Marleny Franco

Marleny Franco, a native of Colombia, immigrated with her family to the United States as a young child in the early 1960s. After receiving her master’s degree as a Plant Scientist/Horticulturist she was recruited to be a County Agent and lead a highly successful urban gardening program in the North Eastern USA, where her love of teaching blossomed and grew as plentiful as her gardens.

Her connection to nature, and love of teaching others to garden in an urban setting, pushed her to found and then serve as Executive Director of a horticultural and environmental not-for-profit conservancy for 15 years. The goal was to teach vegetable gardening throughout the state of New Jersey. Her award-winning educational programs reached over 200,000 urban residents and transformed the landscape (literally) of urban areas throughout the state and beyond.

She went on to start her own landscaping business and for 20 years she has helped her clients create a healthy and self-sustaining biome that would bring joy to others.

Marleny has now decided to share her lifetime of experience in organic gardening with her book Garden the Organic Way. This book has information that every organic gardener should know and practice in order to feel a connection to the earth. She hopes to help others achieve the blessings of plentiful food and behold the beauty that can be received in return by gardening and living the Organic Way.