033 Green Fingered City Boy: Discovering the Joy of Gardening

If you're someone who has a passion for cut flowers, our environment and wants to make the world more beautiful, you're in the right place. Whether you're growing flowers for pleasure or profit, I'm on a mission to empower flower enthusiasts and professionals to help change the world around them. Whether you're just starting out or needing help in hand, or looking to scale us to substantial flower business, I'm your Cut Flower Woman. Welcome to the Cut Flower Podcast. Okay, I'm very delighted today to welcome Adam Marshall from Green Fingers City Boy as he's known on Instagram. So please tell our listeners Adam a little bit about you, about your background and how you have today managed to achieve nearly 70,000 followers on Instagram. Hi Ross, thank you for having me. Yeah, it's been a little bit crazy, so I started gardening in 2020, actually just before lockdown. I know a lot of people sort of got into gardening during lockdown and before that I hadn't ever really gotten, my mum was always into gardening when I was a kid and she used to let me stay sort of late on a Friday night if I watched Ground Force and Gardeners World with her. But it was never sort of something that I sort of thought would be sort of my hobby. And then basically in 2019, I had sort of trouble with pains in my hands and arms and I went into 2020 wanting to sort of take back control of my physical health and increase my physical capacity. So I saw gardening as a way of doing that because you sort of, you hear that gardening is good exercise for older people and so I thought, whoa, I can sort of do that. And then so I started just before lockdown and I just fell in love with it. Obviously, lockdown, I worked through lockdown. I designed packaging for a pharmaceutical company. So it was sort of like critical workers sort of in key workers. And so yeah, I worked all the way through, but obviously everything was closed and so all my free time went into going into the garden and trying to transform my space. And yeah, the sort of projects just got bigger and bigger. I ended up in A&E during lockdown and got told off by a nurse because I caught my leg open. I don't think of actually really spoken about it on my Instagram. But yeah, like I just, I've just totally fallen in love with it. And then a year later, I joined Instagram in 2021 and just started creating, to begin with, I just posted photos of my garden, I'm not really one for sort of taking photos of myself. And then I just sort of started making a few videos, just sort of messing around and it's just sort of snowboard from there really. I've seen them. I've seen how you made a poem. I've seen how you make, I mean, your projects are very adventurous, I would say. You know, like, yeah, I'm going to be able to poem, I'm going to be able to shelter and I'm going to do this. And they are quite large projects. Yeah, I think so, yeah, definitely. I think I've seen my mom and dad do sort of projects in their own garden as I've sort of grown up. So I think I can sort of see that a lot more is possible than maybe you sort of first realise that my mom and dad have got a new build. And when we first sort of moved into there, it was just more, just totally more apart from they sort of had a little bit of slabs like down one side. And so growing up, although I sort of didn't really get involved that much, I was around like them transforming that garden. And to the point where I, as a kid, dug my mom and dad's ponds, they did a pond in their garden. And so I dug it, I had nothing else to do with it, but I sort of, I think that sort of, it made me aware that like a lot more is possible than maybe you sort of first thing. My granddad, one of my granddad's, he's very much always been into his coy. So I've always grown up with him having various large coy ponds. My other granddad's into growing veg. And so he's got like the most insane sort of great vines and he grows all sorts of fruits and veg. And so although I never was sort of into it myself, I was, I think I was sort of subconsciously very aware of what is sort of possible from sort of bored in every people just having to go in their garden. I think he's made it quite cool. It's like you go back to gardening with traditionally, let's call this pre-COVID, very much an old person's hobby, you know, a person driving a Volvo with a hat and dust and gardening. You know, if you did the survey, that's what we would have all said, you know, that's what gardening is. The actual truth of it is that garden is physically and mentally takes a lot of effort, you know, it's physically, I mean, running a flower farm, I was out there today thinking, actually, physically, this is quite hard work. So I don't, and I think the Instagram has made it across the board quite cool for everybody to have a go at gardening and I think you've made it cool for people to access that anyone can do it because tell us about where you garden, what your environment's like. So I, my garden is quite large, sort of for nowadays because obviously garden is getting smaller and smaller aren't there and it's basically the lady that we've got the house off. She was very much into garden but it was quite a sort of traditional garden. I've got a good soil though which I think I'm very lucky and so that allows, that has sort of been