At the insistence of his parents, Brooklyn-born Billy Goodnick was transplanted to LA at age eight, studied music, and became an in-demand Hollywood studio drummer. “As fate would have it I stumbled upon the exquisite art of bonsai,” he reports. “I turned my life on a dime, dropped my drumsticks, and started a journey into the world of plants.”
For 22 years, he was the City Landscape Architect for Santa Barbara. His horticultural career also includes nursery sales, as well as garden maintenance and landscape construction. He continues to provide customized residential design coaching along the Central Coast. He was the winner of 2005 Santa Barbara Beautiful Awards for both residential and park projects, and has received awards from both the California State Architects Office and the American Society of Landscape Architects. This diverse career path has contributed to the deep body of knowledge he now shares with gardeners across the country.
Fine Gardening Magazine features his column
“Design Workshop” and his blog “Cool Green Gardens.” He also writes bi-weekly for SoCalcentric, posts for Edhat.com, and contributes to 805 Living Magazine, while freelancing for other publications such asSunset Magazine. Billy co-hosts Garden Wise Guys, a regional sustainable landscaping show that aspires, he says “to the sophistication of the Three Stooges,” and is a founding member of the Lawn Reform Coalition, a national group helping gardeners rethink the siren song of the “perfect” lawn. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at Santa Barbara City College.
As an award-winning designer who worked his way up from swinging a pick to landscape architect, his presentations are enriched by years of professional design practice and animated by his earlier life an an entertainer.