Professional horticulturist, plant enthusiast, weekend adventurer
(when all three combine that’s when the magic happens)
A little bit about myself
I never really made a conscious decision to become a horticulturist. Plants have always been a huge part of my life. At 13 I started a gardening round, and rented an allotment, which soon led to supplying the local shop with veg & earning a little pocket money.
After training as a professional horticulturist I worked in roles as diverse as a lecturer in cucumber and tomato production, and a pumpkin grower, plant propagator, interior landscaper and garden designer.
For over 20 years Doug worked at a leading land-based college as Head of Horticulture, for the last 15 years he has been working as a horticultural business consultant, speaker and trainer.
Doug is the co presenter of The Great Outdoors, a two-hour gardening phone in on BBC Radio Humberside.
When not working Doug loves riding bikes, hiking trails, photographing nature and getting lost, A lot.
New and Featured talks for 2025 and 2026
RHS Garden Bridgewater opened its gates to the public in 2021.
Doug was fortunate enough to be able to visit the garden during its construction, meeting the volunteers and teams involved.
In this talk he shares the story of how the garden was built, including visits made to the garden since it opened.
This is Doug’s new talk for 2024.
This can be delivered as a straightforward, fun, gardening club lecture, or the audience can sit round tables.
Doug presents ‘two truths and a lie’ about a range of topics, but can you tell the two truths from the lie?
Doug’s work on this project involves training a small army of community volunteers to work on the gardens, (including the Italian Gardens, and the wild garden at Holbeck).
A key part of this project is working out the answer to the following questions:
What lives here?
Why does it live here?
Do we want it to live here?
How do we build habitat to get more of it to live here?
Find out more about sunset safaris, a biodiversity blitz, marmalade and dusky faces!
The key focus of this book is on how we can apply the latest thinking and scientific research to help us to create gardens that do good.
Sustainable gardens that benefit our soil, our plants, our wellbeing and the environment.
In this talk Doug investigates the tools, the tips and the techniques to allow us to garden in later years.
This talk is includes all aspects of gardening from container gardening, to growing fruit and vegetables and creating a garden filled with colour.
Tips that enable maximum enjoyment of our gardens with minimal effort are discussed in Doug’s usual informative, but light hearted style.
These are Doug’s six most popular gardening talks…
Gaining inspiration from some of the finest gardens in the world, this talk temps you to consider 10 easy ways to create your very own dream garden.
The talk concludes with a very personal look at over 20 favourite plants, reminding us to fall in love with our gardens all over again.
So how did we garden over 60 years ago and just how much have things changed from the humble shed, to the flower show and of course the very latest products and devices to make gardening easy?
Using the catalogues and gardening magazines of yesteryear as inspiration this talk ponders on adverts for lightweight concrete greenhouses, and why only pipe smoking men seemed to be used in adverts!
Traveling widely in the UK and visiting many of the leading gardens, which are crammed with fantastic plants gives the opportunity to view many of the newest introductions, many of which we are putting through their paces on the BBC Radio Humberside allotment.
Here are just 10 of these plants, which are worthy of a place in every garden…
Plant Hunters – people who braved hardship, evil warlords, cannibals and almost certain death, to bring us so many of the plants that we grow today. As one of the horticultural heroes says, “people have no idea what goes into that tiny packet of seeds.”
This talk is dedicated to them and tells their amazing inspirational story.
How well do you know your festive plants and the tales they have to tell?
This is a talk of fables, folklore and legend; looking at the Holly, Ivy, Mistletoe and of course the king of all festive plants the Christmas Tree.
This talk looks at the role that many of our garden plants have in the creation of some of the worlds finest drinks…
Taking inspiration from nettle beer, through to more exotic beverages such as pulque this talk takes an amusing and sideways look at plants, gardens and favourite tipples.
What a fantastic evening you gave us all last night – plenty of ideas and information as to growing a “Cutting Garden” – plenty of humour keeping us all entertained (its always good to have a laugh) – and plenty of information on other topics too!
Thank you once again for last night. All those who were there commented on how much they had enjoyed the evening. Comments were made about changing our thoughts on insects, especially greenfly as food for the bluetits.
Thank you once again for coming to speak to us all about RHS Bridgewater. We are planning a trip there now 😎 after you very informative speech. So many members have stopped me and said how much they enjoyed your talk and lovely banter, you always transport us to actually feeling like we are there.…
…your talk was very popular and really well received. I saw Alison at Holehird yesterday and she was buzzing with enthusiasm about the lecture Many thanks again for such an interesting and entertaining talk. Good luck with the book launch – it is on our list of purchases for our library.
Thank you so much for a very interesting and enjoyable talk. We all came away having had an informative and fun afternoon. Great presentation!
As expected, I have heard wonderful reports of an evening which was greatly enjoyed by the largest turnout of members we have ever had! Your reputation went before you! Your talks are always inspiring and educational and everyone appreciates your sense of humour which makes everyone feel relaxed from start to finish. We always come…
Dear Doug, Thank you for a wonderful presentation to our Club last Wednesday. Your fabulous sense of humour linked with your beautiful photography and immense knowledge gave us a thoroughly enjoyable & memorable experience.
On behalf of the committee and members of the Cumbria group of the Hardy Plant Society, may I thank you for your excellent talk last night. Your trip into the past and down memory lane was very entertaining indeed and certainly jogged memories! I don’t think I’ve heard so much laughter at one of our…
Many thanks for your most entertaining talk on Thursday. I have never seen the audience so engaged! It was a very good evening – thank you.
“A huge thank you for your talk’ “It was brilliant” “We will be booking you again”
Hi, I just wanted to share this lovely card that came through yesterday… Dear Doug Thank you for coming to talk to us yesterday evening. Your talk was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone, and I have received many complements on my choice of speaker! It is also ways a pleasure to learn when the information is…
“Wow, we hugely enjoyed your talk.” “You were outstandingly good – perfect blend of encyclopedic knowledge of your subject and wonderful perfectly pitched humour.” “We hope you will be a most valued part of our speaker programme next year.” It’s comments like this, that make everything worthwhile.
“I have been asked to write to you to thank you in writing for a very enjoyable evening.” “It was pointed out that you were among the very last to leave as you made yourself available for conversation and questioning by all of the members of the audience who came to hear you speak. Thank…
Some rather lovely feedback from Ampleforth and District Gardening Club Thank you so much for giving such an interesting and most amusing talk to our club members last Wednesday. So many people said how much they had enjoyed the evening. We look forward to seeing you again next year in September.
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