Who is Horti Hugh

Before I go into my 2018 garden planning, I think it's good to introduce myself, or maybe reintroduce myself as you might have read elements of this blog in previous posts, or we've chatted. It's timely to pull them together into one blog post again and let you know about a little me.

You may have already guessed it if we've chatted, either in person or via social media, but I'm passionate about plants and gardening. Yes, I believe being connected to plants and the soil keeps us earthed in a way that not many other things can. Since my mid-teens, when I first encountered horticulture through working in a nursery/ garden centre, which was open to the public, I was bitten by the gardening bug. Looking, listening & learning. Absorbing all that I could about plants, their native habitats, growing conditions, how to grow them, what to do with them, etc.

And loving it.

So many people would come in to ask questions and talk plants and gardening, and I would regularly hear them say you are so lucky working at what your passionate about. More than a few times older retired people would say 'I worked for 40 years behind a desk, and all I got was this lousy watch. If I could do it again, I would work at what I love'.

I spent ten years there, working with a great team of people, some of whom even now, almost twenty years on, I still am in contact with. At the time many people didn't really understand the word 'horticulture' - 'is that something to do with agriculture?' they would ask ... Lol

At the same time I studied in the Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin, surrounded by plants and people very attuned to growing and the many aspects involved. I hosted did a regular garden show on local radio and at one point actually featured on TV to talk about gardening and how great it is ...  

In these intervening years my professional career has based mostly within the community, supporting people to live and work in their communities. This has meant mostly moving away from the horticultural industry (I still taught evening gardening classes), and I found myself at one point sitting behind a desk! 

So, over the past 5 years I've been a lot more involved again, in what ever way time and resources allow, whether this is giving talks on plants & gardens, blogging, promoting horticultural events, blogging on social media, etc. 

I believe learning to garden is a journey to travel, rather than a destination to reach. Along this road each of us will have amazing successes and dramatic failures. Build your resilience by celebrating the success, note what worked, the techniques you used, soil or compost type, etc. And use this learning to further you successes. And of course I believe in sharing this with others, so they too can have success.  

Part of my garden journey has simply meant at times I've learned to 'fail better'. Sometimes repeatedly 'failing better' ... Lol. However, the great thing about being involved in the garden community is that there are plenty of people willing to share their learning. Talk about what didn't work, problems faced, possible solutions, what you'd change next time. 

And, I believe if you look after the soil, the soil will look after the plants.

Most importantly, I believe in getting growing and sowing. 
Get involved. 
Learn. 
And be passionate about it!

You can follow me on twitter here (@Horti_Hugo), my blogs here (Blogspot) and here (WordPress) , live streaming here, and YouTube here