forgiven in some terms of when I've planted stuff. The soil's in the work for me and just what I'm saying. So, and where I live is actually, there's a lot of the back of my house but actually where I live, that land used to be a lot meant back in the day and so I think I've had a head start in that sense because obviously more and more people are sort of gardening within new builds and obviously it's tough. It's very sort of tough, those sort of conditions and you've got rubble in there and stuff like that. But yeah, now I think I have sort of tried to portray that gardening is sort of for everyone. I do try and sort of have a playful sort of attitude towards it and try and just show that like I am literally just someone who's just gone into the garden to have a go and that anyone can sort of be doing what like I am doing, you know what I mean because sometimes I think it's very easy to sort of doubt ourselves when we are a lot more capable than what we maybe first realise. Yeah, I think having it goes a really good thing. There were some, you know, some really easy things like, you know, direct sewing or, you know, buying perennial plants to put in or, you know, you can start, you contain a gardening. It doesn't have to be a massive project. It can be just to step in the right direction. It's like a bit at a time. Yeah, definitely. And I also think that, like, so I've come into gardening and there's so many, like, it's such a broad thing. There's so many different things that you can do within gardening, that even to the point where you can the garden outside or you can bait, you can garden inside and do your houseplants or terrariums and stuff like that. And so I've come into gardening and I've been like, well, what do I enjoy most? I don't even know because I've, like, I'm not tried everything. And I think so that's one thing I've tried to do is just try everything. And there's certain things which I haven't enjoyed as much as others. And I do enjoy a project and trying to sort of transform the space and show what's possible. But yeah, I think that's one important thing is just to try as many things as you can because there might be something that you actually really, really enjoy that you don't, you haven't actually realised yet. Do you know I mean that you, you might be sort of growing things from seed and then all of a sudden you try and you start growing a few days from tuber and you enjoy that even more than sort of what you've been doing and because you find that the flowers are even better for picking to take back into your house or do you see what I'm saying? There's so many different sort of facets to gardening that it's a broad subject. And so yeah, that's the sort of angle I've come at it with is that I'm just trying everything to try and see how that what I enjoy. And to be honest, sometimes with sort of social media side of things, that's, I'm sort of penalised for that because with sort of social media, they like you doing the same thing over and over again because then your audience that you've built up, they're definitely enjoying every single one of your videos and that's why you see some people just below up because every single one of their reels is very, very similar. And so every, like people who've already liked them, they like them again and again and again. And I think sometimes my, my content is a little bit scatter gone because I'm sort of trying in everything and just trying to have fun with it and enjoy it and trying to sort of learn what I'm sort of most passionate about because I've discovered this thing and I don't know yet. Well, I think about how you still manage 70,000 followers. So you haven't done that. I think it's more that people follow you because you know, they can relate you're relatable and they think we can do that. He's done that project, we can do that. And I think that's more of it. I think, you know, from a gardening point of view, I cannot grow vegetables. You know, how can a flower farm or not grow vegetables is the most ridiculous thing on this planet? And I've been growing for flower farming for 12 years. But for me, it's all about plant production and all about, if you like, dailies and tubers and bulbs and give me, give me vegetables. Not so sure about those. And, and I've literally got that within my family. Do you know what I mean? Because like, so one of my, like one of my grandad is very much into his veg, like, and all that. He just doesn't get why people would want to grow flowers. Do you see what I'm saying? My other grandad with the coin pond, he will grow all his bedding and he'll buy little plug plants and he'll grow them on and he'll plant out all these flowers in his garden to sort of make it look nice. Do you see what I'm saying? And it's like, we're all different. And there's all, like, there's so many different things that sort of make us tear. And it is about sort of finding that thing that sort of, like, lights that sort of fire inside you, isn't it? Yeah. I don't ask how many hours she's spending your garden a week. Well, I have to do, like, power our garden them because obviously I've got little boys. And when I'm out there, he's actually banging on the window and then waving and he finds it hilarious just carrying on doing that over and over again. Yeah, so it's like, early in the morning or late at night, is your duty then out in the