About Angus
Angus was born in country New South Wales, Australia. Whilst he grew up in a family who loved gardening and gardens he attributes his passion for Australian native plants and in particular kangaroo paws, to his maternal grandmother, Daisy Wood. Angus co-operates with a network of horticultural businesses and individuals to create a unique blend of information that includes tried and trusted topics as well as the new and experimental in Australian horticulture. Angus works with a range of specialist Australian native plant nurseries to link readers with where they can find both species and cultivars (varieties) of all sorts. Wholesale nurseries include Bushland Flora, Gondwana Nursery, Melaleuca Nursery, Merricks Nursery, Native Plant Wholesalers, Tarrawood Nursery. Retail nurseries include Cool Country Natives in Canberra, Newcastle Wildflower Nursery in Newcastle, Sydney Wildflower Nursery in southern Sydney, The Wildflower Place in Erina, and Zanthorrea Nursery in Perth. Angus has co authored Grow Your Own – How to be an Urban Farmer with Simon Leake of Sydney Environmental and Soils Laboratory. The book features excellent new growing systems for urban farmers produced by Vegepod, Composta and RELN. Angus’s full biography
Books
Angus has authored or contributed to a number of gardening books – Gardening on the Wild Side, Let’s Propagate – A Plant Propagation Manual for Australia , Australian Plants for Year Round Colour, and 500 Plants. His award winning book Creating an Australian Garden was published by Allen and Unwin and is a glossy full colour book on establishing any sized garden with Australian plants. His fifth book on Australian native plants and gardening is co authored with AB Bishop and is called The Australian Native Garden.
His latest book, Grow Your Own, was published in October 2017, and is co-authored with renowned soil scientist Simon Leake. It is all about urban farming and growing your own food free of harmful chemicals. This is a book where science is not a dirty word!
Television
Angus was a presenter for ABC TV’s ever popular Gardening Australia program from 2004 to 2017. Previously, Angus was a gardening presenter on Channel 7’s Sydney Weekender program for a couple of years in the mid-1990s and was regular gardening presenter on Foxtel’s Lifestyle Channel and NBN 3’s Today Extra program between 1998 and 2005. He has also made guest appearances on various other TV programs including Channel 7’s Better Homes and Gardens.
Radio
In 1991 Angus began a five year stint on Sydney Metropolitan ABC AM station 702 as a regular on the John Doyle Afternoon program as the ‘Doctor of the Dirt, Surgeon of the Soil, Professor of the Paddock’. Angus then worked continuously on 702 with a range of presenters up until 2017. He has also been a guest on numerous other radio stations around Australia as an expert gardening commentator.
Magazines
Angus has written hundreds of magazine articles and is currently a regular contributor to the Gardening Australia magazine. In the past, he wrote regular columns for Belle, Organic Gardener, Australian Table, Gardens and Outdoor Living and Australian Gardener. He has also written occasional articles for Better Homes and Gardens and the Australian Women’s Weekly Home Library.
Qualifications and horticultural experience
Angus holds a first class honours degree in Agricultural Science from the University of Sydney, graduating in 1980. He also holds a Diploma in Adult Education from the University of Technolgy, Sydney. He worked full and part-time in the nursery and cut flower industries from 1981-87 for some of Australia’s leading enterprises and then part-time as a horticultural consultant while teaching a wide range of subjects as a full-time teacher of horticulture at Ryde College of TAFE from 1987-2001.
Angus has run his own horticultural consulting and plant breeding business, New World Plants, since 1985. He took over from Dr Mervyn Turner as breeder of the popular Bush Gems kangaroo paws in 1990 and has also released numerous other Australian plant varieties in a wide range of plant groups.
Awards
Nursery & Garden Industry NSW & ACT Alan Seale Award 2008 for outstanding contribution to industry by any person associated with the media Nursery & Garden Industry NSW & ACT Perpetual Award 2004 for outstanding contribution to horticulture The 2019 International Award of Honour, presented by the International Plant Propagators’ Society Horticultural Media Association of Australia Book Laurel Award for Best General Gardening Book 2011 for ‘Creating An Australian Garden’ Horticultural Media Association of Australia Book Laurel 2018 for ‘The Australian Native Garden’ (co-authored by A.B. Bishop)