Horticulture, Landscaping, Compost
For a useful chunk of my life I was a professional horticulturist, and I always appreciated the extra dimension a practical trade gave me. Later, at CAT, I had the opportunity, given to very few, to integrate landscape design, construction and maintenance in one pair of hands over a period of ten years or so. In the mainstream world this is completely impossible because the three kinds of activity are allocated to different 'classes' of people.
Naturally I looked on horticulture from a sustainability perspective, and tried hard to 'push the agenda forward' by systematic trials. I was not very interested in repeating things already done, or done better elsewhere, such as simply growing fruit and vegetables, although in the 80s and 90s it was still important to demonstrate that food could be grown organically, even on an old slate tip devoid of natural soil.
I was always hungry for innovation and fresh results, or debunking some favourite garden myth. My favourites slogan is "A result is worth a thousand cabbages".
Click on the subcategories to explore further.