Speakers

After volunteering with community gardens, permablitzes, and WWOOFing, Aimee decided to take the plunge in 2019 to pursue a more fulfilling and balanced life. Growing up surrounded by nature, with her family growing food every year, she often helped with various tasks, her favourite being harvesting. Although she rebelled as a teenager, she later felt a strong pull to return to the land. Realizing the necessity of a connection to nature, she changed her path and began her horticultural journey.

Aimee started with an apprenticeship at the Royal Parks, where she developed a keen interest in ecological gardening and questioned traditional horticultural practices. In 2022, she undertook a Community Garden Traineeship at Kentish Town City Farm and earned a Permaculture Design Certificate. At Kew Gardens, Aimee applies permaculture techniques and principles, promoting ecological balance and sustainability. In her spare time Aimee is reading about social ecology, and how humanity needs to return to becoming aware that we are nature itself.

Alex Clarke is a doctoral researcher in the School of Landscape Architecture at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. His PhD is focused on species selection for robust public planting. More specifically, the selection of native herbaceous species for rain gardens in Norway. His research interrogates the criteria used when making selection choices and aims to develop a scientific framework for bringing new native material into nursery production. Alex is working with developers of Norway’s Species Database to utilise regional species lists from coastal habitats. In his work he is also working with plant life history and leaf traits.

Alex became interested in plant traits and ecological design during his studies at the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Sheffield. Previously in his career, Alex has worked with SLA Landscape Architects in their Oslo studio, with ABG Green Roofs, and with Pictorial Meadows in Sheffield. Alex is now working with others to develop the implementation of high-quality green infrastructure in Norway.

Alex embarked on a career in horticulture driven by a desire to reconnect with nature for healing purposes, unexpectedly finding a promising path in sensory gardening.

Though relatively new to the field, Alex has long been passionate about the natural world. From the age of three, he was fascinated by stag beetles, amphibians, and the majestic Cedar of Lebanon.

He encourages his clients to embrace ecologically sound, naturalistic planting styles that are wildlife-friendly and supportive of pollinators.

When not gardening, Alex dedicates his time to cultivating a diverse range of plants at Leahurst Nurseries, an eclectic boutique nursery in North London, where he works under the expert guidance of Lyndon Osborn.

A firm believer in the principle of "right plant, right place", Alex studies plants in real-time, using his own garden as an experimental space.

Outside of work, Alex dedicates his time documenting his horticultural journey through photography, visiting gardens and wild spaces, capturing the essence of plants and their habitats.

Alex is committed to diversifying the horticultural world and making it more accessible to people of all backgrounds and ages.

Alys Fowler is a gardener, presenter and an award-winning journalist who has written for the weekend Guardian about gardening and the environment. She has written eleven books, including Hidden Nature, which was shortlisted for the Wainwright prize in 2018, and her first work of fiction, The Woman Who Buried Herself, published in 2021 by Hazel Press. Her writing has also been anthologised in the new nature writing anthology, Gifts of Gravity and Light, also published in 2021.  Her broadcast work has spanned everything from presenting on television on the BBC’s Gardeners World, The Edible Garden, The Great British Garden and Our Food, she has contributed to numerous radio programmes and online platforms. 

She trained in horticulture at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and the New York Botanical Gardens and it is through her love of plants and ecology that she came to writing.

She has taught creative nonfiction at Birmingham City University. She has lectured at Tate Britain and the Royal Academy and has held workshops on everything from writing about water, to how to identify plants. She is currently writing a book about bogs. 

Arit spent 25 years working in the dynamic industries of retail fashion and creative events, she balanced this fast-paced career with personal interests in well-being, working as a part-time therapist in London and teaching holistic therapies.

She studied garden design at Capel Manor College and whilst there had the taste of success at RHS Chelsea 2013 winning the Fresh Talent category for a student design collaboration with two other students. Arit went on to design and deliver her own show garden and won a Gold Medal at RHS Hampton Court in 2016 in the conceptual category. The garden was televised and its message on climate change and the environment is now at the heart of Arit’s work.

In her designs for both private and commercial clients her ethos includes simplicity and environmental sensitivity. This was more recently demonstrated in the 2021 Chelsea Show Garden she was commissioned to do for the Royal Horticultural Society.

