Background
Hamilton was born just a few minutes before his twin brother Tony, in Stepney, London. His family moved to Broxbourne in Hertfordshire when he was two, and his interest in horticulture was nurtured initially by working on the family's back garden. He expanded his knowledge still further by helping out at local nurseries during the school holidays - mainly at the Van Hage nursery at the end of his road. He went on to Writtle Agricultural College in Essex where, in 1959, he passed the National Diploma in Horticulture with distinction.
After graduating from agricultural college he became a nurseryman and self-employed landscape gardener, then opened his own garden centre ("The Hamilton Garden Centre") on the outskirts of Kettering in Northamptonshire. He began writing a column for Garden News in 1970, and in 1975 became a full-time journalist when he took over as editor of Practical Gardening magazine, where he began his crusade to inform everybody about the joys and benefits of organic gardening.
Read more about this topic: Geoff Hamilton
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