About

Welcome to the Greenthumb community, where we celebrate nature, gardening and all things related. Our goal is to; promote, improve, and encourage the Greenthumb inside of everyone. Through enhancing the understanding and awareness of flora and its relationship to fauna and the eco systems. 

Mr Greenthumb originally began as a gardening business, owned and operated by James Selby back in 2015. It was started by James so he could become his own boss and follow his own path on his journey to becoming a top notch gardener. 

Mr Greenthumb grew from humble begins, built on the back of James’ passion for growth, nature and the outdoors, along with his desire to utilise and promote the shared principles of life which he believes, governed every living thing. 

As James has grown Mr Greenthumb over the years, he has been able to expand his knowledge in various ways, through woking in the industry full time; from learning new invaluable skills and improving his principle techniques. 

James gained a lot of extra knowledge from his clients through being able to share information and different points of view. James especially liked his older clients and would often spend his own, Free time with them, learning from their decades of unique experience.

James has decided to take the opportunity to expand this aspect of Mr Greenthumb, by sharing his knowledge, his love for life and what he has learnt from his experience, to a larger audience online.

Mr Greenthumb online is here to share information, ideas and concepts, about plant life and its importance and worth. Essentially to eventually contribute to the over all aesthetics and ambience of communities, towns, cities and the world, because these things are all connected.

James was raised in the beautiful hinterland and rural coastal towns of Australia’s east coast. He grew up observing the gardening techniques of his grandparents and parents; and these principles have stuck with James over the years, and he still applies them today.

As a small child James spent a lot of time living along the night cap ranges just west of Byron Bay. The landscape and vegetation of the area is dense rainforest sprinkled with lush farm land, full of creeks, brooks and streams. It was a place where the eco system was very evident and this is where James learnt about the effects water has on an eco system; water management is now one of the main principle aspects James applies in his gardening techniques.

As James grew older and he and his siblings where being schooled, the family followed the creeks from the mountains, down the rivers and moved from the mountains to the coast. 

Now on the coast, and surrounded by a whole different eco system, here James learnt about open landscapes, bigger environments, and more groomed landscapes; this is another principle James has adopted into his techniques and uses very successfully in his gardening. It is the combination of natural growth coupled with human guidance, and invokes a great sense of space and depth of field.

The mountains remained a huge part of James’ life, as he still had many family and friends out in the hills and the farm land in between; this is where James would eventually work with some exceptional gardeners, on amazing properties, and learn a lot about maintaining gardens, nurturing and cultivating plants, and the stark relationship between flora and fauna.

As James reached his twenties he left Australia and traveled the world in particular through Europe, Asia, the pacific and south America, where James experienced many diverse flora and fauna, landscapes, eco systems, garden styles and gardening techniques. But one thing that stood out to James, was the way everything all over the world always harkened back to the same few principles that govern life; and these few principles are exactly what James has based his whole gardening experience and techniques on. This is what James wants to share with the world in hope they can gain and give back just as he has. 

Mr Greenthumb is for anyone; from expert, master gardeners, to novices alike. Even people that don’t know the difference from a common weed and a great red wood tree. Mr Greenthumb is James’ attempt to give back and share the vast knowledge and experience he has gained over the past 30 odd years.

We hope you enjoy the ride, and gain a lot from this community, and if you feel so inclined, give some of what you gain to others. From all the team at Mr Greenthumb thank you for joining us and have a blessed day.