About Home Grow Academy

Where it started

The two founders, Evan and Dan, met in college, through the same Medicinal Plant Chemistry program at Northern Michigan University. Dan had been growing in soil with bottled nutrients. Evan had learned living soil from the ground up, taught by some of the most respected growers, with five or six years already behind him by the time he started college. The two hit it off immediately, and Evan helped Dan run his first living soil grow. The difference in quality was obvious, and it didn't take long for Dan to make the switch for good.

Reaching Growers Everywhere

The college program was the first of its kind: hundreds of growers condensed into one small community, sharing ideas and learning. Dan and Evan combined their backgrounds in soil science and their passion for the plant, guiding grower after grower through their own grows and putting over 250 living soil harvests under their belts in the next few years. Through trial and error, they learned what would normally take a lifetime in just a few years, and began to teach others. Word got around fast, and soon they were walking dozens of growers through their setups at once, one-on-one. It worked, but it showed them the real problem: one-on-one only stretches so far, and there was no way to reach everyone who wanted help. So they set out to build something that could teach far more people at once. Four years of work later, that became Home Grow Academy, an all-in-one, hands-on course simplified to the point where even a first-time grower can outgrow a lifelong grower.

Science, not just experience

What sets HGA apart isn't just years in the grow room and a passion for the plant. It's the science behind it. Both founders earned Medicinal Plant Chemistry degrees from Northern Michigan University: real coursework most self-taught growers never touch, including organic chemistry, biochemistry, soil science, plant physiology, and genetics. That combination of scientific literacy and years of hands-on growing and consulting is what separates Home Grow Academy from someone who's "just been growing for 10 years." They don't just know what works. They understand why it works, down to the chemistry.

Evan Gardella

Founder & Lead Educator · Medicinal Plant Chemistry, Northern Michigan University

Evan has spent 12 years growing in living soil, learning it from the ground up under some of the most respected growers in the craft. What sets his approach apart is the science behind it. Alongside his Medicinal Plant Chemistry degree from Northern Michigan University, he's spent years as an analytical chemist across cannabis testing and forensic toxicology, running the instruments labs rely on to measure exactly what's in a sample: LC-MS/MS, GC-MS, and high-resolution QTOF mass spectrometry. In the cannabis lab, he tested for potency, terpenes, and contaminants. That lab background means he doesn't grow on guesswork or bro science. He understands what's happening inside the plant at the molecular level: what drives cannabinoid and terpene production, what makes flower truly clean, and how to push genetics to their full potential. That rare mix of hands-in-the-soil growing and hard lab science shapes everything he teaches at Home Grow Academy.

Dan Valle

Founder & Lead Educator · Medicinal Plant Chemistry, Northern Michigan University

Dan brings over 100 living soil cycles of his own, learning from the best and, in turn, teaching some of the best. His obsession with quality started long before he ever grew a plant: from a young age he cared only about the highest level, and he traveled the country chasing the knowledge to reach it. Wanting the science to match his natural green thumb, at 19 he packed his bags and moved to Michigan to attend the only university at the time offering a four-year analytical chemistry degree built around hemp, Northern Michigan University's Medicinal Plant Chemistry program. Within two years, lifelong growers were already reaching out to him for help, and in a way, that's where HGA began. Almost ten years later, Dan finally gets to do it full time: helping new growers skip the trial and error and reach truly top-shelf quality on their very first grow.