Welcome to The Garden of Words!
We used to grow plants
- Katie managed botanical gardens.
- Heather, garden centers.
- Jenny had a landscape design firm
- Vi grew native plants.
Now we grow businesses
These days, we pair our horticulture knowledge with our web design, email marketing, SEO, and writing skills with our clients’ amazing plants, products, and services to help our industry grow. Then, once we shut our laptops for the day, we go back outside and dig in the dirt — for fun.
The Numbers
During the last 12 months we:
- Generated $35 million in revenue through email marketing
- Did $500,000 in SMS marketing
- Grew email lists by up to 80% across our client portfolio
- Gave 24 instructional talks or webinars to help green industry businesses get more out of their marketing
- Built or maintained websites that generated between $10K-$20M for customers
Ready to get results?
Meet The Team
Katie Elzer-Peters
Owner & Resident Scribble Sketcher
Founder & CEO of 15 Years
Katie Elzer-Peters is the founder and CEO of The Garden of Words, LLC, a digital marketing firm that specializes in email marketing, web development, web strategy, and business development for green industry clients. For 15 years she has helped green industry businesses of every size (from individuals to small, family-owned businesses and large corporations) grow and thrive in the age of technology. Katie and her team specialize in making digital marketing tools and tips accessible to everyone, regardless of background or experience.
Background and Education
Katie has a B.S. in horticulture from Purdue University and an M.S. in Public Garden Management from the University of Delaware and Longwood Gardens and is a member of the Society of Fellows of Longwood Gardens. Prior to opening her marketing firm, Elzer-Peters served as the Assistant Director at Airlie Gardens, Curator of Landscape at Fort Ticonderoga, and managed educational programs, marketing programs, and horticultural staff at public gardens around the United States. Katie is a frequent contributor to Green Profit Magazine and a frequent speaker at green industry conferences.
Fun Facts
In her spare time, she enjoys lurk sketching, listening to Harry Styles, and reading. She firmly believes that chocolate peanut butter is the best ice cream flavor. She’s the family eulogist. (Is that fun? It’s a fact!)
Former full-time employers include:
Queensboro Shirt Company
Wilmington, NC
Airlie Gardens
Wilmington, NC
Assistant Director – Head of Gardens
The King’s Garden at Fort Ticonderoga
Ticonderoga, NY
WBAA, Public Radio from Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN
Conner Prairie
Noblesville, IN
- Smithsonian Institution, Horticulture Services Division: Washington, DC
- Marie Selby Botanical Garden: Sarasota, FL
- Washington Park Arboretum: Seattle, WA
- Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library: Greenville, DE
- Scott Arboretum at Swarthmore College: Swarthmore, PA
- Indianapolis Zoo: Indianapolis, IN
- Longwood Gardens: Kennett Square, PA
- The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis: Indianapolis, IN
Vi Leverton
Operations Engineer & Email Account Rep
Vi is the information ping-pong-er extraordinaire and Katie wrangler. They have an A.S. in landscape design, greenhouse management, and sustainable horticulture, edited high fantasy novels, and worked at a native plant nursery as their inventory coordinator, production lead, and assistant IPM manager.
Most of their time is spent out in the woods with a slew of field guides, but you can also find them painting, petting cats, and tending to their five million houseplants. Nobody can get Katie to do something like Vi can get Katie to do something.
Heather Prince
Email Marketing DEPARTMENT HEAD
Heather ensures client email marketing programs operate smoothly and reflect each account’s personality from silly to serious. With a B.A. in English and education, an A.S. in ornamental horticulture, and 20-plus years in the green industry, her passion is connecting people with plants.
Heather calls her career a colorful mosaic from garden retail and wholesale to botanical gardens and ecological restoration. She relishes a good game of Name That Tree. In addition to making clients look and sound good, maintains a busy schedule of writing for the landscape industry, teaching plant classes, and gardening for wildlife. If you ask nicely, she just might send you a tiny dinosaur to brighten your day.
