Singer, Carolyn

Carolyn Singer has been gardening since she was a young child. Early horticultural lessons were from her parents, first in Berkeley, and then in Sebastopol, California. Extended family in Sonoma County were all gardeners, adding to Carolyn's enthusiastic connection with the earth. Gardening in the Denver area for eight years, and camping in the beautiful Rocky Mountains were influential in her growing interest in rock gardening.

Since 1977, on her property in the Sierra Nevada foothills near Grass Valley, California, she has been testing hundreds of perennials for their performance and deer-resistance. Carolyn’s perennial nursery, Foothill Cottage Gardens, and display gardens in Grass Valley were open to the public for 25 years. Her nursery was recognized nationally in several publications: (Organic Gardening, Fine Gardening, Country Gardening, Sunset) and in Taylor’s Guide to Specialty Nurseries.

Garden classes have been held every year. She has also taught at Sierra College. Students continue to enjoy her propagation classes, held several times each summer in her garden, to propagate from the huge assortment of plants.

Carolyn writes a garden column for her local paper, The Union in Grass Valley, California. She has published garden articles in Fine Gardening, Garden Gate, Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications, and Sierra Heritage magazine.

Carolyn's rock garden, which is the inspiration for many of the perennials in Deer in My Garden, Vol. 2: Groundcovers & Edgers, has been featured on HGTV’s Paul James, Gardening By the Yard. When they filmed the segment about gardening with rocky soil, Carolyn's garden was a perfect site.

Her designs have been published in Home Landscaping California Region, by Roger Holmes and Lance Walheim (published by Creative Homeowner Press, 2001). Her work is also mentioned in Judith M. Taylor’s Tangible Memories, Californians and Their Gardens, 1800-1850 (published 2003).

In 1995 she contributed to the updated Time-Life, Complete Gardener: Perennials. She has been a member of the Perennial Plant Association (PPA), the American Rock Garden Society, and the California Native Plant Society (CNPS). She has received the honor of "Lifetime University of California Master Gardener".