Georgia registered landscape architect Greg Huber has joined the staff of the University of Georgia Griffin Campus as the training coordinator for the Georgia Center for Urban Agriculture.

Huber comes to UGA after spending the past 10 years as program coordinator, lead instructor and adviser for the horticulture program at Southern Crescent Technical College in Griffin, Georgia. Many of his former students are employed in Georgia’s green industry — which encompasses landscaping, lawn maintenance and horticulture — and will likely attend the Georgia Certified Landscape Professional (GCLP) and Georgia Certified Plant Professional programs he now leads.  

“I am thrilled to welcome Greg as our newest member of the Center for Urban Agriculture team. Our programs and clientele will certainly benefit from his unique areas of expertise, experience and the energy he brings to every initiative,” said Kris Braman, director of the center and entomologist with the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

A native of Suwanee, Georgia, Huber’s first experience working in the green industry was at a Christmas tree farm. “While in high school, I spent summer and winter breaks at the tree farm,” he said. “I planted, pruned and fertilized during summers and assisted customers with harvesting, shaking and loading trees during the holidays. I discovered that I really enjoyed working outside.”

Huber took that love of the outdoors and plants into college, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from UGA.

After college, he worked at Breedlove Land Planning, in Conyers, Georgia, where he prepared site construction documents, grading plans and stormwater drainage plans for schools, parks and recreation facilities. “Our specialty was site planning for public school systems across Georgia,” he said. “One of my first projects was designing a new student plaza, bus loop and baseball complex for my alma mater, North Gwinnett High School.”

Transitioning into the world of higher education, Huber first worked part-time at Southern Crescent Technical College while also operating a landscape design and consulting business before becoming the college’s full-time horticulture instructor. He enjoys teaching and especially likes installing landscape projects and watching them develop over time.

“Having a photo record of landscape projects from installation to maturity is a great teaching tool. It really helps the students understand how a seemingly sparse landscape installation project can grow into a fully developed garden,” he said. “It is rewarding to see a space turn out just the way you imagined it on paper.”

Huber served on the GCLP Task Force and collaborated on many projects with former GCLP training coordinator Todd Hurt, who has since transferred to UGA’s Athens Campus where he now coordinates statewide programs for UGA Cooperative Extension. Huber has been an advocate of the GCLP program since the beginning of his teaching career and used the GCLP study manual in several of his classes at Southern Crescent Technical College.

“When it was announced that Todd was moving to Athens and the Center for Urban Agriculture was seeking a training coordinator, it was the right time in my career to reach out to a statewide audience and challenge myself personally and professionally,” Huber said. “I’ve had the pleasure of working with some amazing students at Southern Crescent (Technical College) over the past decade, and now I look forward to serving them as industry professionals through the Center for Urban Agriculture.”

Huber and his wife, Beth, a speech pathologist and coordinator for the Exceptional Children’s Services Program of Fayette County Public Schools, are residents of Pike County, Georgia. They have three children: Davis, 12; Brooks, 9; and Eliza, 6.

For more information on the Georgia Center for Urban Agriculture, visit ugaurbanag.com.