It’s always a wonderful thing to be recognised for your work, and this week I found out that I was a finalist in the Garden Media Guild (GMG) Awards!
Founded in 1991, the Garden Media Guild is the national organisation of professional communicators associated with the garden industry. The Garden Media Guild Awards celebrate the best of horticultural communications, including authors, journalists, broadcasters, photographers, bloggers and website owners.
Each year, a select panel of respected experts and horticultural professionals are selected by the GMG Committee to judge the entries and select winner for each of the categories, including Website of the Year, which is the category mrplantgeek.com was a finalist for!
I work very hard on my website, and strive to make it a ‘middle ground’ between horticulturists and home gardeners, with fun articles and information from a fresh perspective! Hope you love it!
The winners of the awards were:
The Peter Seabrook Practical Book of the Year Award: Brilliant & Wild – A garden from scratch in a year by Lucy Bellamy
Garden Book of the Year: Winter Gardens – Reinventing the Season by Cedric Pollet
Garden Publication of the Year: Kitchen Garden, edited by Steve Ott
Trade Publication of the Year: Horticulture Week, edited by Kate Lowe
News Journalist of the Year: Ian Hodgson for articles in Garden News
The Dr David Hessayon Garden Columnist of the Year Award:Val Bourne for articles in Amateur Gardening
Journalist of the Year: Stephanie Mahon for articles in Garden Design Journal
Practical Journalist of the Year: David Patch for articles in Kitchen Garden
Features Photographer of the Year: Richard Bloom for images in Gardens Illustrated and Garten Design Inspiration
The Gordon Rae Photographer of the Year Award: Andrea Jones
The Roy Lancaster TV Broadcast of the Year Award: Gardeners’ World, Producer Paolo Proto
Radio Broadcast or Podcast of the Year: Growing Wild, Producer/Presenter, Charlotte Petts
The Alan Titchmarsh New Talent Award: Ben Dark, podcast: The Garden Log
Blog or Vlog of the Year: The Urban Veg Patch by Caro Shrives
Website of the Year: HabitatAid.co.uk, Editor/Publisher, Nick Mann
Digital Innovation Award: RHS Grow Your Own app, creator, Simon Hampton
Social Media Influencer of the Year: Charles Dowding
Lifetime Achievement Award: Gary Rogers
Marcus Harpur Award: Tamsin Westhorpe, Stockton Bury Gardens
European Garden Book Award:Caroline Foley


Michael has been involved with gardening and plants since he was just five years old. He is a self-professed Plant Geek, and was listed in the Sunday Times top 20 most influential people in the gardening world, thanks to his plant hunter role at Thompson & Morgan.
Michael was responsible for new plant introductions such as the Egg and Chips plant and the FuchsiaBerry and keeps busy travelling the world in search of new plants as well as lecturing worldwide, including stints in Japan. He is very active on social media – so why not give him a follow at @mr_plantgeek or Facebook. You can also listen to The Plant Based Podcast with Michael and co-host Ellen-Mary on iTunes, Spotify and Google.