This Volunteer Week we look at the work of our inspiring volunteers who give up their free time to help Garden Organic and their communities grow

Whether they’re nurturing our organic demonstration garden, saving heritage seeds or paying it forward in their community to help people compost, reduce waste or grow the organic way – our volunteers are the lifeblood of Garden Organic.

We couldn’t achieve all that we do as a charity without the passion, dedication and support of our volunteers, and the way they help us spread our environmental messages around the UK.

Garden Organic benefits from the support of more than 570 volunteers, who contribute more than 7,400 hours of their time – and that was just in 2024! In our outreach activities, we’ve inspired more than 15,000 people to learn more about the principles of organic growing.

In our recent volunteer survey, we discovered that 88% of our volunteers would recommend us to others who might be considering volunteering their time. So what are you waiting for? If you’d like to find fulfilment and be part of meaningful action, head to our volunteering pages to find out more.

Here we highlight some of the many volunteers doing great things for organic gardening...

Alternative text should describe the visual content of the image. — More than 570 volunteers help us do our work at Garden Organic.

Garden volunteer Helen Critchley

Helen got the horticultural bug from her green-fingered grandfathers – and she’s been continuing this family tradition by volunteering in our organic demonstration garden since 2012.

“I look forward to it every week, whatever the weather. The gardens are a lovely place to be with other like-minded volunteers,” she says. “I’ve always been surrounded by people interested in growing things, so it’s wonderful to be involved in all the activities associated with running a garden such as seed sowing, potting on, deadheading and taking cuttings.

“Organic gardening is important to me because I have a keen interest in nature, wildlife and the countryside - and the organic approach seems to me to be very logical.”

Master Composter Lucy Byrne

North Somerset gardener Lucy is passionate about the environment and splits her free time between working on a community allotment and spreading the word about the benefits of composting.

“Becoming a Master Composter has helped me learn more about composting - and become better at it,” she says. “I love meeting other, like-minded people and feel like I’m making a real difference.

“I’ve been able to show people how easy it is to compost and every time I have a little conversation with someone about it, I’m encouraging another person to give it a go. Together we’re making a big step forward for the environment, which just feels brilliant.”

Master Composter Geoff Turner

Geoff has found time (quite literally) to be a volunteer despite his busy diary – which includes being a clock winder for his local church. On top of his time-keeping hobby, work as a parish councillor and growing organic veg for his local Michelin Guide restaurant ‘Wild Shopshire’, Geoff manages to help his community learn how to compost effectively. After training at our compost demonstration site at Fordhall Farm in Shropshire, Geoff has given talks and demonstrations – often offering advice to restaurant customers too.

Heritage Seed Library volunteers Anne Merrall and Becky Taylor

This mother and daughter team have been volunteering together at HSL for around 13 years trying their hands at almost every task – both indoors and out. We estimate between them they have clocked up around 3,000 hours of volunteering time over the years!

They have helped hand-pollinate broad beans, and podded and processed a decade more of harvests, filling thousands of seed packets by hand. Chances are if you’re a member of HSL, you’ll have received seed packed by either Anne or Becky.

“I go home, and I feel I’ve achieved something,” adds Anne. “And it’s lovely to feel I am helping with tasks that would otherwise take the horticultural experts away from more important projects.”