Arit is a Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute, Trustee for the National Garden Scheme, RHS Ambassador for the Environment and Community, and co-founder of the Sustainable Landscape Foundation.

Working as presenter for Gardeners World and writing for national publications has enabled Arit to publicise issues about the future of gardening in an ever-changing climate and promote solutions to the wider public.  Her latest book, The Essential Tree Selection Guide, is co-authored with researcher & scientific curator at Gothenburg Botanical Garden, Dr Henrik Sjöman.

Since graduating from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 2014, Ashley's work has taken him across the world. He’s currently Head Gardener at Horatio’s Garden London & South East, a national charity that creates gardens at NHS Spinal Injury Centres. Ashley has become a staunch advocate for the therapeutic benefits of gardening, firmly believing that it holds the key to enhancing overall well-being. 

At the heart of Ashley's philosophy is the belief that gardening transcends age, ability, and background. Through his work, Ashley aims to break down barriers and inspire individuals to connect with nature, fostering a sense of fulfilment and tranquility. By weaving together horticulture and therapy, Ashley strives to create an inclusive space where everyone feels empowered to explore the world of gardening, realising its potential as a tool for positive mental health.

A lifelong field naturalist, Benedict Macdonald is the Wainwright award-winning author of Rebirding and Cornerstones and a respected spokesperson for ecological restoration across the UK.

A former television director for series such as Our Planet, he brings an international perspective to nature restoration and scaling it here in the UK, and is responsible for the overall restoration of our land portfolio as the founder and director.

Benedict is widely influential within the nature restoration movement, leading on efforts to restore Dalmatian Pelicans to the UK; a regional advisor to the National Trust and a prominent advocate for bio-abundance farming at the events such as Groundswell.

Benny is a former marine biologist who has been working as a gardener and wildlife advocate for the last nine years.

He is head gardener for a very special community garden called Eden Nature Garden in the heart of Clapham where he works with the local community to drive interest in plants and wildlife.

He also works with Fiona Crummay and John Little at their experimental Hilldrop garden.

Other days of the week are filled caring for a wide range of London gardens doing maintenance and development.

He is particularly focused on thoughtful, city gardening with a focus on wild insects and the combination of weeds and more conventional garden plants.

Chris Gibson is an all-round naturalist and passionate advocate for wildlife who spent more than 30 years in statutory nature conservation in Britain, mainly dealing with the delivery of sustainability into land use and development. This followed a PhD study of the ecology and biology of a plant now seen as key to the maintenance of many grasslands, Yellow Rattle Rhinanthus minor.

Since taking early retirement in 2016, Chris has become closely associated with the Beth Chatto Gardens, finally joining the team some four years ago. 

He is a Trustee and Fellow of the British Naturalists’ Association, an organization that awarded him the David Bellamy Award for a naturalist of distinction in 2009. With a passion for nature, he spends most of his time trying to help others grow into the same passions, through guided walks and tours, photography, blogging and writing books: his latest, British and Irish Wild Flowers and Plants, was published in June this year.

Cleve runs an award-winning studio in Hampton Wick, south-west London, and has been designing gardens since 1990. Projects vary in style according to the house and its surroundings but essentially they are spaces that are both engaging and restful.

Cleve’s respect and concern for the environment and all its lifeforms has inevitably led to a veganic approach to his work to mitigate biodiversity and habitat loss while opportunities are explored to enhance and improve landscapes for wildlife to flourish.

Cleve has designed several gardens for the Chelsea Flower Show, seven of which have won RHS Gold Medals. He won Best in Show two years in succession (2011 & 2012). 

His first book ‘Our Plot’, celebrates a decade nurturing an allotment in nearby Bushy Park.  His second, ‘The Garden of Vegan’, (Pimpernel Press 2020) charts Cleve's journey from tentative beginnings to an understanding of the restorative power of gardens and a realization that some of the most destructive aspects of the anthropocene can be mitigated or even fixed by plants.

Dan Pearson is a landscape designer, horticulturalist, writer and gardener.

His work is characterised by an innate sensitivity to place, an intuitive and light-handed approach to design, a strong ecological approach to benefit biodiversity, bold and painterly naturalistic plantings and deep-rooted horticultural knowledge.

He is a member of the Society of Garden Designers (MSGD), an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (Hon FRIBA) and a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI). He was a member of the Jury for the 2011 RIBA Stirling Prize and since 2014 has been a Garden Advisor to the National Trust at Sissinghurst Castle.