garden? Yeah, basically, if weekends, I have to get so much done on weekends because obviously I've got a job. And so, yeah, like obviously, even in I can get a little bit done, but not really much because obviously I want to spend time with Jay. So yeah, I have to sort of utilise my weekends and gardening's my sort of main hobby now, apart from sort of going and watching the forest. Apart from that, gardening is my main hobby. And when I'm out there, I have to utilise my time well and sort of record lots of content in a good space of time. And then I've got content there that I can sort of basically edit throughout the week to then share people with people through the week. Do you know what I mean? I don't ever want to sort of get to a point where I'm like, not necessarily showing people what I'm doing in the garden at that point. Do you know what I mean? So try and still I'm showing people as I go along, but it's probably sort of like, out through the week, I'm showing people what I've done last weekend type thing. Yeah, so it's relevant. It's just like I ask, you know, I think tomorrow we're going to deadhead some roses and roses and disbud day years or something like that. So it has to be relevant to what the time of the year that you're actually doing. But you have enormous amounts of content. Yeah, yeah, it is. And this is the disadvantage we have within sort of like the garden in niche when creating content because there's lots of other niches where they can sort of recycle their content all the way through the year. Yeah, really, really easily. Whereas like, and all the sort of social media gurus, they'll tell you to do that. But that we can't like sort of repost planting daily achievers like in a month's time or because it was too late by then, you can't be just, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, it's really easy. So you have to sort of, even if it's sort of using that content and showing what it turned into, you've still got to sort of edit that content up and re sort of purpose that content. You can't just be recycling your content like a lot of other niches are able to do. No, I mean, I think if I show tulip or some tulips, people think I was completely nuts. You know, it's like moving into daily a world now. So, but yeah, it's, I mean, yeah, it is about content. It's about reels, but ultimately people follow you because they like what you're doing. You're relatable. And they think they can do it too, which is how I came across you and thought, wow. So tell us about your growing space. How big is it? Stay with us. We'll be right back. This podcast episode is sponsored by First Tunnels, leaders in domestic and commercial polytunnels. A polytunnel is an amazing protective environment for plants, vegetables and flowers, extending any growing season. And whether you're growing for pleasure or commercially, whether you go for a small or a large tunnel, you can be assured of the same high-quality product from First Tunnels, polytunnels. I personally have three of their polytunnels. Two of them have had for over 10 years and I highly recommend First Tunnels, polytunnels for their product and also for their great customer service, which is second to none. Do pop over to their website and take a look at their range, www.firsttunnels.co.uk I don't know, you know. I've never measured it. So I live in a semi-destached house, so it's a little bit wider than the house, because there's a driveway down the side, and sort of lengthwise. I don't know. 20-30 meters. I don't know. But it's got a path straight down the garden, because my thing was, if I want to get to my shed, I want to get to my shed. And actually, it's very interesting, my garden, because I designed it in zones, and the reason I designed it in zones is because obviously it is quite a large garden. And so it was more manageable to sort of do it in zones and focus on each space at a time. And yeah, I just found that sort of like a lot easier. Now, having the straight path, going all the way down the garden, is very interesting, because a lot of sort of garden designs now, they'll have sort of twisted or curved paths. And yeah, it was a conversation with my brother-in-law, he says, what, do you not want the path sort of going round in a journey? And I was like, no, I want to get to my shed. I want to get to my shed. And I was actually gardeners' world live in 2020, when it was in the autumn. I think it was at the end of August, or early September, I remember. And basically, Montedon was speaking. And they asked Montedon, if you redid your space, your garden, would you do it differently? And he said two things. He says, I wouldn't use box, because all my box has been destroyed. I obviously blightened that. And the other thing he said is I'd have more curved paths. He said, but when I did my garden, I wasn't in the best space. And so I wanted everything sort of tidy in its place. And I wanted my path straight so I could get to where I wanted to go. And it was crazy because I'd never heard him say that. But then that was exactly how I'd sort of designed my garden myself. So yeah, I think that's why I sort of designed my garden the way I did, because at that point, although it was triggered by sort of like the physical health that the problems I was having, I wasn't in the best sort of space mentally because of that. But obviously over time, the garden sort of strengthened me both physically and obviously nurtured me mentally as well. