2025 Speaker Programme
All of the talks are held upstairs. The lift is accessible from the side entrance. We work on a first-come, first-served basis.
All the talks are free, although we welcome donations from those who can afford it.
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Hosting the Talks: Poet Kat Lyons
This year's host is writer, performer, facilitator, creative producer and Bristol City Poet 2022 - 2024 Kat Lyons. Kat will also be reciting some poems for us.
​They live in the Mendips where they spend a lot of time poking about looking at mushrooms. They are passionate about using storytelling to re/connect people to themselves, each other and their environment.
Kat also co-hosts the acclaimed programme of poetry and spoken word events, Raise The Bar.
1PM Diane Holness & Daniel Fox – Seed Saving as Plant Breeding for Resilient Crops
Both of the speakers are Seed Swap organisers and are seed nerds seed nerds.
The Mendip Rainbow broad bean:
Dan Fox runs Two Acre Farm in Somerset (with Anna), which is a small, no-dig, low-carbon market garden, built from scratch on a two acre field on the edge of the beautiful Mendip Hills in Somerset, UK. Their aim is to encourage and be part of a more resilient food system based on high quality, locally-grown food that respects the natural environment.
Creating a flock instead of a single variety, this plant breeding project breaks all the normal rules and encourages crossing to get diverse, resilient, locally adapted genetics over the years.
Take some seed away and take part yourself.
The Bristol blight-free tomato:
​Diane has been on a mission to create a reliably blight-free tomato which will thrive in Bristol gardens.
She started with a commercial F1 tomato and has saved seeds from each generation since 2016. F1's don't breed true so the offspring were very varied in the first few years. By selecting good plants, and especially those that survived in years when blight has killed other tomato plants, she has developed two strains which are breeding reliably to type. These are a small round tomato in small trusses which she has named 'Archie' in memory of her cat. The other is called Bristol-Blighter and is a medium sized tomato with a small point at the bottom.
Both laughed off the blight this last summer and kept producing till light levels got too low to ripen fruit.Seeds from both these will be available at the Swap on the Seed Guardian stall, please only take them if you are willing to save seeds and share them​
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The aim is to make it easier for everyone to grow tomatoes in the open, to increase our resilience and promote food sovereignty.
The range of possible tomatoes from this kind of mixing up of F1 genes is in the millions over the generations. If anyone would like some of the seeds from previous years to grow on and select from please email to archienemesisholness@gmail.com
2 PM Becs Griffiths from Rhizome Community Herbal Clinic
At this time of year we can feel very depleted. We might experience this as getting more viruses and taking longer to recover from them. Or struggling with overwhelm and lack of sleep.
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Come and learn how herbs can revitalise you, improving immunity, mood and energy. Hear how you can incorporate herbs into your life from the joy of growing them, harvesting wild plants and connecting with the land to making and taking herbal preparations.
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Becs Griffiths is a community herbalist in East Bristol over the last 15 years. She runs Rhizome Community Herbal Clinic with her partner Annwen Jones. They also co-founded Herbalist without Borders Bristol and the Radical Herbal Gathering. Herbal education is a central part of their ethos, teaching hundreds of people about herbal self care.
3 PM Growing in the city, if you haven’t got a garden.
With increasing numbers of people in Bristol in precarious accommodation and more and more homes being built without gardens, as well as lengthy waiting lists for allotments, what options are available for those who want to get growing but don't have their own space to do so?
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One possible answer is to help out at one of Bristol's many community-growing spaces. From community-supported agriculture schemes to community gardens that support wellbeing, Bristol has it all.
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​Any questions you would like asked of the panel, please email us (bristolseedswap@gmail.com) us in advance with Community Panel in the title.
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Joining us for this panel will be:
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• Alex Goodman - Garden Folk CIC, Purple Patch
• Guy Manchester - ALIVEgardening
• Noah James Cooper - Edible Bristol
• Louise Matthews - Redcatch Community Garden
• Lucy Mitchell - Golden Hill Community Garden
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Purple Patch: Garden Folk CIC grow flowers and salad at Purple Patch Market Garden. The garden holds a creative and collaborative community of artists, growers and local people working to cultivate connections with the land and seasons around us. Together we exist to nourish and sustain all folk as we sing, dance, garden, create and celebrate our way towards a more resilient future.
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Find out more: gardenfolk.org.
ALIVEgardening: Alive Activities is a charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people. Our social and therapeutic horticulture team provides gardening for wellbeing activities in NHS settings, care homes, and community gardens/allotments across Bristol. We are one of the country's leading practitioners of dementia-friendly gardening.
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Find out more: aliveactivities.org
Redcatch Community Garden: Redcatch Community Garden (RCG) was founded 7 years ago by local volunteers on an old bowling green in Redcatch Park, Knowle. As a Charitable Community Benefit Society, RCG enables community connection by offering inclusive opportunities to learn, share skills, and improve well-being. We promote socialising, reducing isolation, and empowering individuals to thrive, while creating a healthier, happier, and more cohesive community.
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Find out more: redcatchcommunitygarden.com
Edible Bristol: Edible Bristol is a community-led project that transforms urban spaces into edible gardens, promoting sustainable food production and biodiversity. By creating public growing spaces across the city, it encourages people to reconnect with nature and local food. Volunteers cultivate fruits, vegetables, and herbs, fostering education, community engagement, and food resilience. The initiative supports local food networks, inclusivity, and environmental sustainability, empowering Bristol’s residents to make the city greener, more self-sufficient, and food-secure.
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Find out more: instagram.com/ediblebristol
The Golden Hill Community Garden believes everyone benefits from having the opportunity to grow their own food. We are based in Horfield/Bishopston Bristol and aim to increase the skills and confidence of local people in growing food through volunteering and training. We provide an inclusive and accessible space and supportive atmosphere where everyone feels valued and also promote healthy food and healthy activity. We welcome everyone to come and get involved and especially welcome volunteers with physical and/or mental ill health or impairments, people with learning difficulties as well as children and young people with appropriate support.
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Find out more: The Golden Hill Community Garden
