Hey, I'm Joe Vary
I’m a gardener, educator, and massive plant geek. But I learned early in life that horticulture is about much more than plants.
My two decades of professional experience have taught me that gardening is about plants and people.
I’ve been lucky to have learned from the best and soaked up the kind of passion and knowledge you just can’t get from a textbook.
Now I’m here to pass it on to you.
Hi, I'm Joe Vary
I’m a gardener, educator, and massive plant geek. But I learned early in life that horticulture is about much more than plants.
My two decades of professional experience have taught me that gardening is about plants and people.
I’ve been lucky to have learned from the best and soaked up the kind of passion and knowledge you just can’t get from a textbook.
Now I’m here to pass it on to you.
Our passion leads us to our people
Having struggled through school, I found horticulture age 17. My college tutor Mike, was the first teacher to believe in me.
He noticed how working with plants made me come alive! Mike encouraged me to apply for the world-renowned Wisley Diploma, a live-in, hands-on, all-encompassing training programme at the Royal Horticultural Society’s flagship garden in Surrey.
This led me to my people.
A thirst to learn
Fresh-faced and surrounded by world-leading experts, like a hungry bee, I tried to lap up all the goodness I could.
This was my chance to learn from the best, and I wasn’t about to waste it.
A thirst to learn
Fresh-faced and surrounded by world-leading experts, like a hungry bee, I tried to lap up all the goodness I could.
This was my chance to learn from the best, and I wasn’t about to waste it.
You just can't get this from textbooks
Knowledge wasn't all I absorbed
When you get to spend time with others who share a passion for plants, it rubs off on you, and your interest develops into a fervour.
A lifetime isn’t long enough to learn everything about the natural world. but that won’t stop me from trying.
Buoyed by all the specialists and experts around me, I began reading about gardening and experimenting all the time. Habits I’ve kept up to this day.
You can read more about my career highlights, accreditations, and professional memberships.
A lasting impression
Some of the horticulturists I’ve had the privilege of learning from have made an indelible impression on me and played a big role in shaping the gardener I am today.
I’d like to acknowledge a few of them:
- Mike W., my college tutor, is a brilliant teacher. He showed me how exciting plants are and led our class on expeditions hunting for wildflowers. A pastime I’ve continued ever since.
- Paul C., an alpine specialist at Wisley, showed me how deeply a person can know their subject. His encyclopaedic knowledge holds wisdom that has otherwise been lost to time.
- “Marmite” Mike A., was one of the most incredible people I’ve ever met. He spent so much energy perfecting his craft and never held back sharing with others.
Keeping the wisdom alive
Fast forward through my years of training and working in world-class gardens, including Buckingham Palace. Over the past decade, I’ve committed to teaching others how to garden.
I feel a responsibility to pass on the wisdom and passion I’ve received and developed over the years.
I teach workshops, give talks, and hold gardening advice sessions…
And I’ve enjoyed teaching adults and children alike at the community food garden that my wife Amy and I set up in our village in Kent.
Your gardening mentor
So many enthusiasts I’ve met over the years discovered gardening later in life than I did. Having commitments meant they weren’t able to follow the path I chose.
I want to share my experience with any gardeners looking to connect over a shared passion and learn from a mentor.
And I want to help you find your people.
My approach to gardening
Rooted in my extensive RHS training, the approach I take has been shaped by my lifelong learning. I’m constantly seeking to garden in a way that is as sympathetic with nature and environmentally conscious as possible.
I also learned a thing or two from working in commercial horticultural settings, including a high-end plant nursery and growing cauliflowers for the world’s largest vegetable seed producer.
For the love of nature
The climate crisis and biodiversity loss our planet faces concerns me deeply. As gardeners, we’re in a position to help make things a little better. Environmental sustainability and regeneration are at the heart of my approach to gardening. I always promote:
- Pesticide-free gardening to make your green space haven for insects
- Naturalistic planting to build healthy soil and feed pollinators
- Making space for wildlife to support local populations
- Minimal input gardening to help conserve our planet’s finite resource
Growing your own food
Issues of food security and the lost knowledge of how to feed ourselves motivated me to focus a lot of time on learning the best ways we can grow our own edible crops sustainably.
Many beginner gardeners start out by growing vegetables, and can be discouraged if crops fail. So it’s been a pet project of mine to help people learn how to successfully grow their own food.
The good life
Having moved south from County Durham where I grew up, I now live near Canterbury in Kent with my wife Amy, and our cats Maple and Clover.
Amy and I met at Wisley where she ran the adult learning workshops for gardening enthusiasts. We’ve wokred together to structure the learning content for Gardening Mentor. I reckon we make a good team!
Career highlights
Here’s a quick summary of some notable moments from my career and my professional memberships.
- Member of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture (MCIHort)
- Consultant Member of the Gardener’s Guild (CMTGG)
- Wisley Diploma in Practical Horticulture (Dip. Hort (Wisley))
- Specialist Option Certificate in Rock and Alpine Gardening at RHS Wisley (SOC)
- Climate Reality Leader (Trained by Al Gore in his Climate Reality Project)
- Returned to Buckingham Palace to train garden staff in advanced lawn care maintenance