Born and raised in Manchester, Jon knows a lot about the soil in this part of the country. Having graduated with a masters in environmental management, he began his career at WSP Environmental doing contaminated land and corporate social responsibility work.

He then worked for Transport for Greater Manchester delivering projects including the Rochdale Bus Station Hydroelectric Power Scheme, the Greater Manchester Climate Change Strategy, and he was lead person for biodiversity for the transport authority.

Jon founded Sow the City with just a few bags of compost in 2009. Since then he has steered the social enterprise into an award winning organisation.

Jon is passionate about the potential for nature to improve his home town and loves to grow his own veg when he’s not helping other people do the same.

Having grown up in the Lake District under the guidance of his Dad, a landscape gardener, Kieron has always thought it normal to grow your own food. After moving to Manchester for university, Kieron spent nine years in the regeneration sector at BDP delivering high profile projects. These often centred on the community engagement and sustainability elements of a city plan or neighbourhood strategy. Kieron then worked for two years in the social enterprise sector helping to build healthier communities in Salford.

Joining Sow the City in 2014 has allowed Kieron to combine his roots, experience and personal interests with a career across the public, private and social enterprise sectors. His work combines his passions for food growing, his environmental conscience and his work in community development to create a happier, healthier city.

Emily joined Sow the City as a Project Manager in 2018, where she has been able to steadily develop a broad skillset working on a variety of community growing and greening projects across GM. Emily became Operations Manager in 2023, focusing on overarching support of our delivery team and the monitoring of organisational operations.

She has also worked for The Conservation Volunteers and City of Trees in Manchester, 2014, followed by working in the Community Garden Makers team at Newground CIC across Lancashire in 2015.

Catherine comes to Sow the City with over 12 years spent working in the environmental sector, initially starting her career as a volunteer with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (YWT) supporting delivery of an urban food growing project and learning practical growing skills on a community farm. This was then followed by further project and event work with YWT on nature reserves and for the last 6 years delivering environmental education with the RSPB to connect children and families with nature.

Laura was born and raised in Staffordshire and has always had a passion and connection to nature. She became an adopted Mancunian in 2012 when she came to Manchester to study Fine Art. Since leaving university Laura has been involved with projects with Blaze Arts and Step Up, which is where she found her passion for running art sessions and bringing creativity to communities. Laura joined in June 2021 and is the Link Worker for our Nature for Health project whilst also acting as Assistant Building Manager for the Boiler House.

Born in Liverpool and raised in Cheshire, Ciarán comes from a long line of gardeners and plant enthusiasts. In his professional life, he has worked in primary education for approximately 10 years supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Ciarán leapt at the chance to join the Sow the City team when the opportunity arose and is employed as a community grower, supporting various schools, groups, and associations throughout Greater Manchester. In his spare time Ciarán can be found tending his own allotment in Blackley, North Manchester, where he lives with his wife, dog and three cats.

Lad comes from the Slovakian countryside where he acquired a great wealth of skills in horticulture, market gardening and commercial growing. Having lived in Manchester for over 10 years Lad has been working on improving the mental health and wellbeing of local communities using nature, food growing, foraging, outdoor cooking and nature crafts. Lad has a strong passion for fungi and anything fungi related.

Lucy grew up in London, but has lived in Manchester for six years, where she has developed her interest in human environment interactions, through studying Geography at Undergraduate level and a Masters in Green Infrastructure, at the University of Manchester. Lucy’s placement at the social enterprise ‘Urban Growth’ contributed to her appreciation of the beneficial impact of nature on wellbeing. Lucy is passionate about urban greening at both the community and city scale.