Steve Bender is a Senior Writer for Southern Living and has been with the magazine since 1983. He received a B.A. in History from Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland and a certificate in Ornamental Horticulture from the Institute of Applied Agriculture at the University of Maryland. He is a popular speaker and gives talks on a wide variety of gardening topics all over the country. His articles in Southern Living, which often poke fun at the foibles of gardeners, have won many writing awards. His first book, Passalong Plants, was named the best-written garden book of 1994 by the Garden Writers Association of America. In 1996, he wrote Callaway Gardens -- Legacy Of A Dream, which chronicles the efforts of Cason and Virginia Callaway to transform played-out cotton fields in southeast Georgia into a sanctuary for native plants. In 1998, he edited the best-selling Southern Living Garden Book, which describes more than 5,000 plants suited for Southern gardens. He followed that up in 1999 with the Southern Living Problem Solver, which helps gardeners identify and control hundreds of common garden pests. The third book of the series, The Southern Living Landscape Book, deals with garden design for average homeowners. His latest work is a completely revised and updated edition of the Southern Living Garden Book that describes more than 7,000 plants. Born in North Carolina and raised in Maryland, Steve makes his home in Hoover, Alabama, where he lives with his wife, Judy, and their son, Brian. He currently sits on the board of Aldridge Botanical Gardens in Hoover, Alabama. In 2005, the American Horticultural Society presented him with the prestigious Horticultural Communication Award. In 2007, the Garden Writers Association awarded him the Gold Medal for magazine writing.

Blogs are what they are—personal riffs. This one represents the opinion and research of an individual writer, not that of Southern Living magazine.