The Gardeners Collective is a community gardening project founded in North Devon by Tatyana and Shannon. We focus on encouraging connection with nature through exploration of the garden. Our mission is to give people of all ages the opportunities and confidence to give growing a go, inspiring a love of the natural environment whilst reaping the physical and mental benefits of engaging with the outdoors. We offer a variety of workshops and events, each designed with the group in mind. These include children’s family workshops, beginners learn to grow sessions, corporate wellbeing sessions and workshops to improve nature connection and wellbeing across the community. You can take a look at our regular workshops in our calendar, or take a look at our one off events here. 

As a Community Interest Company, we are able to access grant funding enabling us to offer a variety of fully funded or subsidised workshops, making learning to grow and connect with the outdoors accessible for all across North Devon. With this, we are able to create projects to meet the needs of their specific participants, particularly great when working with disadvantaged or vulnerable groups of society.

A potted history

 

2019 - Shan gets an allotment for Christmas 2018 after making a joke about gardening being wholesome ONCE, and falls deeply in love with gardening, starting her Instagram @diaryofaladygardener. Tan gives birth to the OG Mini Gardeners, Finn and Noah, who after 3 months in hospital, spend their year growing up on the plot. The whole family learn quite how valuable gardening is for mental and physical health, as well as building stronger connections and friendships.  

2020 - We won't talk about 2020.  

2021 - Shan launches a podcast, Diaries of a Lady Gardener and interviews inspirational gardeners from across the globe amassing over 100,000 downloads over the coming years and decides she wants to be a flower farmer whilst babysitting the OG Mini Gardeners. 

2022 - Shan starts a Social School for Entrepreneurs course with an idea to run seed sowing workshops for adults and Tan decides that workshops for kids are the way forward. Shan gives the idea a hard no as she was growing for a community allotment at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show and had just quit her corporate job as PR & Communications Manager to become a flower farmer. Tan, as most big sisters typically do, won the argument and they ran a semi-successful kids club that summer before starting to work in local schools.

2023 - Shan and Tan register as a Community Interest Company to be able to give back to the community, and offer accessible gardening workshops in locations such as Arlington Court National Trust's walled gardens, in more schools and as pop up events across the UK. The Mini Gardeners Club CIC is rebranded to The Gardeners Co. CIC to expand their age range. The flower farm fails miserably for a whole host of reasons, moving Shan's focus to The Gardeners Co. CIC, securing a permanent home at Arlington Court's Home Farm Communities Hub before the end of the year.

2024 - The team work to transform a concrete courtyard and linhay into an edible jungle with workshops for all ages, with the first group of under 5s the second week of January when the soil was still frozen. Later that year, they recruit facilitators and volunteers, as well as secure funding from Devon County Council, National Lottery Awards for all and Barnstaple Round Table, giving their projects a boost and allowing their business to reach far more people in the community. 

2025 - A chapter yet to be written... In the meantime, meet out team!

 

Co-Founder Tatyana, Devon

Tatyana is an experienced Early Years Practitioner and mum to the original Mini Gardeners, Finn and Noah. As a busy twin mum, she experiences the benefits of engaging with nature for both herself and her children. Find out more about Tan here.

Favourite garden job: Tan loves getting stuck into the heavy jobs, shifting compost, creating raised beds and preparing the plot for growing season. She also loves the harvest, be this edibles or blooms.

Favourite things to grow: Carrots, beetroot and spring bulbs.

Co-Founder Shannon, Devon

Shannon, otherwise known as @diaryofaladygardener, is a passionate grower from Devon who discovered gardening entirely by accident four years ago. Four years later, she has launched a successful podcast, runs workshops across North Devon inspiring young people to get growing and is starting her own flower farm. Learn more about Shan's adventures here. 

Favourite garden job: Harvesting flowers, fruits and veggies

Favourite things to grow: Dahlias, melons and sweetcorn

Our freelance facilitators 

We've been working hard to build a team behind the scenes to assist us in all of our workshops with people specialising in different areas and we're thrilled to introduce some new team members! You may meet these lovely ladies at our children's and Lady Gardeners' Club events over the coming months and we can't wait to see them grow alongside out little business!

Nic Keary, Freelance Facilitator, Devon

Mum to the Co-Founders Tan and Shan, and Omi to the Original Mini Gardeners, Nic is one of our Session Leaders who can often be found giggling in the corner with the other mums, or telling stories about when Tan and Shan were kids. She's also Head Baker for The Gardeners Co. and is pretty fantastic at it.

Nic's background is in early years, having trained to be a teacher, worked in a number of schools and children's homes and now works in a local secondary school. She has always had a deep connection with the great outdoors, with dreams of buying a woodland and crafting an entire household of woven willow decor and is a fantastic person to have along to a session to ensure everyone is well looked after.

Her specialist skills include: baking, flower pounding, sewing, willow weaving, story telling and is the best person to go to in any kind of crisis! 🌸

You'll typically meet Nic at The Lady Gardeners Club, or at our family sessions in the summer holidays. She's such an asset to the team and The Gardeners Co. wouldn't be what it is without her! 

 

Sam Bellew, Freelance Facilitator, Devon

"Despite always having a love for nature, it wasn’t really until the Covid lockdown that I fell in love with growing. It still feels like magic when a tiny seedling breaks through the soil and grows to become something that you can really enjoy! The Gardeners Collective is such a brilliant community resource that opens up opportunities for everyone to get involved in the garden, and I’m excited to get involved and encourage others to discover the simple joy of plants, whether that’s growing a bunch of flowers for the kitchen table, or rustling up a meal for loved ones with treasures from the veg patch."

We’re looking to build a team of freelance facilitators to help out with our sessions, and we think that you might just be a perfect fit! No experience is needed, although an interest in gardening and/or experience working with people is a bonus. The way that this will work is that we’ll email out any opportunities that arise to work with us a minimum of two weeks in advance (four weeks or more in advance where possible) and select someone with availability from the pool to work alongside us.

Whilst currently, we envision most of the work being in and around North Devon, mainly from Home Farm, there will, on occasion, be the opportunity to join us at festivals and shows such as Spring Classic in Woolacombe and RHS Hampton Court Palace in London (expenses paid, of course).