As a community gardener at the Eden Nature Garden in Clapham, south London, former marine biologist Benny is on a mission to promote ecology within the garden world. Portrait: Andrew Montgomery <\/p>
Earliest gardening memory<\/strong> My Maltese grandad gathering tomatoes and courgettes from his mad wildlife garden in South Wales. He had a swimming pool of fish; small ponds; aviaries with birds; and guinea pigs on the ground. It was a bonkers place full of home-grown food, weeds<\/a> and animals; something out of a children\u2019s book.<\/p> You may also like: <\/strong><\/p> Who has inspired your career the most?<\/strong> John Little <\/a>is going to cringe, but he and his wife Fiona have taught me so much. Not only flipping gardening on its head but how important it is to share your knowledge and help others out.<\/p> Who are your horticultural heroes and why?<\/strong> Parasitic wasps and aphid-hunting wasps. They are the masters of maintaining balance.<\/p> My favourite planting style? It\u2019s what I like to call \u2018wildamental\u2019 \u2013 a fusion of wild and ornamental planting.<\/p> <\/blockquote> Favourite landscape<\/strong> Kenfig National Nature Reserve<\/a> in South Wales, where I grew up. It\u2019s largely sand dune and salt marsh and has plants such as moonwort (Botrychium lunaria<\/em>), eyebright (Euphrasia officinalis)<\/em>, sea holly (Eryngium maritimum<\/em>), sea stock (Matthiola sinuata<\/em>) and more than ten species of orchid, including 90 per cent of the UK\u2019s population of fen orchids (Liparis loeselii<\/em>).<\/p> It\u2019s also home to wide range of wildlife<\/a>, including rare brown-banded carder bees, sand wasps and huge aggregations of spring mining bees (Colletes cunicularius<\/em>). Not forgetting a pool full of pike that\u2019s also home to otters and kingfishers, with a local myth of a sunken city beneath its waters.<\/p> Three worthwhile tips for every gardener<\/strong> Compost; propagate; re-evaluate your pruning and cutting back.<\/p> One easy thing that every gardener can do<\/strong> Observe more.<\/p> Favourite planting style<\/strong> What I like to call \u2018wildamental\u2019 \u2013 a fusion of wild and ornamental planting.<\/p> Favourite \u2018weed\u2019 <\/strong>Perennial sow-thistle (Sonchus arvensis<\/em>), a vivid-yellow, weedy composite Asteraceae plant. I love watching bees fall asleep in the flowerheads.<\/p> Biggest challenge facing gardeners<\/strong> Understanding the fact that we are a minority and most gardens seem to be heading in a scary direction, with no plants or life. We must do more outside of our echo chambers to stop this decline.<\/p> The principles that guide your gardening <\/strong>Squeezing in maximum ecology, while delivering an aesthetic that people are happy to pay for.<\/p> The direction you see horticulture heading<\/strong> It\u2019s clearly heading towards a more ecological and kind one so I hope that\u2019s here to stay.<\/p> Do you have a particular aim?<\/strong> More public space gardening work; digging up pavements, tarmac and bonded resin; more Eden Nature Gardens; more food knocking about. And to stop councils, big businesses and developers getting away with ecocide.<\/p> Instagram @bennyhawksbee<\/a> As a community gardener at the Eden Nature Garden in Clapham, south London, former marine biologist Benny is on a mission to promote ecology within the garden world. Portrait: Andrew Montgomery <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":43247,"template":"","categories":[1,17],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/12\/we-need-to-stop-the-ecocide-by-councils-developers-and-big-business-says-this-community-gardener.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/12\/we-need-to-stop-the-ecocide-by-councils-developers-and-big-business-says-this-community-gardener-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/12\/we-need-to-stop-the-ecocide-by-councils-developers-and-big-business-says-this-community-gardener-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/12\/we-need-to-stop-the-ecocide-by-councils-developers-and-big-business-says-this-community-gardener-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/12\/we-need-to-stop-the-ecocide-by-councils-developers-and-big-business-says-this-community-gardener-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/12\/we-need-to-stop-the-ecocide-by-councils-developers-and-big-business-says-this-community-gardener.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/12\/we-need-to-stop-the-ecocide-by-councils-developers-and-big-business-says-this-community-gardener.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"As a community gardener at the Eden Nature Garden in Clapham, south London, former marine biologist Benny is on a mission to promote ecology within the garden world. Portrait: Andrew Montgomery","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/43246"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"