Let us meet the team who will be helping you at Heart For The Garden.
Nigel James is our Managing Director
Nigel is a passionate gardener and an accomplished, award-winning chef, along with his creative flair has enabled him to produce some interesting and nourishing recipes including those featuring his beautiful edible flowers.
His ability to make ingredients stretch and his financial background mean he is able to bring his budgeting skills to help others learn how to grow and cook nutritious meals on a shoestring. This means they can reduce their reliance on food banks and local charities to support them.
Matthew James is our Finance Director
While Matt did a little bit of gardening when he was younger, he’s really got into gardening over the past 5 years. Having access to an allotment made him realize how much he enjoys it.
A few years ago Matt managed to get his own small garden which he has been slowly turning from a parking space back into a wildlife-friendly garden.
Gardening for wildlife is a particular passion of Matts, as is Permaculture.
Matt is not a big fan of hard work so he tends to focus on gardening in the easiest way he can – using perennials, raised beds, and very simple to grow fruits and vegetables. Matt finds this means he can spend most of his time relaxing and enjoying the garden.
Adam James is our Customer Service Director
As a child, Adam hated the idea of veg and was fussy about everything he ate. He was so stubborn that he even once took 3 hours to eat a roast dinner because he didn’t want to eat his vegetables and so began Adam’s journey of growing to enjoy vegetables.
He has always wanted to have a garden with an area to grow fresh fruit and vegetables and he and his wife and have managed to grow tomato plants and a variety of herbs.
There have been a few unsuccessful plants including their marjoram plant, but they hope that in the future this will improve.
Adam has really enjoyed growing plants and once they are in the ground maintenance is easy. This is important as he has 3 children and full-time jobs plus a possible 4th child on the way, therefore it is essential that growing the plants is not time-consuming.
Karen James is our Sales and Marketing Director
Karen became a keen gardener over15 years ago having suffered from acute kidney failure which led her to discover that eating organic, fresh vegetables that hadn’t travelled too far would help improve her disease
After having the opportunity to work for Christians against poverty helping people in serious debt, she realized there was a link between poor health and food poverty. Heart for the garden became a natural outworking of her wanting to help resolve this issue and her love of food and gardening.