Maureen Gilmer is a second generation Californian with over thirty years' experience in arid climate gardening, landscape architecture and the environment. She's published 18 books and countless magazine features on plants, design and wildfire in the west. For a decade she's been writing a national Yardsmart column that runs every week with color photography. Maureen also writes a weekly column for the Desert Sun newspaper in Palm Springs. Maureen has appeared on The View, The Early Show, Good Morning America, and was host and project designer for four seasons of Weekend Gardening, on the DIY Channel. Her newest books are focused on desert conditions and drought: Growing Vegetables in Drought, Desert and Dry Times: The Complete Guide to Organic Gardening Without Wasting Water (December, 2015, Sasquatch Books). She's author of Palm Springs-Style Gardening (Sunbelt, 2009) now in its third printing. Maureen lives in the California desert north of Palm Springs where she's rehabilitating an old cactus garden with her husband Jim.

She is also a wildfire survivor.