John Hogan

John Hogan is a journalist with more than two decades of professional experience covering everything from homicides to hostas. He is winding down a 24-year career at The Grand Rapids Press, a daily newspaper in Michigan's second largest city. Readers embrace his weekly gardening column and home/garden feature stories on topics such as organic gardening, green living, green dying, pruning, home organization, lakefront real estate, mole control and self-control. His personality profiles offered in-depth looks at West Michigan movers and shakers ranging from Michigan State University men's basketball head coach Tom Izzo to the Rev. Walter Hurley, head of the Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids. Hogan is the recipient of numerous writing awards for coverage of breaking news, illicit drug trafficking and outsourcing of jobs. His passion, however, is landscaping. Hogan is a certified Advanced Master Gardener and Master Woodland Manager through Michigan State University Extension. His hands-on experience -- from the thrill of victory to the agony of defeat, strikes a chord with newspaper and on-line readers at www.mlive.com. A personalized approach to writing that isn't bogged down with industry and technical jargon helps readers make sense of the topic at hand. And he's a good story-teller in the fine Irish tradition.