Smith County gets new AgriLife Extension horticulturist
- Writer: Adam Russell, 903-834-6191, adam.russell@ag.tamu.edu
- Contact: Greg Grant, 903-590-2980, greg.grant@ag.tamu.edu
OVERTON – Greg Grant has been named the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service horticulture agent for Smith County, according to Shelia Lewis, district Extension administrator, Overton.
“I am pleased to have Greg join our county AgriLife Extension faculty in Smith County,” Lewis said. “He will be a great asset to the county and AgriLife Extension. I feel certain he will do an excellent job because of his enthusiasm for providing quality, educational programs and working with the public.”
Grant was born in Tyler and grew up in East Texas. Being a horticulturist in East Texas has been a lifelong dream, he said. His love for learning about various plants started as early as he can remember.
As a child, he wrote a paper about George Washington Carver and took an active role in home gardening. As a high school senior, his choice of college centered on the availability of a horticulture program.
“My goal was always to be a horticulturist in East Texas,” he said. “It’s really exciting to return to my birthplace and be able to do what I love. It’s work and a hobby for me. I love to learn and I love to teach.”
Grant earned a bachelor’s degree in floriculture and master’s degree in horticulture from Texas A&M University College Station.
He worked for AgriLife Extension in San Antonio during the late 1980s before working for retail and wholesale nurseries. Grant has also worked for several botanical gardens, most recently at Stephen F. Austin University as an associate researcher at the university’s Pineywoods Native Plant Center.
“I’m ready for questions across the board. There’s not one aspect of horticulture that I haven’t been involved in,” he said. “I’m an old school horticulturist in the sense that I’ve tried to gain a broad ranging knowledge about everything from fruits and vegetables to turfgrass, trees and bulbs.”
Grant has written several gardening books including “The Rose Rustlers” which will be available in 2017 through the Texas A&M University Press. He also writes a monthly blog on arborgate.com.
He is a Master Gardener who enjoys growing flowers, fruits, herbs, vegetables, grass, and trees. He said he especially loves southern bulbs and is ready to participate in the annual fall bulb sale.
“I’ve been all over the board with my career,” he said. “I’ve been an AgriLife Extension agent. I’ve been in nurseries and the retail side. I’ve been a producer and grown bulbs. So it’s easy for me to connect with people in the various fields because I’ve been involved in all of them.”
