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Valerie Allgrove is a writer, verbal and visual communicator, and botanist with over 30 years of experience as a practicing naturalist, beginning with her participation in studying the Monarch Butterfly as a correspondent of the University of Toronto’s Insect Migration Program when she was 11 years old. Her fascination with plants has taken her across the USA to photograph wild orchids, gardens, and spend time with expert colleagues from Oregon to North Carolina, Maine to Louisiana, and even to Puerto Rico. Her special understanding of New England from bedrock geology and soil Ph to the patterns of forest succession resulted in her being appointed Conservation Chair for the Connecticut Orchid Society from 2002 to 2009.
Valerie has a BS in Communications/Media with a specialty in Technical Writing from Fitchburg State University. In 2002, she took the Project WILD K-12 Curriculum and Activity Guide training through the Connecticut DEEP. She has used her skills in writing to create short how-to programs on topics such as re-potting tropical orchids, growing plants from woody cuttings, and creating bog gardens. Valerie has also led hikes for the Farmington Valley Watershed Association, the Connecticut Orchid Society, the Northeastern Foresters (SCA), and private clients.
Throughout her life Valerie has taken and displayed photographs, given lectures and presentations, written stories, and shared her love of outdoors adventures. She has helped hundreds of people to increase their awareness of nature, and has increased the enjoyment of members of various Plant, Butterfly, and Nature organizations in their specialties.
Pleasant Gardens is located in Windsor, CT. It is a private home where regenerative agriculture is practiced and the focus is on native plants fruit trees, and perennial vegetable.
Additionally, as Mosiacs by VAllgrove, Valerie creates glass on glass mosaics to hang in the window, and 3D garden critters.
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