Cass Turnbull’s latest book is Cass Turnbull’s Guide to Pruning – What, When, Where & How to Prune for a Beautiful Garden, published by Sasquatch Books in 2004.  She is also the author of The Complete Guide to Landscape Design, Renovation and Maintenance, which is back in print and available on our website in electronic format -- as a benefit of PlantAmnesty membership or for sale through PlantAmnesty.

Cass Turnbull left the Seattle Parks Department in 1986 after 11 years to start her own landscape maintenance and consulting business.  Three years later, she founded PlantAmnesty, a private non-profit organization that now numbers over 900 members in 46 states and four countries.  PlantAmnesty's goal to "end the senseless torture and mutilation of trees and shrubs" has gained considerable local and national press as the organization strives to educate the commercial and public sectors on responsible, appropriate pruning and landscape management practices, establishing a standard of quality care for the urban ecology.

Born in Seattle in 1951, Turnbull studied for a liberal arts degree at Fairhaven College of Western Washington State University in Bellingham, Washington. She is a Washington State Certified Landscaper, a Certified Arborist and teaches horticulture at Washington State Vocational Schools. A veteran of the King County Master Gardener program, she also studied horticulture at the University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture and at Edmonds Community College.

Turnbull often lectures to parks departments, school districts, community clubs, commercial landscape groups, flower and home shows and industry seminars.  She is frequently published and interviewed on the subject of pruning reform, and has won three awards for her work -- which includes not only teaching and lecturing, but also several slide shows, instructive pamphlets, a newsletter, information booths, a how-to book and several videos.

Turnbull resides in Seattle with her husband, two cats and garden.