Our Growing Team are a group of students from Scotland’s Rural College on paid placements with Dandelion. They have been invaluable to us, growing our Free for All plants and preparing for our school’s program roll out. Monitoring the application and also creating a wide range of informative and article lead content. Find out more about them below and how to contact the team if you need tips and tricks caring for your plants.

Emily Hairstans is a first year Horticulture student at SRUC. She has loved growing vegetables since childhood and will never get over the incredible experience of preparing a meal based on home grown food. Special favourites in the Hairstans household are purple carrots and purple potatoes!

Damson Ellen is a first year Environmental Management student at SRUC. She loves any initiative for sharing sustainable ideas and promoting change! She is still learning how to keep her own plants alive…

James Douglass is a second year Horticulture and Plantsmanship student at SRUC and the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, having previously working as a gardener in the South West of England for a few years. He hopes to one day work in Plant Health, Phytopathology, and Food Security.

Rebecca Cross is a final year Horticulture with Plantsmanship student at SRUC & RBGE (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh), soon to be working at Dunvegan Castle & Gardens, Isle of Skye. She was home-educated and grew up with nature as her classroom, and has always loved gardening, growing and anything to do with plants!

Helen got properly into plants five years ago and is now in third year studying Horticulture and Plantsmanship at SRUC and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Most of Helen's gardening was ornamental - flowers, ferns - but she's now branching out with fruit and veg. She's keen for us to see our gardens as part of Scotland's vital, green infrastructure, and how they can help against climate change and biodiversity loss.