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, definitely. And that's what my beautiful border was about garden as well alive. That sort of journey through the garden. Talk to us about that beautiful border. You were very modest about that. You just slipped that one in. But when I saw it, I thought, of course, you're very modest about that. Tell me about that journey. How do you get involved? What was it? What did you have to do? Massing work. I was on a TikTok live. And we've a guy called Gardening with Ben, who's always on TikTok lives. And so I jumped home with him and was chatting. And then garden designer called Kate Mason joined in the chat. And she just said, why don't you do a beautiful border at garden as well alive? Now I didn't know that anyone could do it. And I was like laughing. And then we sort of were chatting. And then she said, no, no, anyone can do it. You can apply it. Now, I just thought I'd love to do it. The problem was this was on sort of like the Wednesday or first day. And the application deadline was the following Monday. Right. And so it obviously I was at work in the week. So I thought, if I can't stop thinking about it when we get to the weekend, I'll do a design over the weekend. I'll send it in. And we'll just say, do you not mean, if it gets in it does, it doesn't mean it's meant to be. So yeah, we did that. I drew my designs, sent them in. And I got accepted. And yeah, obviously Instagram allowed me to have relationships with amazing sort of companies. And so they sort of backed me and supported me on the journey. And yeah, we went and did it. I tapped in. I'm a big believer with about like sort of tapping into other people sort of expertise and sort of building each other up. And so I was sort of getting help from other people that obviously I'd put my design in and never fit. But sort of like the build wise, I was sort of asking people like, so show god and beautiful borders, what do you have to do? Like, is there anything you would sort of recommend? And just tapping into people's sort of knowledge and learning from them. And yeah, we went to the build my brother-in-law who's got his own landscape and company who did my patio. He came with me. We built it. And yeah, it turned out, it turned out good. And it was meant to be your journey. Is that what it was represented? Was it represented at the beginning to the end? What was the whole? And yeah, obviously tell them that's what it represented. Yeah, so the theme was my garden escape, which was perfect for me because my garden had been my escape. And I've got a pull-up bar in my garden. And it all represented the sort of, the title is about stroking from your body. He'll your mind and feed your soul. And so it was all about the cloud tree was there. And it was framed by the pull-up bar. And the cloud tree represented as the gardener having created our space and being shaped and nurtured by our garden and standing tall over our garden. There was fiery colors at the front. And then as you went through the garden, it calmed down. And then at the back, it was more of a mindful space. And it was all about through the garden, how it shapes us and sort of calms us down. And then on the pull-up bar arch, it said, under this pressure, under this way we are diamonds taking shape. And obviously referencing people's true worth, which sometimes we tend to forget. There was sort of stepping stones going through to sort of symbolise it sort of slowing us down from the sort of fast pace of life. And yeah, it was, it was all about sort of like what gardening has sort of done to me, like for me, and what had given me. So it, I, a lot of people asked me about the design process and I came up with it. But like it was just me telling people my journey and my story. So it didn't really sort of take me long to do the design because it, you know what I mean, it was, it was just me telling my story through that sort of design space. Wow, wow, wow. Was it amazing doing it all and being at the show and seeing other gardens and talking to other people? It's a whole thing. Yeah, yeah, it's surreal. It makes you appreciate show gardens and borders and everything so much more because you see sort of how much love and effort people put into them. How, how much hard work and, and yeah, so you, after doing one, you definitely look at things differently because you, it allows you to appreciate them so much more. And you were judged or was it part, what happened then? Yeah, yeah, so you, so you're judged, I came up with gold. No, I'm seeing what was there. Yeah, so yeah, but I don't think I really sort of spoken to this, I like to a lot of people about this. I don't think I really sort of appreciated the achievement until sort of talking to the public and talking to the designers and stuff throughout the week and then sort of then that sort of started to realise, actually, like, do you know what I mean? And I'm not very good at taking compliments as it is. No, no, no, you're not divine. It's over a weekend. You know, you haven't ever done it before and you've got a gold. I think that's the last few people actually. We need, it's not something you do every day, the way you are not a garden designer, you're not a landscape, you're not, you do something completely