By DELLE WILLETT | Uptown News

It’s not unusual for Brett Allen to return home in University Heights to find an ailing plant or two sitting sadly beside the dumpster, looking for a little love.

The 40-year-old is known as “the plant guy” who runs a free “plant hospital.” He started on his career path when he was just four years old, as he helped his mother manage their large property filled with a variety of fruit trees and grass that looked like a putting green. And with his father, he built a greenhouse where he propagated tomatoes (and later learned how to like them). And rescued failing houseplants.

He initially thought he wanted to be a horticulturist who works in labs and creates new plant varieties, but Allen’s head turned when he learned about the profession of landscape architecture through Future Farmers of America (FAA), which he later studied at Arizona State University.

For the last 16 years he has worked as an Associate at Van Dyke Landscape Architecture in Solana Beach, which specialized in landscape architecture, planning, irrigation design, water management services and graphic communication.

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