Mel Harvey

Mel works with adults to develop skills in growing food for themselves, their schools and their communities, and in the process create bountiful spaces for themselves, their communities and nature. She takes inspiration from natural patterns and ecology to learn how to live more fully and lightly in the world.

Mel has worked with growing food and environmental education for many years, much inspired by her mums garden, a feral child hood in a walled garden and holidays spent volunteering on organic farms. She started off at the research and information end of the organic movement with her first job at Garden Organic (then HDRA) in the International Programme.

 Looking for more direct experience of the soil she started to get her hands dirty working as a Forest School leader and environmental playworker at the Centre for Alternative Technology, as well as free-lance gardening. Another shift brought her to the Level 3 Horticulture course at Schumacher, which she finished in July 2012 and since then has been working with the team at School Farm, helping to set up the Community Supported Agriculture scheme, where productivity is measured by how muddy her face is at the end of the day.

Melissa runs the accredited horticulture training at the farm and the herb garden and shares, as well as working with the Growing Devon Schools Partnership running teacher training and mentoring.

Working with Seema Patel, Mel is co-hosting ‘Social Permaculture’ an informal gathering about communities, taking inspiration from natural ecosystems and drawing on ideas from permaculture design.