Valerie McBride-Munro

BSc (Hons) Hort; PG Dips (Broadcast Journalism) (Plants & Plantsmanship);  C&G; C. Hort; MCIHort

Thank you for reading my profile. I have had a life long love of plants, although it was as a mature student that I graduated with honours from Pershore College of Horticulture.

I have been solving plant and gardening problems for more than 20 years – in print for a number of UK’s leading national gardening magazines, online, on the radio and now in person in your own garden.

I was UK’s first cyberspace plant agony aunt at i-Garden.

I have now developed this problem solving service to a more personal level as garden coach & mentor Auntie Planty. It gives me huge joy to share my horticultural knowledge in this way.

My first degree is BSc (Hons) in horticulture, to which I have added a PG Dip (Broadcast Journalism); Dip Plants & Plantsmanship; C&G teaching adults certificate. I have completed a specialised course on trees; I’m a now a Chartered Horticulturist.

As a freelance broadcast journalist, I’ve contributed to television, radio and gardening websites. For many years I was a horticultural producer for BBC’s Red Button coverage of Chelsea Flower Show, and this only ceased when the specific production unit moved north to Birmingham.

I’ve fielded gardening questions on BBC Radio London’s Lesley Joseph Show on Sundays; have hosted the weekly ‘Gardening Matters’ on the digital station Brooklands Radio.

I’m proud to be a Visitor Guide at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and a past chairman of The Garden Media Guild.

I look forward to hearing from you!