Penny's history with GreenFest dates back to her days as one of The Tampa Tribune's two "Dirt girls." In 2008, when she was working as a features editor at The Tribune, she and fellow editor Kim Franke-Folstad started a garden blog and weekly column called The Dirt. It was an experiment that turned out to be all play and no work. Penny and Kim wrote about the gardens they visited, the plants they bought, and what the experts had to say. They had a great time learning from their on-line chats as local gardeners commented on their posts. They also discovered their garden tragedies were much easier to bear with a good group cry, and victories were twice as sweet with a cheering crowd.

The Dirt won an honorable mention in the national Society for Features Journalism's 2010 Excellence in Writing competition, and a spot on Florida Gardening magazine's favorite blogs list. It also led to numerous speaking engagements including GreenFest, their favorite -- and not just because plant-shopping's involved. 

Sadly, The Dirt froze to the ground last June. Happily, it sprang back from the roots two months later. It has a different look, a different name, and only half the original writing team, but it's still dirty good fun. Penny's looking forward to another inspirational GreenFest on March 24-25.