For 20 years, Pauwels was a teacher and began to write articles and columns about gardening in newspapers and magazines.

His career as a writer grew significantly, and since 1995 he has written over 60 books on various topics including gardening, antiques, quilts, plants, fines herbes, colours, composting, diabetes mellitus (an illness from which he suffers), barbecue safety, wooden annexes, and greenhouses, as well as biographies of artists and architects.

For 15 years Pauwels was chief editor of the magazines Bloemen & Planten and De Tuinen van Eden/Les Jardins d’Eden, and for 10 years a writer and editor for the television programme Groene Vingers on VTM, in which he also sometimes appeared as expert.

He has conducted many lectures, mainly on roses, in several European countries, Thailand, Indonesia, and New Zealand.

In 2006, he received in Osaka the World Federation of Rose Societies Literary Award[1] for his book, Louis Lens – De elegantie en de roos,[2] and in the same year the Beervelde Award [3] for the photography of the book Rozenraad.