Ian
I have had a passion for plants and gardens for as long as I can remember. My folks tell me that I started sowing broad beans at the age of 5 and loved being outside all the time. I have always worked in the horticultural industry, my weekend job involved lumping compost to cars at the local garden centre and filling thousands of trays for winter pansies, but these jobs never put me off.
As soon as I left school, I studied horticulture professionally at Easton College and then went on to Writtle College to complete my BSc. All the time I was studying and working to gain as much knowledge and experience as possible. I have spent time teaching horticulture at colleges and running Nurseries and Garden Centres.
I spent many years working for the great Will Giles at The Exotic Garden in Norwich and it was Will that got me onto the BBC in Norfolk working on programmes such as 'Dig This' and 'The Garden Party'.
Along the way I have always developed and maintained my own gardens and have a real love for collecting plants, including Galanthus, Auriculas, Michaelmas Daisies, Agapanthus, Dahlias, Old fashioned Primroses, Hamamellis and Ginkgos.
I like to do my bit where horticultural organisations are involved and sit on committees for the Norfolk + Norwich Horticultural Society, Norfolk Plant Heritage, Salhouse Garden Society and the Chartered Institute of Horticulture. Today I still do all this plant collecting, put as much as I can into the business and love to grow new plants, in my opinion it's the best way to find out about them.
Ben
Ben has been working with me for over 2 years now to learn how to maintain and develop gardens to the high standard that we have. He is keen on visiting gardens around the UK and is currently studying for an RHS level 2 at Easton College.
Bridget
Bridget has worked with me for 6 years on a part time basis, she is a busy mum, but always has time for extra work and enjoys working in the team. She is a great worker, thorough, diligent, tidy, and a great laugh, all the qualities you want from a team player and a gardener.
Scottie
20 years horticultural experience in large gardens, small Landscaping projects and arboricultural experience. He has a love of veteran trees, historic gardens and can always be seen working in his kilt, being a true Scot.
Danny
8 years working in horticulture to date and at only 23 years old, that's some going. Dan has a speciality in hedges, topiary and training plants (up walls, not to do tricks). He is an avid collector of new and interesting plants and definitely has a great future in the industry ahead of him. For now I'm lucky enough to have him as part of the green man team.
Gardens
We look after large, medium and small gardens around the Norfolk and Suffolk area.
We undertake work at East Ruston Old Vicarage Gardens, maintaining beds and borders, completing some of the 10miles of hedges and develop new areas of the garden. We also work at Raveningham Hall for Sir Nicholas Bacon, with its arboretum, walled kitchen garden and extensive herbaceous borders and shrubberies.
We have projects where we have been working with garden owners and developing their gardens over the past 5+ years. We have clients that we only see a few times a year to get us in to adapt their management plants for their gardens and get us to renovate neglected areas.
Our work is diverse and interesting, we love what we do, get enthused by new and loved projects and throw ourselves into our work. This will show as you will see when we come and work with you in your own gardens.
