Helen Battersby has shared inspiration and images from her travels in Canada, the US, UK, and Europe as an engaging speaker and since 2006 as an award-winning blogger on TorontoGardens.com.

In 2017, Helen became co-publisher of The Toronto & Golden Horseshoe Gardener’s Journal; 2022 marked its Gold Medal-winning 30th Edition. She is also the past Director for the international region of GardenComm, the industry association for garden communicators.

To her passion for all things gardeny, she brings the visual storytelling panache of a long freelance writing and creative consulting career in the graphic design field, harnessing the power of words and pictures.

Education

Helen is a graduate in landscape design from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson), where her thesis team shared the Shawn Gallaugher Design Excellence Award. She also holds a horticulture certificate from University of Guelph.

Adding to a fine arts B.A. in theatre performance from Toronto’s York University, she has studied marketing and journalism at Toronto Met, and poetry at the University of Toronto and the Humber School for Writers.

And in other news

For nearly 20 years, Helen has served as a volunteer with the Toronto Master Gardeners. Her special interest is creating and delivering garden presentations that are accurate, informative and visually engaging.

Hooked on power walking since 2003, she has also put four full marathons, 45+ half marathons, and many 5-16K races under her feet. She’d be much faster if she didn’t keep stopping to take pictures of gardens.