different for your job. It's creative, but nowhere near what you are in terms of designing a garden and also designing a show garden is very different because it's got a last and it's got a short period of time and I've often wondered, you know, how do you put trees in these things and how do you make them survive? Because, you know, what goes on underneath is quite interesting, but it's like, no, I'm a goodness, I think getting a gold, I think it's a massive achievement. Yeah, thank you. I didn't think you shouted loud enough. I don't, I don't change my whole of my Instagram to a gold colour for a few days. Well, I do have put in my Instagram, no, gold award winning designer. And in your bio, yeah, completely you do. Yeah, I would do. So, would you do it again? I wouldn't do a border again just because that's the best I could have done. Yeah. In sense of, I could go back and I could do a border and sort of do it to make sure I gain marks in certain areas in order to get that platinum. Yeah. In the sense of I got marked down because certain plants I put in wouldn't be planted like that in the horticultural world. So, I could sort of, yeah, be a little bit more mindful about that and sort of stay within the lines and the boxes and sort of try and go after that platinum. But that border, just it was just like everything went into that. That was my sort of journey. That was like, there was so much of my identity in that design that no beautiful border I do would actually ever be better than that. So, if I did something again, it would be a show garden and sort of, yeah, just continuing in that sort of direction. I will say you're a Hampton Court or a plenty of room here. I'm open. If it any show like, I interviewed Dr Olivia Chappell who heads up Horatio's Gardens, Horatio's Gardens, the ones in spinal units all over the UK. So, they've got eight gardens now and they've got three more to do and then they've got one in all of the spinal units in the UK. So, it's amazing, amazing charity and I support them as much as I can. And she, she did, they did for the first time and Horatio's garden at Chelsea. And she said, and she was just as modest and she got a gold and actually best of show and it's the first time they've ever done it. And the garden was amazing and it was all, it was designed because obviously if you've had a spinal injury, you're now generally either lying flat on your back or you're in a wheelchair. You're at a different angle to everybody else. So, but what they didn't want to do was build a garden which was only suitable at one level because that was only suitable for people with spinal units, what about their families, what about their children, what about the rest of it. So, they built really varying levels, taking into account the kind of mindset of somebody who's had a spinal injury and they kind of said, you know, you're never going to walk again or your life's going to check again. And of course, that could happen to any of us. We could just, we could be in a car extent today and that could happen. And so, she was equally as modest, but that kind of thing was like, woo, they've designed this garden with a, you know, and they're now taking that garden and moving it to Sheffield. They're going to put it in Sheffield spinal, you know. And so, so who knows where you're going to be? We'll see. I was like, Glee today, hopefully like talking to a few possibilities. So, we'll see. I'll wear you. So, what do you think's been your biggest challenge in all of this in your gardening journey? Stay with us. We'll be right back. HALOFT are delighted to support the Cut Flower podcast and its gardening community. Who are we? At HALOFT, we've been busy delivering rare, unusual and exciting plants in the heart of Worcestershire for garden store steps for over 30 years. If you're looking for gardening inspiration, ideas, great quality plants and incredible customer care, why not visit us at HALOFT.co.uk. We'd love to hear from you on the socials too, at HALOFT Plants. That's a very good question. Have you ever come across a challenge? So, there's always been various challenges. I think there always is when you sort of put yourself out of your comfort zone. One of the, so, when I first sort of sort of get into the garden, I bought some aces off of Amazon and they came and I planted them up and I put them in a spot where I thought they looked really nice and they were one of them died and the other two looked really sad and it made me realise that all plants like different conditions and then so if I'm going to make my garden look nice, I need to learn what plants like what conditions and where I put these aces was two exposed basically and yeah, the wind just absolutely destroyed them. So, I think that was a challenge. In lockdown, I was just binge watching old gardeners' world episodes on YouTube and so yeah, so that was a challenge, learning lots and lots of plants and I still got a lot to sort of learn what I know sort of far more than what I did when I started. Obviously, doing the beautiful board was a massive challenge, never done it, you're stepping out of your comfort zone, doing something, you're putting yourself out there, I obviously told socials that I was already doing it before I did it and so if it doesn't go well, you're messing up in front of quite a few people. I think every time you do something