~About Me~

MICHELLE LEONARD was born a math and science nerd. After spending ten years working with an engineering dream team developing commercial blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs), she escaped the world of seventy-hour workweeks. Nowadays, when she’s not tinkering on her teleporter for transporting her talented daughters to their important gigs and lessons, she’s turning wacky thoughts into stories for young readers. Michelle lives in North Carolina with her science-savvy husband, three inspiring daughters, and a border collie who hates numbers. Her young adult sci-fi short story "In A Whole New Light" will be published in the BRAVE NEW GIRLS ANTHOLOGY: STORIES OF GIRLS WHO SCIENCE AND SCHEME releasing August 2017. She blogs at The Winged Pen. She’s a member of SCBWI Carolinas. You can also find her on Twitter.

Plants for my Hi-Tech Meadows Greenhouse

When my husband brought this plant home a few weeks ago, my daughter was sure he had procured it from Neville Longbottom's greenhouse. It shot up well over a foot in less than a month.

Horsetail plant is the only living genus of the entire class Equisetopsida, which for over one hundred million years was much more diverse and dominated the late Paleozoic forests. Some were large trees up to 30 meters tall.

The most fascinating thing about this plant is that the stems are coated with abrasive silicates- natural sandpaper, which is exactly why my husband wanted it. The violin he is making will be polished to perfection with a living fossil. I'll be picking off pieces to scrub pots. At the rate it's growing, we'll have plenty to share.