Michael Warren Thomas visiting the 2023 Dutch Connection at the Eastman Museum in Rochester.
Horticulturist Michael Warren Thomas is beloved in the Finger Lakes of New York and beyond for his award-winning, long-running radio shows and podcasts about this glorious region, its gardens and agriculture, winemakers, and its culinary delights. Michael worked as an Urban Forestry Economist and certified arborist for several years and as Horticulturist for the City of Rochester for four years. In addition, Michael led 24 annual motor coach tours to the Philadelphia Flower Show and Longwood Gardens. He has a new vision for his professional life, under his Naturally Green business umbrella.
Here, Michael is scouting for (and finding) Hemlock Wooly Adelgid in Washington Grove Sanctuary in Rochester.
After decades as a garden coach, he’s redirecting his energy to nature coaching—helping clients identify and expand upon their property’s resources for the benefit of pollinators, birds, frogs, and other wildlife. This shift in focus feeds Michael’s biggest vision: to help create what entomologist and author Doug Tallamy calls the Homegrown National Park, a place where at least half of every lawn is replaced with biodiverse corridors of managed habitat. “Less Lawn – More Nature” is Naturally Green’s mission at its most distilled.
See this feature in the freely available Upstate Gardeners Journal.
Michael Warren Thomas at age 3 in the family cucumber patch.