[1][2][3] Farmer served as a Royal Air Force bomb disposal officer.
After serving in Afghanistan, he suffered from PTSD and found that aquascaping helped him.
[2] Farmer started a YouTube channel for aquascaping enthusiasts, which as of 2018 had 20 000 subscribers, rising to 200 000 as of 2023.
He has been a columnist for the aquarium magazine Practical Fishkeeping for more than 10 years.
In 2007 he co-founded the UK Aquatic Plants Society, which as of 2018 had 25 000 members.