Garden Educator – Kentish Town City Farm

The Garden Educator at Kentish Town City Farm will lead the development of community gardens, delivering educational programs and supporting trainees in gardening practices. The role involves planning for garden productivity, coordinating volunteers, and integrating biodiversity and organic gardening principles. This fixed-term position is based in England and requires flexibility to include weekend work, emphasizing community engagement and ecological awareness.
Contract: 10 months fixed term to December 2022

Hours: 24 hours a week, (flexible to needs of project, delivery to include a minimum of one weekend day a week).

About Us

Kentish Town City Farm is a local charity that helps city people connect with animals, nature and the environment. We have a rich history dating back to 1972, when we became the first city farm established in the UK. Since the beginning, our ethos has been grounded in inclusiveness and participation of the local community, which remains at the heart of our values today.

Job Overview

We are looking for someone to take a lead role in developing our gardens as a community growing space. This will include delivering the educational component of our flagship Nursery for the Neighbourhood project. As part of this project, we are running a 4-month traineeship that involves transforming our current, traditional allotment-style garden into a productive space open to the community. We are keen to use this project to bring regenerative gardening, polyculture design, and agroecology into our practices at the farm. Already well-loved locally, this project will be a step change for the gardens, making sure we are as well known for our growing as we are for our animal care.

This work will be a celebration of our 50th year taking the farm beyond the gates and back to our roots in the community. This is an exciting time for the farm. We are looking for someone who shares this enthusiasm and can provide horticultural and gardening expertise to drive this initiative, making sure the gardens reach their full potential as a productive food growing space. We want to broaden our audience by incorporating the world garden movement into this project to create a space that is as diverse and representative as our neighbourhood.

Role and Responsibilities
• To lead the development of the gardens, creating clear plans for maximizing the productivity of the gardens, establishing engagement opportunities for all ages and stages and supporting a team of trainees and volunteers to deliver this.
• Support the Coordinator in finalising the traineeship syllabus.
• Deliver the traineeship through a combination of lessons and practical sessions as laid out in the syllabus.
• With the trainees, use survey data to design basic polycultures that can be planted out into the garden.
• Coordinate donations and purchases of seeds and plug plants required to achieve results for this growing season.
• With trainees, create a visual representation of the garden plan to be shared with the farm community.
• Establish a plan to convert our existing allotment-style garden to a communal growing space that prioritises organic gardening, biodiversity, and soil health.
• Deliver the practical hands-on component of the training programme aligned with programme modules and learning outcomes.
• Work with the existing stakeholders and keep the team up to date with plans as the project develops, where possible finding ways to integrate the gardens into the day to day running of the farm.
• With the Volunteer Manager establish dedicated times when members of the public can volunteer in the gardens.
• Support the staff team to develop knowledge and understanding of gardening and growing that has a positive ecological impact in terms of biodiversity and soil health.
• Work with the Coordinator to ensure this work is embedded in the organisational culture, making sure the team are invested in the gardens as a core area of work.
• Deliver garden elements of other projects (e.g. playscheme, schools workshops etc) as required.
• Other duties as required.

Person Specification
• Clear, effective communicator, experienced at supporting a diverse team including, performance management, timetabling etc.
• Qualification in gardening and or growing, knowledge/ understanding of organic gardening, regenerative gardening, agroecology, permaculture and/or polyculture design and practices.
• Experience working in community gardens.
• Experience of enabling and supporting others.
• Experience delivering workshops or practical educational events on themes listed above.
• Proactive, solution-driven, able to work under own initiative and deliver tasks to a high standard.
• A team player able to actively engage colleagues in administrative processes and deliver policies that support healthy team dynamics.

#J-18808-Ljbffr