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P. Allen Smith's Biography

About P. Allen Smith: P. Allen Smith is an award-winning food, lifestyle and garden expert and host of two public television programs, P. Allen Smith 's Garden Home and P. Allen Smith’s Garden to Table, and the syndicated 30-minute show P. Allen Smith Gardens. Smith is one of America 's most recognized and respected garden design experts, providing ideas and inspiration through multiple media venues. He is the author of the best-selling Garden Home series of books published by Clarkson Potter/Random House, including Bringing the Garden Indoors: Container, Crafts and Bouquets for Every Room, published in 2009. His latest book, P. Allen Smith 's Seasonal Recipes from the Garden, was released in December 2010, and was inspired by the abundance of food from his farm and a family of great cooks. Smith is also a regular contributor on NBC 's The TODAY Show. Inspired by a childhood spent on the farm raising and showing livestock and poultry and since then a life of promoting good stewardship of the earth, in 2009 Smith founded the Heritage Poultry Conservancy, an organization dedicated to the preservation and support of all threatened breeds of domestic poultry.

P. Allen Smith’s Garden Home: Located in Little Rock’s historic Quapaw Quarter, the Garden Home is a 1904 Colonial Revival cottage surrounded by a series of garden rooms designed by Smith. This garden was created to illustrate his 12 principles of design, the basis of his first book in the Garden Home series.

P. Allen Smith's Garden Home Retreat: Overlooking the Arkansas River Valley, the Garden Home Retreat encompasses more than 500 acres of a farm dating back to 1840. The centerpiece is the cottage, built in the Greek Revival style and constructed in an earth-friendly manner. Directly behind the cottage is the croquet lawn, which is framed by a summer kitchen and art studio. The surrounding garden includes a fountain garden that separates two wings of garden rooms filled with a mix of annuals, herbs, perennials, roses, shrubs and ornamental grasses. Beyond the flower gardens are orchards filled with heritage apple trees, stone fruit and Blueberries , acre vegetable gardens, a bluebird trail, wildflower fields and daffodil hill, which overflows with more than 225,000 daffodils each spring. Various outbuildings, from barns to mobile chicken homes, are located throughout the grounds and surrounding pastures.

P. Allen Smith's Career Highlights

• Host of Public Television Series, P. Allen Smith's Garden Home, reaching 97 percent of US television homes
• Host of P. Allen Smith Gardens, a 30 minute nationally syndicated program broadcasting to 83 percent of U.S. households
• Regular guest contributor on NBC's The TODAY Show
• Author of the best selling Garden Home series of books published by Clarkson Potter/Random House:
• P. Allen Smith's Garden Home: Creating a Garden for Everyday Living (February 2003)
• P. Allen Smith's Garden Home Journal (Spring 2004)
• P. Allen Smith's Container Gardens: 60 Container Recipes to Accent Your Garden (March 2005)
• P. Allen Smith's Colors for the Garden: Creating Compelling Color Themes (February 2006)
• P. Allen Smith's Living in the Garden Home: Connecting the Seasons with Containers, Crafts, and Celebrations (November 2007)
• Bringing the Garden Indoors: Containers, Crafts, and Bouquets for Every Room (2009)
• P. Allen Smith's Container Gardens: 50 Recipes for Year-Round Gardening (Card deck, 2009)
• P. Allen Smith's Seasonal Recipes from the Garden (December, 2010)
• Author of PAllenSmith.com website featuring home and garden information and recipes
• Featured in national publications including Cottage Living, Southern Accents, Gardening Deck and Design, Fine Gardening, Garden Gate, Hobby Farm Home, Sustainable Home, Gardening How-To, Woman's Day, All You, Home, House Beautiful, Elle Décor and The New York Times
• Founded Heritage Poultry Conservancy in 2009. www.heritagepoultry.org

P. Allen Smith's Awards and Recognitions

• 2009 Arkansas Cultural Enrichment Award from the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival
• Medal of Honor and Honorary Member of The Garden Club of America
• Garden Communicator Award from the American Nursery and Landscape Association (ANLA)
• Horticultural Communicator Award from the American Horticultural Society (AHS)
• Featured author at National Book Festival on the National Mall, Washington, DC
• Projects Odyssey Award presented by the Hendrix College Board of Trustees to honor achievements by alumni of Hendrix College
• Rotary International Scholarship to study garden design and history at the University of Manchester in England

P. Allen Smith's Experience and Education

• Professional garden designer for 25 years
• Garden center owner and operator for 10 years
• Certified Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society
• Board member of the Royal Oak Foundation, the United States affiliate of the National Trust of England, Wales and Northern Ireland