In 2022 he was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours.

Darryl is an award-winning garden and landscape designer and writer. He is author of Gardening in a Changing World: Plants People and the Climate Crisis. He is Director and co-founder of the innovative urban landscape organisation Cityscapes, realising creative approaches to greening city spaces through novel design ideas that ensure ecological, economic and social sustainability.

He is a consultant at Beth Chatto’s Plants & Gardens, co-curator of thehub.earth and a tutor at KLC School of Design. He sits on the Society of Garden Designers Council, and is a fellow of the RSA. His most recent award was for the St Mungo’s Putting Down Roots Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2022, showcasing sustainability and ecology in public places.

Gardening in a Changing World: Plants, People and the Climate Crisis explores recent developments in planting design, horticulture, ecology and plant science. It addresses our relationship with plants and gardens, looking at the ways we can begin to appreciate and work together with plants in facing the challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss

Eddie Bailey is a chartered geologist with thirty-six years experience exploring for construction aggregates, industrial and horticultural sands and soils, natural dimensional stone and decorative aggregates. His work has taken him to several hundred farmlands and quarries across the UK and overseas covering every conceivable substrate and geomaterial.

As an economic earth scientist Eddie was a founder member of the Pan-European Reserves and Resources Reporting Committee, and Chair from 2012-2018 during which time he represented the European Economic Area on the international stage ensuring standards and competency in mineral resource assessment and reporting for operators, investors and governments.

Eddie is an organic allotment-holder of thirty years, working with the soil food web approach to gardening and growing since 2012. In 2022 Eddie established RhizoPhyllia as an in-person, hands-on, educational offering based in the rural market town of Royal Wootton Bassett in North Wiltshire. RhizoPhyllia provides a thorough, in-depth understanding of the essential and vital role of soil microorganisms in the growth and health of plants and is aimed at growers of every kind and scale.

Eddie has presented geology and soil food web workshops, demonstrations and talks at clubs and organisations countrywide including events at River Cottage and RHS Tatton. In July 2023, at RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, he was presented with the Assessor’s Award for Retail Innovation.

RhizoPhyllia is a very proud partner of Beth Chatto's Plants and Gardens and will be delivering workshops for the Education Trust throughout 2024.

I am a scientist based in Manchester, looking at plant-soil interactions as a way to restore degraded grasslands. I am interested in the way all parts of a grassland intersect to deliver ecosystem services, such as pollination, greenhouse gas fluxes, clean air and water. As nearly half of grasslands are degraded globally, it is crucial to understand how they work in terms of the relationships between plants, microbes, soil animals, and the inorganic parts like the soil type and chemistry. 

I completed my PhD at Imperial College in 2011, then received an Endeavour Fellowship that enabled me to work at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment in Sydney, Australia. Upon my return, I joined Richard Bardgett’s lab at the University of Manchester, where I completed three post-doctoral contracts and established myself as a fully-fledged researcher. After eight years there, I took up a position as Senior Lecturer at Edge Hill University, teaching botany, plant physiology and many more biological topics both in the UK and China.  After three years, I resigned my post and am currently working as a Research Associate at the University of Manchester. I am excited to see what the future holds!

Errol Fernandes is the Head of Horticulture at the Horniman Museum and Gardens in South London where he manages 16 acres of diverse, stunning gardens. The Horniman Museum is the only museum in the country with a social anthropology, natural history and gardens collection. This unique position allows them to traverse and explore the areas where we overlap and intertwine with nature and the gardens are essential in helping to communicate this narrative.

Having had a love of nature and a passion for gardening from a very young age, Errol seemingly diverted away from the horticultural path to study fine art and went on to develop a career as a painter and curator, exhibiting internationally before studying for a Masters in Art Psychotherapy. Errol then went on to practice as an art psychotherapist within adult psychiatry and also worked with children and adolescents and slowly began to include elements of gardening therapy in his work. Errol later went on to gain horticultural and botanical training.

Errol's approach to landscape management, horticulture and design is creative, thoughtful and sensitive. Errol is particularly interested in ecological and sustainable horticulture and the intersection between people and nature. He develops planting schemes that sit comfortably alongside nature, have a low impact on the environment both in terms of implementation and maintenance but he also strives to push the boundaries of contemporary horticulture and design practice.