a little bit different, you're doing it in front of a lot of people when you're showing that on social media and I think that's a massive challenge in itself and I think that takes a certain mindset that you have to sort of get used to. You can't take certain comments to heart, you've got to sort of laugh certain things off. If you do, if you build a bin shelter, that gets near and 40 million views with a Instagram and TikTok, you've got to be prepared to get lots and lots of comments, slating it, saying, well, what's the point in that because now I've got to take my bin out to put something in the bin and so yeah, so I think that's a sort of challenge in the sense of like trying to come up with sort of new content, like continuously, like interesting, but also having the confidence to do that as well because sometimes you're there sort of ready to post and you think, is this actually any good? Is anybody actually going to watch this? But I think the ones that get the most views are actually probably not what you thought, but sometimes you're not going to get it right, we just go with it and see what happens. Yeah, definitely, like I've sort of edited certain reels to death at times and thought this is going to be insane, like this is going to do really well and then it just does average. I tell you what, my, so I'd had to, so the bin shelter one's obviously, I'd never had a reel go over a million like before that and I know various people that had my highest one before that was that sort of 400K. When I was posting that bin shelter one, I'd not done very well, like the days leading up to it, my reels hadn't done very well, and I was like, I need to post something that's like good tonight, so I put myself under pressure. So I was, I edited that video in like 10, 20 minutes at like half seven at night and then just chucked it up and then I chucked it up on TikTok and then all the sudden it was just like I thought for the internet, like this, like on TikTok, I thought this might actually like go over a million, because on Instagram it was still really slow and then I woke up in the next morning and it had gone over a million on TikTok overnight within sort of 10 hours. And I think that does show that like sometimes you can overthink these things too much. And that, that, that video I just sort of edited it. Yeah. Just within 10, 20 minutes and chucked it up, fought nothing else of it and I didn't do much engagement because you know how you post and then you engage a little bit to try and sort of get traffic on to you, but I didn't really do that. I didn't do it. I mean, and it just, I mean, it's sometimes, yeah, you just can't like control or guess what's sort of going to happen with these things. I'm always the ones that have done better out. I've been funny, like like I did one a year ago, I suppose, now where I was lying in bed and then there was a little speech bubble and it said, I'll be put the bins out, yeah, put the bins out. Next one, I'll be put the cat out, yeah, you put the cat out. And then it's going to go, oh, have you closed your polytunnel? No, so you get out and start running down the stairs. Just ridiculous because as a garden and the most important thing is, a certain time's in the air that you have to close that polytunnel otherwise. So, and that was ridiculous and people thought that was really funny. So, but you just don't know what's going to go and what's not going to go. But I think that's part of it. It's part of the fun. And I think, yeah, and I think that's the key thing is fun and I think that's key thing is having fun and I think you have to make sure you're creating content that you're enjoying doing. So, I changed, like certain things, I changed the sort of content style at times throughout being on socials. So, to begin with, it was sort of like I was sort of making like death reels and stuff like that. And I was enjoying doing it, I was having a laugh. But then there's so many, so many jokes you can sort of make about gardening. And then I was sort of like, like they were doing well. So, I was still sort of like trying to sort of create them. And I was always sort of do like my sort of project reels where I'm creating something. And then like I'd sort of then scatter sort of like, I say funny, but like in speech boxes. Like, standing to a chase, you have that, you're funny on hotpot. But it got to the point where I wasn't really enjoying doing the sort of fun, like sort of those jovial reels as much. And so, because of that, I actually subconsciously wasn't trying as hard on them. And so, they didn't sort of do as well anyway. And so, I had to sort of then sort of torture myself and go, well, what is, I mean, what is the problem there? Oh, you're not enjoying making those reels anymore. Well, what reels do you want to make? What reels do you enjoy making? And then that's where I've sort of then transitioned sort of maybe what I create from there, if you get one, I mean. Yeah, yeah. No, absolutely. Well, you can't, like say, we go back to the fact you've got 70,000 followers. I don't think you're doing a bad job. So, and I noticed you've got a merchandise range, which again, you keep quite quiet. Well, yeah, well, I don't really sort of ever really talk about it, but I probably should because I fit in and I'm paying like, I want to watch a month for the website, but then I never