Mary-Kate Mackey is a teacher, speaker, and writer.

Mary-Kate Mackey focuses on problem-solving, whether she’s interviewing an expert for a garden article or teaching writing concepts. She’s an award-winning writer and the recipient of nine Garden Communicators International media awards, including a Gold in 2021 for her column, Rooting for You, on the Hartley-Botanic Greenhouse website. For over twenty years, her byline has appeared in numerous magazines such as Fine Gardening, Horticulture, Sunset, American Gardener, and This Old House.

Mary-Kate’s newest book, co-authored with Kathleen Brenzel, is The Healthy Garden—Simple Steps for a Greener World. With the help of twenty featured garden experts and glorious photography, The Healthy Garden explores why nourishing a more resilient landscape has the power to transform, not only the garden and the gardener, but the greater natural world.

Her work has also appeared in publications such as Sunset’s Secret Gardens, Gardening in the Northwest, and the Sunset Western Garden Book.

Her previous book, Write Better Right Now: The Reluctant Writer’s Guide to Confident Communication and Self-Assured Style, is based on her fourteen years teaching upper-division writing in the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication.

Mary-Kate writes and gardens, not necessarily in that order, outside Eugene, Oregon.