Welcome Trevor!

Published Tuesday, Sep 12, 2017

We are thrilled to announce that Trevor Hyde has joined the SEEDS team as our Garden Manager and Educator.

Trevor believes that we can change the world through food and our interaction with nature, and that teaching youth will create a generation of change for the future. His enthusiasm, dedication, expertise and tireless work ethic have already proven to be an invaluable asset to our community and our garden.

Trevor became interested in high-impact, community-focused work after a long stint in academia.

“Turns out I wasn’t the armchair intellectual that I thought I was,” Trevor says. “I wanted to do on-the-ground, impactful work.”

After a second Masters in Agriculture and Education at NC-State, he worked on farms and managed his own incubator plot, honing his skills in permaculture, interplanting and seasonality, with an educational focus.

Trevor started volunteering at SEEDS in the spring, during a time of transition at our organization. Being on the grounds every week as a volunteer, he got a thorough sense of what needed to be done, and he became confident in his ability to set the direction of the garden going forward.

“I’m excited about so many things here,” he said. “My brain is a puzzle-solver. The more complex the puzzle, the more interesting. Nature is the most complex puzzle.” He loves being surprised by garden experiments – both when they fail and when they succeed: “Mistakes make great lessons.”

Surveying the garden from the outdoor classroom (his “second office”), Trevor talked about the year ahead and his excitement for working with students in the SEEDlings After-School Enrichment Program. One particularly inspiring idea: to create “meal beds,” where the ingredients for a particular meal are grown in one plot of the garden.

“I love the idea of planning a garden menu by starting with what we want to cook and working backwards for a planting schedule. And I love the idea of ‘meal beds’ – for instance, having tomato and basil growing together. Collaborative projects like that between the kitchen and the garden encapsulate all that we are trying to do in our programming. And then, the students can help design the beds for future plantings. They will have the skillset to design a garden menu.”

“Trevor brings incredible knowledge in working with students, adults, and volunteers,” our Executive Director Jeff Howell says. “In his first few weeks, we are already seeing the garden take shape and develop into a true experimental, educational garden. We’re thrilled to have Trevor on our team here.”

Stop by the garden, say hello, and introduce yourself!