He was the owner of California Carnivores, located in Sebastopol, possibly the largest nursery of carnivorous plants in the world, and the author of The Savage Garden (published 1998), a book on the cultivation of insectivorous plants.

[1][2][3][4][5][6] His book won the American Horticultural Society Book Award and the Quill & Trowel Award from the Garden Writers Association of America, both in 1999.

[7] Peter graduated from high school in New Jersey in 1972 and attended the University of Miami, Florida, 1972–1974.

In 1989, he opened the California Carnivores plant nursery.

[8] D'Amato traveled all over the United States speaking and giving lectures to different groups.