smallholding in Wales from the age of three and posting his first YouTube film – on potting on a sapling – when he was 12. This early foray into broadcasting is still available to watch and has had 17,000 views so far. After finishing his A-levels he made encouraging people to garden his full-time career.
To date he’s made 844 videos and attracted more than 900,000 YouTube subscribers. Of these, 21% are 25 to 34 years old, 25% are 35 to 44 and 19% are 45 to 54, with virtually a 50/50 split of male and female viewers. He has 250,000 followers on Instagram and has appeared on TV programmes such as Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh.
In addition to his YouTube and social media activities, Huw is the author of several books, with How to Grow Food: Your Crop- by-Crop Guide to Growing, Cooking, and Preserving, written with Sam Cooper, having been published in March.
All this, and he’s still only 27.
Explaining his success on YouTube, Huw says the channel is an easy way to find information and is especially popular with younger audiences.
“What’s exciting about it is that I can reach people who aren’t into gardening, but who might see a video pop up and find it sparks their curiosity.
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“Sometimes people get too caught up in particular garden techniques or feel guilty for using things like plastic pots and miss the big picture,” Huw says.
“People ask whether they should dig over their gardens or follow ‘no-dig’ techniques: I tell them I don’t care how they do it. Either way it’s better than being reliant on supermarkets.
“At the end of the day, every single garden is different and will have its own challenges and opportunities.
“What I do is to help people find the way they want to garden, not give them strict rules. I provide them with guiding principles and ideas to help.”
Huw also believes in growing food as a form of escapism.
“I find that it just plucks your mind away from everything: with gardening you’re forced to be present. Gardening keeps you grounded: not everything will go to plan and that’s fine. So many people become divorced from nature and the seasons. Gardening helps us to deal with that, and it gives you strawberries!”
Huw’s appearance at Malvern will be his second time at the spring festival: previously he’s visited as a member of the public and was impressed by the gardens and the amount of food there was available to eat.
“I’m really looking forward to my appearances in the Kitchen Theatre: I love talking and I love questions, especially when I don’t know what people are going to ask. That’s really fun.”
Huw has spent virtually his entire life growing fruit and vegetables, helping his mum and dad, Clarissa and Steven, on their
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“My aim is to educate, inspire and empower people. I explore different ways of growing fruit and vegetables and there are some videos in which I go to other people’s gardens and celebrate what they’re doing and pass on ideas.”
Huw is particularly well known for ‘permaculture’ practices – a term encompassing regenerative growing that mimics natural ecosystems – and for taking a strategic approach to make the most of time and resources.
INTERVIEW
HUW RICHARDS
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