actually tell anyone about it to actually get anything. That sort of came from just ruining my t-shirts that I was wearing in the garden. And then I just thought, oh, it'd be cool to have some gardening t-shirts while like for when I'm like doing the reels and stuff. And so, yeah, so I sort of did it and then set it up, but to be honest, I don't really plug it as much as I should at all really. I don't think you do. So. To the point where I wear, I wear one in the t-shirts sometimes, feel like, Pinnett, where did you get that from? And then I'm like, oh, it's something on the website. Do you not know? No, no, because they're fully open. No, because no, you've not told anyone. You can't know on a little bit of secrets, so that's a bit difficult. That ventures definitely in the negative, just because I don't tell anyone about it. Or maybe this podcast will bring you back in the positive or even up with your website. So what next, Adam? Do you ever fancy going off and being a horticulturalist or doing it as a job or would you kind of think you're a designer, aren't you? So you design anyway, you design and you're branding and you're doing packaging and so on, which is very creative. Do you ever see working and the two working really close together or working one part time and one part time? Do you see, you know, if you had a crystal, what would you dream be? I don't know really, because I've got a good sort of safe sensible job. Yeah, I work for a great company and I work with great people as well and I never get, I never get to a Sunday night, I think, oh no, I've got work tomorrow. Do you know what I mean? That genuinely, and I've always said that, and I've been in the position where I have been like that. Do you know what I mean? I've had a job where I was sort of like a dread going to work the next day because of how boring I found it. Do you know what I mean? So I do sort of very much sort of value the fact that like I don't dread my job. But so within the job I do is very much like it's design, but it's very much problem solving design because so I'm a constructional packaging designer, so I design like the construction of the sort of cartons from suitable companies. So it's more problem solving if something's not working on packaging lines and stuff like that if they want sort of new sort of packaging than you sort of design it. So it's very much sort of problem solving and it's not necessarily got create that has a much creativity in it is what like sort of like the name would suggest. But I very much have always been quite a creative person and I think that's why I've sort of enjoyed gardening so much in the short time that I've done it is that I was probably missing that sort of creativity in my life and sort of yearning for it. And then so doing some gardening, it's sort of like it's given me that. So yeah, it's a tough one, really. Who knows, yeah. Yeah, I think I'm just going to sort of see sort of how it goes and sort of yeah, I'm very much sort of enjoying the sort of journey of everything. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. At the end of the day, like the whole sort of gardening side of my life, it is a hobby like I do enjoy it. Do you know what I mean? So yeah, we'll see. And maybe that's a good thing, you know, who knows 20 years from now or 10 years from now. No one used to do in the old days, what would you want to be doing in five years time? You don't think like that anymore. It's like, what do you want to be doing next month generally? Or what you want to be doing in a year? No one can think five years from now because it just changes so quickly. I mean, if I said to you five years ago, you'd never have been where you are now. So who knows in five years? You know, maybe you'll be at a marshal, the writer, the broadcaster, the person on gardeners' world. Who knows? You know, he's right. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, there's certain things I want to do. There's certain things that I don't, like I'm sort of nervous to even say. So like one thing that you said then about like the writer, like this, I've got like an idea in my head, like something in the pipeline, maybe, that like, yeah, like I'm even nervous to say it because you have to sort of start yourself about, do you know what I mean? You're almost scared to say it out loud because then people were like, oh, like you said this then like, like do you mean they'll hold you accountable for it? So yeah, I'm loving obviously what I've been doing. I've worked with some amazing companies already, whether it be sort of in their sort of campaigns, like non, not necessarily gardening companies, but like big sort of brands and but also like companies within sort of like the gardening world and really sort of enjoyed it so far. So yeah, like watch this space and see what it's going. I mean, it turns you so quickly because tonight I was just reading something and it just caught my attention and said, oh, why don't you turn your podcast into a book using AI? And now it's a technology which there hasn't been to upload your MP3 file and go right, I want to turn this into a book through using AI and you think, wow, hold on a minute, this is like another world and then so that wasn't available six months ago. But also as well, is it seems like yesterday that it was like turning books into audio. So we've gone backwards. I know it's worth this. It's completely nuts and of course you can self-publish now really easily. I've done two books on Amazon that I self-published and anyone can be a writer, you know, with the use of AI and use of copyright and skills and everything, you know, as long as you've got something that people are interested in and they want to learn about, then why not? We can all have a say. