As a young boy in South Africa, I would watch my grandfather who was a garden landscaper. I admired his skill and knew I wanted to be just like him, however I haven’t always worked in nature. In fact it was quite the opposite. Immigrating to Australia in my 20's, I became an operations manager for one of Australia’s leading ASX retail companies. I was quickly succeeding within this role with plenty of opportunities ahead of me. Despite this, I was unhappy. I knew my calling was working outdoors and I was stuck working in a warehouse for up to 8-12 hours per day.

I took a leap of faith and quit my job and decided to study my true passion. I attended The Gordon Tafe in 2019 and studied Certificate III Conservation & Land Management, which was the beginning of a whole new world for me. I loved it and couldn’t wait to get to class every week. I initially wanted to be a park ranger, so I volunteered for Parks Victoria and local councils as much as I could while studying.

My first job in the industry was in 2020 at Fitzroy Botanical Gardens, Melbourne as a gardener. I then worked in the conservation and land management industry for 1.5 years protecting Australia’s native flora in bush lands, national parks, wetlands, grasslands, nature reserves and NVO’s. Working in conservation helped me develop strong native plant identification skills. It made me appreciate just how precious Australian flora and fauna is and how quickly it can be destroyed by introduced animals and invasive, non native weeds.

I then began residential gardening as a contractor for the elderly and disabled in within my local community. With this experience I decided it was time to take another leap and start my own gardening business in 2022 and along with my wife Elke, we started Greenify Gardening. I love combining my artistic vision and practicticalty into creating beautiful and functional gardens.