Aarno Kasvi continues gardening advice for 77,000 followers

Gardening adviser Aarno Kasvi says he will continue offering advice online as long as his health and judgment hold up, Yle reports. His life story, told in a biography by journalist Pirjo Peltoniemi, also reflects postwar Finland.

Kasvi says Finland needs more gardening advice, partly because of climate change. Garden centres import plants from abroad that people may not know how to care for.

“We should have our own national gardening channel, even if it were only on air for a few hours a week,” Kasvi says. “People need advice on which species to plant and whether they should be started indoors.”

Kasvi continues his work on social media, where he produces short educational videos with professional photographer Pasi Leino. Their channels were launched in 2017. Kasvi has 50,000 followers on Facebook and 27,000 on Instagram.

“The tasks of universities have been research, teaching and public education. I feel that I have contributed to public education. I will continue as long as I have the health and my mind is working,” Kasvi says.

From a children’s home to historic gardens

Kasvi was born in 1941 and was placed in a children’s home during early childhood because his mother was unable to care for him.

He encountered gardens during his childhood and youth and learned the importance of food production when food was scarce after the war. Before studying at Lepaa Horticultural School, he trained in gardens. Gardens became both his home and his workplace.

“Before military service, there was nowhere else for me. I had to work all the time. I did not want to live at other people’s expense because I had no parents at home,” Kasvi says.

He worked, among other places, in the gardens of Kultaranta and Louhisaari. He also trained at the University of Turku’s botanical garden.

A weather-resistant worker for Uppsala

Like many Finns who moved to Sweden for work, Kasvi left Finland after seeing an advertisement for a supervisor at Uppsala University’s botanical garden.

“When I went back a couple of weeks later and stopped to ask, I was told that the job was mine,” Kasvi says.

His strong employment references helped him secure the position. The garden had been looking for a weather-resistant workhorse.

Kasvi enjoyed his time in Uppsala. He had worked in commercial gardens and seen new technology being introduced.

Key achievements in Turku

Kasvi was recruited to the University of Turku’s botanical garden in the early 1980s. Head gardener Esko Puupponen was approaching retirement and had visited Uppsala, where he heard about Kasvi through Arne Rousi, a professor of botany at the University of Turku.

Kasvi considered moving to Turku for almost a year. He says the most important achievements of his career took place at the botanical garden there.

New greenhouses were built in the late 1990s because the old ones had shifted and their glasshouse technology had become outdated. Kasvi had seen water lily ponds in London and Germany, and ponds were added to the extension, which he also regards as one of his important achievements.

The University of Turku’s botanical garden gained wider exposure through Yleisradio’s gardening programmes, where Kasvi offered advice for decades. Television programmes with Tarja Flemming in particular showed Kasvi working in his own environment.

Yleisradio also produced many radio programmes in its studios. Kasvi brought samples from the garden with him and sometimes prepared vegetarian food from them. The Viherpeukalo television series remains available on Yle Areena.