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I think that's the thing, I think sometimes people think sort of they look around and they just instantly identify people that sort of know more about them, but it's not necessarily always about knowing the most. It's about actually writing from a perspective or talking from a perspective or making content from a perspective that people can relate to. People don't follow me because like I'm an amazing gardener and I know loads about gardeners. You know, that's why they follow me. I don't have any shame in saying that's what like not why have people follow me. Like people follow me. I think because they find me a little bit relatable and maybe I talk maybe a lot simpler than some other people do. Do you know what I mean? I think everyone's got that sort of, everyone's got their identity and I think maybe that's where some people go wrong is that they don't stay true to their identity and they're always chasing be it trying to be someone trying to be something that they're not and if they actually just slow down and just be like had that confidence just to be themselves and and chilled out and just sort of went with it, then they probably do far better than what they'd ever sort of realised. I agree because it's almost like I mean social media can be a mental health problem in itself because it's got massive comparator. Sometimes we go and can let's compare a minor and they've got 70,000 followers and I've only got 15 and well they're really good and mine are not so good and you know I think you know people relate to me and go on my courses and do my things for different reasons people read my books for different reasons and I'm just not going to be someone else so it's kind of like that's what I say to people just be true to whatever you are because people are saying again if they want to be a flower farmer yeah but it's loads around my area and there's too much competition I say hold on a minute. There's loads of Indian restaurants in my local high street but doesn't mean that they don't look and they wouldn't open another one. Everyone's different if you've all got their own brand and the US peasants and you will have if you're a flower farmer or you will have it if you decide to sell flowers and be a florist or you will have it you'll just be different and your story will be different. So I try to encourage people just to think their story is really different. I was talking to a GP the other day and she wants to be a flower farmer interestingly and she knows that it's going to be very difficult to transition because of GP she's earning a lot more than she would starting out as a flower farmer and she has to transition very slowly and we talked about how that might happen and then we said okay well let's have a look up you know all of your US peas and turns out you know hold on a minute you're medical and you know a lot of our medicine and you're a GP so let's have a look at that whole kind of mental health and therapeutic and what you can produce and people will listen to you because of who you are and use what you've got but be true to yourself don't try and be the flower farmer over here who's doing this or the flower farmer there is doing that. So and also like sort of building each of our operas well that I think sometimes it I see so like I see certain instances where people are like sort of really competitive even with like within like sort of like a social sort of space and you sort of sense the sort of like being like a little bit competitive in your sense that sort of standoffish attitude in certain situations when really like it's far better to sort of build each of a rock and sort of grow together yeah I think you're always going to get that aren't you and it's very public and it's very out there so Adam thank you very much for joining us it's been an absolute pleasure I could talk for hours and you just thank you very much and I think you're an absolute inspiration for people should follow you on Instagram they should have a look at your website and your merchandise they should see what's coming next I can't wait to see what's coming next I think there's loads that you're not even aware of yet there's going to come next like all of us and it'll be amazing but it's an inspiration and I want to thank you for joining me today thank you very much for having me have really enjoyed it thank you I look forward to next week's episode please don't forget to subscribe and rate and review on your podcast app we do have some wonderful free resources on our website at the cutflowcollective.co.uk we also have two free Facebook communities which we'd love you to join for farmers all those who want to be from our farmers we have cutflower farming growth and profit in your business and our other free Facebook group is learn with the cutflower reflective for those starting out on their flower journey all of the links are below I look forward to getting to know you all