Working with communities sharing knowledge, nurturing collaborative working practices and inspiring the next generation of horticulturalists are principles that are central to his work.

Henry Driver is a media artist whose aim is to “create projects which connect us to our environment, as well as combat the climate crisis by enabling impactful responses to it.” Having witnessed the ravages of climate change on his family’s farm, Henry decided to make the environment the sole focus of his artwork from the beginning of his career.  

His artworks have been shown all over the world and have been exhibited at Tate Liverpool, Tate Britain, Whitechapel Gallery and the Barbican. Most recently, two of his works, Secrets of Soil, an interactive journey exploring the hidden world of soil, and Regenerate, an illuminated sculpture celebrating regenerative agriculture, were featured in Sediment Spirit, the groundbreaking environmental art exhibition at Sainsbury Centre in Norwich, and Water Portals, his interactive digital journey exploring the microscopic world of water, just opened in April 2024 at Gainsborough’s House and will be on view until 23 June. 

Henry was shortlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize 2016; named by the Kleinwort Hambros Art Prize 2019 as one of the top 15 artists aged under 35 in the UK and selected for alt.barbican, an accelerator for innovative artists working at the intersection of art and technology.

Humaira Ikram has been working as a professional Garden Designer at Studio Ikram for over 15 years and specialises in client focused landscapes which are pollinator friendly and as sustainable as possible. She runs the Garden Design Diploma at the KLC School of Design, is a Gardens Advisor to RHS Hyde Hall, and RHS Judge and on various selection and advisory panels for the RHS. She is co-curator of the newly established thehub.earth highlighting sustainable, ethical and cross sector events, as well as an award winning broadcaster who has contributed to BBC Radio 4 Gardeners Question Time, been part of garden focused TV and media campaigns and programmes, and writes for various gardening magazines.

James is Director of Wild Writing at the University of Essex. He has taught the MA Wild Writing: Literature, Landscape and the Environment since its inception in 2009. His books include Out of Essex: Re-Imagining a Literary Landscape (2013) which was inspired by rural wanderings in the county and Ancient Wonderings: Journeys into Prehistoric Britain (2017) that tells some remarkable tales of life in ancient Britain. The Oak Papers (2020) – Radio 4’s Book of the Week – explores some of the ties between humans and oaks since prehistory, meditating on our need to connect with the natural world. Grounded (2023) tells of rediscovering the most sacred spaces in our landscapes – both natural sites and human places – seeing the lessons we can learn from our ancestors and their relationship with the land. His forthcoming book, Renaturing (due out in the spring of 2025) investigates ways of democratizing rewilding, how we can all be involved in nature restoration.

Jo McKerr is a trained gardener and garden designer based in Somerset. Although her training was useful, it is the experience of playing and experimenting in gardens for the last 23 years that has taught her the most. 

In 2011 she and her family bought a derelict barn and a 2-acre brownfield site on the edge of Bath. She has spent the last ten years slowly transforming the site into a beautiful progressive wildlife garden. 

Jo uses her garden to experiment, write, and teach workshops about managing landscapes that are ‘low intervention’ with high aesthetics, high garden craft and increased biodiversity. She cultivates her garden with a gentle hand, encouraging a noticing of the beauty of plantings that are better adapted to their environment; boost biodiversity; reinstate habitat; and stimulate natural processes.  Her garden features a large biofiltration pond; a seed-based substrate garden; a series of ‘meadows’; and a hazel coppice.

Jo is interested in how we might grow gardens that will have an ‘ecological memory bank’ and have some resilience and ability to regenerate as our weather and pollution events become more extreme. She is also concerned with how we can divest ourselves from ‘instant’ gardens and start to encourage a movement towards evolving gardens.

Joanne Ooi is the founder of EA Sustain, a festival about Environment, Culture and Entrepreneurship, and EA Festival, an ideas and performing arts festival.
Both festivals are known for the excellence of their speakers and, in the case of EA Festival, its smorgasbord approach to curation. Topics range widely, from art and literature to regenerative farming and psychedelic drugs. In addition, EA Festival/EA Sustain produces events in partnership with many leading cultural organisations including the Food Museum, Jockey Club Rooms, Gainsborough’s House, Battersea Power Station and Essex Book Festival, besides Beth Chatto Symposium. This autumn will see the launch of a new event series at Tate Modern, Corner Conversations: EA Festival x Tate Modern, which includes events about nature recovery and sustainable food.

