Huw Richards

Huw Richards is a gardener, permaculturist, and a popular YouTuber.

He has more than 700 thousand subscribers on his eponymous YouTube channel.

Huw is also an author.

Introduction-

Huw Gruffudd Richards-Price was born on 19 January 1999.

His hometown is Huddersfield, England.

Huw has a younger sister.

His grandfather was also a gardener, he used to grow vegetables and some soft fruit.

Also, Huw’s father, Steven, is a gardener and he got him into gardening.

Love for gardening-

‘The Good Life’ TV series, a show popularizing self-sufficiency, and ‘Self-Sufficiency’ book by John Seymour inspired his parents towards gardening.

In 1999, Huw along with his parents moved to a smallholding in Mid-West Wales to pursue self-sufficiency.

As his parents fell in love with gardening, they turned their front lawn into a garden; this love for gardening contracted him, and at 3, he started growing food.

At 3, Huw observed a raised bed and was impressed by the process of small seeds growing into edible plants; at that age, this process seemed magical to him, and this hooked him to gardening.

Fondest memory of gardening-

Once, during a June morning, Huw’s father informed him that they would sow beetroot seeds tonight and for it, they need to soak the seeds in lukewarm water; at that time, he was in primary school.

Thanks to him being curious, he inquired the reason for soaking the seeds to which his father replied that it would help the seeds germinate.

This fascinated Huw, and he couldn’t wait to return home from school to sow the beetroot seeds along with his father.

He planted the seeds with his father, and thanks to his curiosity, he started learning about gardening.

Huw used to spend his evenings after school in the garden along with his father; later, he took over his father’s kitchen garden and built him another garden.

Initially, he learnt gardening from his father, then, started learning gardening from podcasts, books, YouTube, and from gardens around the world.

Education & career-

From 2013 to 2017, Huw did his schooling from Llandovery College in Llandovery, Wales.

Here, he did A levels in Geography, Biology and Art and was Head boy, Head of the Llandovery College Sustainability Project, and President of the Carwyn James Society for Welsh Culture.

As a child, Huw frequently changed his career fields, he wanted to grow up to become a policeman, later, an ambulance driver, followed by fireman, followed by a road worker, etc.

Later, he decided to become a sustainable architect and design sustainable eco-houses and communities; even though he loved the drawing, designing, and creating aspects, he became uninterested in architecture after knowing that architecture requires one to be proficient with maths; so, he dropped the idea of becoming an architect.

In 2017, Huw did a two-week Permaculture Design Course from Permaculture Association.

From February 2017 to October 2017, he worked as a Gardening Presenter at ITV Wales Coast and Country.

From July 2018 to December 2019, Huw worked as an Ambassador at Dobbies Garden Centres Ltd; here, he was also a content and project creator.

Starting ‘HuwsNursery’-

At 12, Huw was inspired by his friend who got 200 views on his gaming video, this inspired him to start his YouTube channel.

So, on 26 July 2011, he started his gardening YouTube channel, ‘HuwsNursery’ (later renamed to ‘Huw Richards’) as a hobby.

On 27 July 2011, Huw published his first video, ‘How to pot on a sapling;’ he was 12 at that time.

At 16, his YouTube channel crossed a million views, and he realized the potential of his channel and decided to take a year off to focus on his YouTube channel after completing his A levels.

At that time, even though his family supported his decision, many of his friends and teachers criticized Huw and opined that it would be better for him to study for a degree rather than focus on his YouTube channel; later, with the success of his YouTube channel, he proved the naysayers wrong.

Becoming successful-

After completing his A levels, as Huw continued working on his channel, it grew to a decent size.

At that time, a journalist came across his channel and shared it and thanks to this, within a couple of weeks, he got featured on major publications like The Times, The Mail, and The Guardian, and he became popular.

Huw also got contacted by a book publisher which resulted in the publication of his first book, ‘Veg in One Bed,’ on 29 October 2019; this book became the top grossing gardening book in the UK that year.

Subsequently, he published a couple of gardening books, ‘Grow Food For Free’ on 3 March 2020, and ‘The Vegetable Grower’s Handbook’ on 17 May 2022.

As of June 2023, Huw has 749K subscribers on his YouTube channel and 123K followers on Instagram.

He also has a website with a blog and offers gardening courses through his Abundance Academy.

Huw earns from a variety of sources like advertisements and ‘Super Thanks’ on his YouTube channel, affiliate marketing, courses, online shop, merchandise, sponsorships and also accepts donations on Patreon.

He is a full-time gardener and YouTuber and in August 2020, founded ‘Huw Richards Ltd’.

Passions-

Huw is interested in self-sufficiency, seasonal produce, and food security.

He is an avid podcast listener and loves playing tennis, squash, mountain biking, outdoor swimming, horror films and gaming FIFA.

Huw’s favourite gardening YouTube channels are ‘EdibleAcres’ and ‘Dirtpatcheaven’.

He lives in Tregaron, Wales, United Kingdom.

In addition to growing plants, Huw also keeps bees, ducks, bees, and pigs in the garden.

Some interesting facts about Huw-

His favourite cucumber variety is Passandra.
Huw loves cooking kimchi, lamb casserole with lots of vegetables, and loves cooking seasonal soups straight from the garden.
In April 2016, he won the Making Business Happen Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2016 award at the University of South Wales for ‘Local Food Initiative’ business idea.
Huw is a polyglot as he knows Welsh and English.
At 18, he was an avid rugby player and was the vice-captain for his team in the top school rugby league in Wales but after a couple of knocks on his head, he felt that this might affect his gardening and presenting career, so he quit rugby.
Huw’s favourite YouTube channels are Nathaniel Drew (read his story), Matt D’Avella, and Tim Ferriss.

So, how are you inspired by the success story of Huw Richards?

Share with me in the comment section below.