Simon Cross

Communityhorticulture.co.uk’s founder Simon Cross has been working with horticulture in the social and voluntary sector for the last 18 years.

Simon has been at the forefront of pioneering the use of Community Horticulture in urban areas in the northeast of England and is particularly interested in the use of horticulture in a community setting to both empower individuals and communities and improve local environments.
Having trained in Commercial Horticulture at Oakland’s Collage in Hertfordshire Simon joined the team at The National Centre for Organic Gardening, Coventry, in the autumn of 1991. Simon studied Organic Horticulture with HDRA and was the first student to complete the charity's studentship programme. Having completed his training Simon then moved up to Middlesborough and joined the team at the environmental charity, Nature's World.

“I am particularly interested in developing a model of project delivery that provides the maximum benefit to the participant community whilst keeping infrastructure and overheads to a minimum.
Too often it seems that the recipient community is the last in line”

In 1997 Simon became a regular garden expert on Tyne Tees Television and appeared weekly on the regional programme Northeast Tonight. He also became the garden designer on the Granada television series The Real DIY Show.

In 2002 Simon presented the Tyne Tees Television series ‘The Whole Nine Yards’. The popular show ran for two series and was followed up by a number of gardening series for the regional broadcaster.

In 2002 Simon became the Manager of the charity Northdale Horticulture, a charity working with adults with a learning disability and or physical disability in horticulture, woodwork and arts and crafts.

Simon currently co-ordinates a number of Community Horticulture projects for housing associations and local authorities in addition to delivering training to various community groups and voluntary sector organisations.