John argues against long standing protocol within public space and horticulture. He suggests structural complexity is overlooked in landscape design and is more important than plant choice.

Since starting the grassroof company in 1998, he has designed and built over 300 small greenroof buildings, combining deep biodiverse green roofs with walls of breeding and hibernation space.

After 18 years caring for the green space on Clapton Park estate, Hackney, he produced a sustainable grounds maintenance contract that puts people first.

In 2007 John’s company was awarded Silver Gilt at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show for a garden based on the work they pioneer for the green spaces within social housing. John worked closely with the residents of the Clapton Park Estate, Hackney – in fact it was the first time a council estate had entered the show. 

He questions our obsession with specifying top soil in all new projects, especially on highways and new developments. Habitat trials at his home include a garden designed with spoil from the local road widening scheme, industrial and construction waste.

In 2008 he launched a range of small green roof shelters based on shipping containers and designed portable structures including bike and bin storage.

Julian Perry is a contemporary artist who uses historic painting techniques to confront audiences with the environmental crisis: “Each of the thousands of painted marks is a witness to my anger.” Perry’s themes of environmental jeopardy arose well before the term “environmental art” became familiar. Painting in a high definition, realist style, Perry’s artworks celebrate, document and critique environmental change. The uneasy relationship between man and nature is a continuous thread throughout his work. His first show in 1994 entitled “Brittle England” included paintings of caravan parks and marginal coastal locations rarely exposed to visual scrutiny. In 2007, Perry painted East London allotment sheds destined to be bulldozed for the creation of the London 2012 Olympic Park. In recent years, his work has frequently featured trees - sometimes disembodied and diseased - but also woodlands managed by historic and sustainable methods. By his own account, Perry is an activist. But his work, vivid and meticulously detailed, is often unapologetically beautiful, obliging his audience to do a double-take, both aesthetic and intellectual. Perry has had many solo exhibitions including major shows at Southampton City Gallery, London Guildhall Art Gallery, Gainsborough’s House and the Venice Biennale and his work has been exhibited throughout the UK and internationally. Perry has works in numerous public and private collections including the personal collection of HM King Charles III. In June 2025 Snape Maltings will host a major solo exhibition of his work on the theme of coastal erosion during the Aldeburgh Music Festival. 

Kevin is a naturalistic gardener who collaborates with plants to create dynamic and challenging worlds. His unique style combines bioregional plant palettes, a hardcore punk ethos, and post-human aesthetics to craft wild and captivating spaces. Kevin's extensive work with Denver Botanic Gardens has led to the creation of celebrated public gardens throughout the city. Kevin was a Gardener on The High Line in Manhattan and studied as a Horticulture Intern at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. He holds a MS degree in Public Horticulture from the Longwood Graduate Program at the University of Delaware and a BA degree in The History and Philosophy of Science from Bard College.

Lucy Michaels is an interdisciplinary scholar-activist, gardener and impact producer of the feature length UK documentary, Six Inches of Soil, which follows the story of three new entrant regenerative farmers in their first growing season. Since its launch in January 2024, the film has had over 400 screenings worldwide, including in farmer's barns, village halls, cinemas and corporate boardrooms. 

Lucy holds degrees in social and environmental sciences, including a doctorate in Desert Studies. From 2019-2022, she held a fellowship at Warwick University focused on exploring human-soil relationships based on fieldwork with gardeners and growers in Leicester, where she lives.  She is currently a Research Fellow at the University of Hertfordshire working on a project to get the UK growing and eating more dried pulses. Lucy is also active with Jewish ecological collective, Miknaf Haaretz and has presented papers on Judaism and farming.

Merlin Sheldrake is a biologist, speaker and author of Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures. Entangled Life, a New York Times and Sunday Times best-seller, has been translated into twenty-six languages, and was named a TIME Must-Read Book.

Merlin received a Ph.D. in tropical ecology from Cambridge University for his work on underground fungal networks in tropical forests in Panama, where he was a predoctoral research fellow of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. He is a research associate of the Vrije University Amsterdam, works with the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN), and sits on the advisory board of the Fungi Foundation.

