About
Gretchen Heber is a writer, marketer, and entrepreneur based in Texas. A former garden editor and designer with the Austin American-Statesman and Lexington Herald, she is passionate about succulents, herbs, and fruit trees, as well as lighting, energy efficiency, and all things home.
Experience
Gretchen worked as a reporter, editor, and award-winning graphic designer in three states at three newspapers before founding a groundbreaking, web-based content and community company in the hair care space. Having since sold that company, she now writes and edits for clients primarily in the home and garden arena. Â
Among her favorite roles is garden editor for the Austin American-Statesman, where she worked with garden writers to produce articles about creating beautiful and bountiful gardens in Texas’ notoriously brutal summer conditions. She also wrote more than a hundred articles for Gardener’s Path, researching and sharing information about loquat, ornamental grasses, oregano, and nontraditional irrigation methods, among many other topics. She’s written for SFGate, GateHouse Media (now Gannett), and Fluence. Â
Education
Gretchen graduated with distinction from San José State University with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism and a minor in humanities. While she does not have an MBA, she feels like she earned one through the process of launching, growing, managing, and selling a successful online company.Â
Highlights
- Specialties and interests: Gardening
- Education: Bachelor of Arts in journalism from San José State University
- Other work: Austin American-Statesman, Gardener’s Path, Fluence, SFGate, Gannett
Proudest DIY
In one multi-month stretch, Gretchen and her husband went on an extreme board-and-batten run. It started innocently enough, with a single wall in the breakfast room. Before they knew it, they had board-and-battened parts of the kitchen, the back entryway, and the primary bedroom. At their current home, with 4 acres to landscape, they’re mostly in outdoor mode—transforming native Texas scrub to tidied-up native Texas scrub punctuated with bits of slightly more attractive native and adapted landscaping.
