Elise Pickett is the founder of The Urban Harvest, an online education platform and garden business that has helped over 100,000 people across the United States grow food and live more sustainably. Elise began gardening in 2010 as a personal response to the health impacts of industrialized food. By 2014, she founded The Urban Harvest to serve others looking for approachable, practical ways to make the same lifestyle shifts.
Elise holds a degree in wildlife ecology and conservation with a minor in zoology from the University of Florida. She worked as a biologist for six years before transitioning into organic gardening. Her training includes hands-on experience through WWOOF (World Wide Organization of Organic Farms) with farms in Colombia and Chile, as well as observation and volunteering at farms across the United States. She completed a six-month Urban Agriculture course under Will Allen, founder of Growing Power and a pioneer of contemporary urban agriculture in the United States, and holds a seventy-two-hour Permaculture Design Certificate earned under Koreen Brennan of Grow Permaculture.
Elise also operates a retail seed store, hosts garden workshops, offers digital courses and consultations, and has self-published a seasonal recipe cookbook. She lives in St. Petersburg, Florida.