more; medical editing; co-founding The Domestic Violence Crisis Center in Monroe County, PA; administrating the Monroe County Judicare Legal Aid Society; substitute teaching for PA's Intermediate Unit 20; and being a rather poor waitress in the Poconos.
• Garden Assistant •
Andrew J. Croft
2015 Bachelor of Science, Utah State University (USU) Major: General Studies in Agriculture Minor: Art
• Technology Assistant •
Iz Zehender, (they/them/theirs), is a student at Springfield Township High School (STHS) and is In The Garden's technology assistant. When school is out of session, you can usually find them playing video games with their friends, building legos, or biking around the neighborhood and nearby trails. In school, they play in their school's Pep Band, Symphonic Band, and Jazz Band. They also work in the sound department in STHS's Stage Crew for the plays and musicals.
They were awarded with the Tech Hall of Fame award for the Junior Thespian Troupe #88027 at the Pennsylvania Thespian Festival for the 2024-2025 school year. That same year, they were also awarded Director's Choice Award for their contributions to the Stage Crew. In addition to that, they were also a Stage Crew Officer for Junior Thespian Troupe #88027. In this upcoming school year they will be the Social Media Manager for STHS's Set Design
They previously have worked with their aunt, garden designer Lisa Fernandez, on adding fun designs out of plants on moss sculptures of animals and adding small fairy gardens in the Winter Garden at Dilworth Park in Center City, Philadelphia.
