Our staff and volunteers

As Garden Organic accountant, I collate all income and expenditure to produce monthly and yearly management accounts and also control all bank accounts and cash flow. What I like most about gardening is the fresh air and sense of achievement when things that I have planted or sown flourish and grow.

I work in the communications team to support content creation and copywriting in the organisation and manage its social media. I love getting my hands dirty in the garden - and my two allotment plots and small, town-centre garden help me switch off, connect with nature, exercise and eat better.

As a membership officer at Garden Organic, I am the first port of call for all of your questions and enquiries. Feel free to reach out to us, we'd love to hear from you!

I work as a horticulturist in the growing, maintenance and harvesting of crops for seeds for the Heritage Seed Library. I love working outside with plants and nature, alongside the changing seasons. Every day is different and exciting and getting to see my hard work pay off later in the year makes me feel great.

In my varied role, I support and coordinate fundraising and the administration of legacies, which are generously bequeathed to the charity. I particularly love growing fruit and flowers and take great pleasure in going outside to cut a few flowers for the house.

I run training sessions for the public and communities, write articles for magazines and coordinate our Citizen Science programme. My biggest gardening success was growing a crop of Karela (bitter gourd), which took quite a few attempts and different varieties. Not everybody likes the taste, but I'm really hooked on them!

I'm responsible for managing facilities at the Garden Organic offices in Ryton. This includes site maintenance, hard landscaping and carpentry, as well as health and safety compliance and the sourcing and supervision of contractors. From November to February, I also enjoy helping to process seed orders for the Heritage Seed Library.

I head up the Horticultural Science Directorate which includes the Heritage Seed Library and Members' Experiments. I like to ensure everything we do is backed up by the best evidence available. I love the sheer diversity of gardening - the huge array of plants we can grow and how this encourages wildlife, improves the soil and our environment.

I have the privilege of managing the UK’s national, living collection of heritage vegetable varieties, and oversee finding, conserving and sharing this important biodiversity and the seed saving skills that safeguard them. I'm always amazed and excited when a seedling appears – that pleasant astonishment never goes away and keeps me coming back each season.

Chris Collins has a CV most gardeners can only dream of - taking in two Royal Botanic Gardens, Westminster Abbey and the Blue Peter Garden. He says: "Gardening is constantly teaching us lessons about observation, patience and working with nature. To properly notice and be in contact with the changing seasons is an absolute privilege."

I'm responsible for our engagement work in communities across the UK, including working with hundreds of brilliant volunteers via our volunteer programmes, training activity and demo garden. My biggest gardening success was my old allotment. A house move meant I had to give it up, but I still feel proud of all the produce I grew, ate and shared.

I oversee the charity’s outreach work with communities around the UK; delivering programmes that recruit, train and support volunteers who then share positive environmental messages to a wider audience. My own garden is a place that my whole family can enjoy: we have fruit and veg, a small pond and chickens alongside space for football and toy dinosaurs!