Conor O’Kane is a regenerative community horticulture and seed-saving specialist from Derry City with 30 years of experience in organic community horticulture and family farming. Conor is a qualified Permaculture trainer since 1997 and has experience in setting up and running numerous community gardens, housing and worker cooperatives in England, Northern Ireland and Donegal.

Conor is a personable communicator who has also produced a popular series of educational videos on regenerative gardening and seed saving – Lockdown Gardening. Conor has sat on the board of Community Gardens Ireland since 2019 and has extensive networks of community growers across Ireland. Conor is a coordinator of the Community Compost Network, along with Garden Organic and industry specialists.

From 2005 to 2010 he was the head gardener in the largest community horticulture project in West Donegal – Na Tithe Gloine in Gortahork, delivering training programmes, and running a 1 acre glasshouse and ½ acre of polytunnels. From 2016 to 2019 he was the horticultural consultant for the White Oaks Acorn Project, producing food for a 100-box CSA on 9 acres of Organic Certified land.

He delivers the Growing Challenges and Activities programme in Derry & Strabane with the flagship Acorn Farm Project. Since 2021 Conor coordinates the Seed It Union – a network of 21 Community Growing spaces across the north of the island of Ireland, saving seeds for each other with excess distributed to the wider community.

He is also on the co-ordinating group for the Crowd Breeding Network, part of the Gaia Seed Sovereignty Programme.