Wendy Hatoum
Email Marketing Director
Wendy brings 13 years of digital marketing to GOW, focusing on blending email marketing strategy with e-commerce, and by leveraging best practices and the Klaviyo platform. She holds a B.A. in education, has managed brands in the green industry, and has nine years of experience with direct to consumer email marketing programs.
Wendy has completed the Master Gardener program and loves to “paint with flowers,” by creating new perennial beds and rescuing neglected gardens. She splits her time between Portugal and Vermont, speaks “menu” Portuguese and is setting aside her decades of New England gardening expertise to re-learn how to grow plants in a Mediterranean climate.
Jenny Peterson
Copywriter
The Swiss Army Knife
Jenny is our Swiss Army Knife of a writer and account manager and she’s been working with Katie for over a decade.
Master Gardener
Jenny’s a Master Gardener, a landscape designer, and received a B.A. in Psychology and an M.A. in Theology. Katie calls Jenny her team “comfort goat.” She has the chops to manage projects, write great copy, and facilitate timely client communication.
Fun Facts
Jenny lives outside Austin Texas where she raises beautiful Bernedoodles! Her superpower is efficiency, and she makes a mean smoothie.
Lovelyn Perez
Email dept. administrator
Lovelyn is a key part of the GOW Email team. She helps administer the email department emails and assists with scheduling. She is a jack of all trades: she has been a college professor, runs her own baking and cooking classes, is constantly cultivating her tech skills, and is an amazing single mother. Just like a daffodil, Lovelyn is full of hope, positivity, is resilient, and is more than capable of weathering storms. Lovelyn is an Opacarophile and she loves the scenic views of sunsets on the beaches and mountains.
Rachel Bortels
Copywriter extrodinaire
Like a chameleon in the writing world, Rachel can seamlessly fit the voice of any brand. Set your worries aside and rest assured that she’ll blow your expectations out of the water in a timely fashion. She’s savvy in specific writing tasks, email marketing, creative projects, or (thanks to her toddler son) the good ol’ flying by the seat of her pants approach.
Oh, and if you need a clever pun, she’s got ‘em! When Rachel isn’t working, you can find her hiking, snowboarding, camping, reading, or gardening!
Sidd Kasera
Web Development
Sidd is one of our resident WordPress gurus! We entrust him to build beautiful websites using his amazing design skills and creativity. He’s a kind, patient, and reliable part of our team and we’re so fortunate to have him with us!
Harry Styles
GOW Muse & Musician at Large
Does he know he’s our musician at large? No. (Is he really, for legal purposes? NO!) Katie has learned a lot from him, though, and so can you. Here’s a blog post about some of that.
Listen to his 3rd studio album, Harry’s House here.
Claire Splan
QA & Proofreading
Claire is our eagle-eyed proofreader; she always knows when to use “that” and when to use “which”, a valuable superpower around here.
She has a background in journalism and writing, with a B.A in Journalism, an M.A. in Writing, and is the author of California Fruit & Vegetable Gardening and California Month-by-Month Gardening. Her favorite place in the world is Abbotts Lagoon, Pt. Reyes National Seashore, in Marin County, California.
When not relaxing by the sea, Claire writes fiction, is a fiber artist, and has a keen interest in genealogy.
Tami Readling
Director of Client Experience.
Her number one priority is to ensure your experiences with GOW, from the day you sign your contract, are positive and that every step of our process is clear.
Tracy Hill
Executive Assistant and Web Account Rep
She does a little bit of everything for us here at GOW to keep the ship on course. She also works with web clients to keep maintenance requests organized.
Bob Albert
Head Web Developer
He handles tricky web issues for our clients.
Jill Dudney
Systems Architect
Joan works with GOW clients to streamline their digital marketing systems. With both B2B and B2C industry experience, she understands every angle of horticulture sales. In addition to systems design, Joan writes email, blog, and social media posts for GOW clients. She lives in Oregon and enjoys sunshine, giant boho earrings, gardening, pho soup and beer!
