Hello and welcome to my gardening tips and advice site. If like me you love gardening, greenhouses, getting dirty outside and enjoy a real ale or two, then I hope you will like using my gardening advice web site.

Firstly let me introduce myself to you. I have spent nearly all of my working life in horticulture, after spending two years studying at Shuttleworth college in Bedfordshire.

My grandad worked in horticulture as a young lad at the world famous Laxton's Fruit Nurseries in Bedfordshire, then moving to flower and market gardening as he grow up.

My mum always said this is where the first seed of my gardening interest started, following him around his flower and vegetable garden as a boy - following him as he planted out his seed potatoes.

I started work at one of the well known Frosts garden centres in Bedford, working there for around 15 years.

This was a fantastic place to learn the majority of my horticultural plant knowledge, working along side some really talented people and passing on my own tips and gardening advice to customers.

I have always had the attitude that the best way to learn is to listen to the advice and gardening tips from the so called old boys.

Many of the people I have worked with, have been in the gardening trade for years. So I have tried to soak up some of their valuable life long gardening knowledge and tips.

I have since moved to an independent garden centre in Waresley near Cambridge, where I work with a great bunch of guys outside in the cold and wet, tending the shrubs, herbaceous, fruit and trees.

Now after more than 20 years messing about with garden plants, I thought I would start up this website to answer questions and pass on advice and gardening tips to a wider range of people who love their little patch of earth.

Andy Ottley.