As a young man growing up on the hills behind the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, I used to love going for bushwalks and exploring waterfalls and rainforest. I had a love for food and took up cooking as an occupation, but my passion for fresh life and creativity was soon met with the reality of a working life inside a pressure cooker. After an encounter with God at the age of 25, I began looking for a way out of the hospitality industry. I trusted a guiding word, and began a course in Horticulture and Landscaping, a direction I had not even previously considered. I fell in love with working outdoors, and learning about plants, and in my exploration of the library, came across 'Introduction to Permaculture'. I absolutely devoured the book, to me it seemed like a revelation of common sense, yet I thought horticulture, agriculture and permaculture were all similar things. I continued in Horticulture to a diploma, and yet the idea of pumping fertilisers and chemicals into plants to control problems never quite sat right with me, surely there was a better way?
Having finished my PDC, I look at horticulture through very different eyes! I don't want to be responsible for the decline of bee populations just because Mrs Jones doesn't want blue winged moth on her cycads! Is the only way of acheiving crop growth through using more Chemical fertilizers? My business has taken an organic turn for the better, and I will actively educate my customers to think sustainably. In the future I would like to do aid work