Tony O'Neill
Tony O'Neill is a Welsh vegetable growing expert with over 40 years of growing experience, a Watch Manager with South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, the author of 19 books on vegetable growing and soil health, and the founder of GrowTrack Systems Ltd.
He grew up in the Rhondda Valley in South Wales, learning to grow food on his grandfather's allotment in Abercynon from the age of seven. That early experience -- practical, hands-on, built around real results rather than theory -- has never left. Everything on Simplify Gardening is built on the same foundation.
Tony joined South Wales Fire and Rescue Service in August 2007 and continues to serve as a Watch Manager at Tonypandy Fire Station. He passed out at Cardiff Gate Training Centre in November 2007. The dual career as a firefighter and a globally followed gardening expert is one of the more distinctive combinations in either field.
He grew up in the Rhondda Valley in South Wales, learning to grow food on his grandfather's allotment in Abercynon from the age of seven. Walter Edward O'Neill -- known to everyone who loved him as Ted -- put a trowel in Tony's hand and showed him that a seed in the right soil, at the right time, does exactly what it is supposed to do.
