Hi, I’m Jeff Minto, I’ve been a professional gardener for over 30 years and have worked in various specialist jobs, looking after Soccer pitches, Cricket pitches, and Bowling greens.
I have been involved in gardening as far back as I can remember, even as a child I can remember working with my dad, he was the head groundsman for an estate in the UK and I would follow him around as he did his gardening tasks. I can still remember walking beside him as he cut the lawns in front of the ‘big house’.
When I left school my first job was in gardening, following in my dad’s footsteps I got a job as an assistant gardener at the grounds of a country house (Usworth Old Hall, Washington). I really learned about gardening from the old head gardener. He was definitely old school and I learned all the old skills like using a scythe to cut long grass and hand sickle to clear weeds and trimming all the hedges by hand.
After working there for five years I qualified as a gardener. The head gardener retired and someone was brought in that I didn’t really get along with, so I left to go to study at University full time.
I always look back on those early days with great fondness and they helped to hone me into the hard-working person I am today.