Christopher Woods was born in London, England but has lived in the United States since 1981. He has worked in the garden world as gardener, director and designer for 45 years. He is best-known for his work at Chanticleer, a “pleasure garden” in Wayne, PA, where he worked for 20 years. After Chanticleer, he became vice president for horticulture at the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden. He was director of the VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver, Canada, and executive director of the Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden. In 2012, he was lured back east by The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and appointed director of its private estate and garden, Meadowbrook Farm. He has been a consultant for Botanic Gardens Conservation International, the Garden Conservancy, and the Chicago Parks Department. He has served on a number of boards, notably the American Public Gardens Association and the Fairmount Park Conservancy. Being somewhat restless and increasingly unemployable, he decided to stop managing gardens and decided to travel the world looking at both constructed and wild landscapes. He currently lives in California and one or two other places. He writes a blog urbanehorticulture