Michael is an ecologist and horticulture researcher who is passionate about naturalistic plantings that embody the flexibility and resiliency of wild systems. His work draws inspiration from liminal urban spaces and wild areas alike. Preferring common and weedy plants to the rare and precious, Michael is a proponent of dynamic, self-sustaining gardens and green infrastructure as alternatives to static high-maintenance landscaping. His research links ecological theory with horticultural techniques and designs to broaden the definition of gardens and gardening. Michael worked as a field biologist before joining the Denver Botanic Gardens horticulture department. He holds a MS degree in Ecology from the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology at Colorado State University and a BS degree in Biology from Ithaca College.

Nigel Dunnett is Professor of Planting Design and Urban Horticulture in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Sheffield and Director of Nigel Dunnett Studio. He is one of the world’s leading voices on planting design and a pioneer of the new ecological approach to planting public spaces. His work revolves around the integration of ecology and horticulture to achieve low-input but high-impact landscapes that are dynamic, diverse and tuned to nature, and is based on decades of detailed experimental work and widespread application in practice, collaborating with a wide range of other professions, and his work has been widely applied in the UK and abroad.  

In 2016 Nigel was appointed as an Ambassador for the Royal Horticultural Society to spearhead their ‘Greening Grey Britain’ campaign, and is a former Garden Club of America International Fellow. Nigel has authored and co-authored key books on planting design, water-sensitive design, urban rainwater management, green roofs, and urban landscape planting. Nigel’s 2019 book ‘Naturalistic Planting Design’ won ‘European Garden Book of the Year in 2021. In 2020 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Landscape Institute in recognition of his contribution to sustainable urban greening and planting design, and in 2023 was appointed a Royal Designer for Industry and Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Nigel is a gold-medal winner at the Chelsea Flower Show, and has designed 5 main avenue Chelsea Flower Show gardens between 2010 and 2020. 

Norbert studied landscape ecology and architecture at the Technical University of Munich-Weihenstephan, followed by a doctorate in vegetation ecology. Since 2003 he has been the head of the department of vegetation technology and planting design at the Technical University of Berlin. He is a member of national and international committees, advisory boards and foundations (such as ICB Muskau /Mużakowski and Branitz, Karl Foerster Foundation, Design Advisory Board Public Spaces Berlin).

Norberts main areas of work include: theory in planting design with special emphasis in perennial use, design of urban nature especially dealing with spontaneous vegetation, green space management, urban trees, green infrastructure and climate adaptation (infiltration swales, evaporation beds), plants in historic parks and gardens, plants and climate change.

Noel Kingsbury is internationally known as an innovator, writer and teacher in the fields of gardening and planting design. His 'New Perennial Garden' of 1994 helped launch the current wave of interest in naturalistic planting design. He followed up with a research doctorate in 2007 with the Landscape Department at Sheffield University, on the long-term performance of perennials, a research field he has continued with, along with a series of workshops to disseminate the findings to practitioners.

Noel has published around 25 books, including a history of agricultural crop breeding, and a collected volume on the culture and politics of gardening. A great interest in innovative ways of presenting information is central to his work – hence his collaboration with Annie Guilfoyle in creating gardenmasterclass.org as a global education portal, along with a sister organisation in Poland and academiapaisaje.org for the Spanish-speaking world. After having gardened in the west of England for many years he is currently making an experimental low-irrigation garden in Portugal. 

Owen is a Landscape Manager at Pictorial Meadows, part of not-for-profit The Green Estate Community Interest Company, with a mission to grow green and resilient urban places where people and nature thrive. This large social enterprise delivers and maintains meadows and resilience landscaping projects across the UK, provides stewardship of 80+ hectares of Sheffield green space including 5 city parks, and produces biodiverse Pictorial Meadows seed mixes and meadow turf.

With the team, Owen works on the Sheffield Grey to Green Scheme, the Mansfield Sustainable Flood Resilience scheme, biodiverse green roofs and large scale urban meadow projects, plus development of Pictorial Meadows products, services, and consultations. He is particularly interested in how large urban green infrastructure projects are implemented and cared for in perpetuity, and the weighing-up of costs and benefits when creating and nurturing multi-functional landscapes.

After first studying art, he gained a degree and masters in Environmental Science at the University of Sheffield. He then worked on international field research projects studying plant-soil-atmosphere interactions for carbon-negative agriculture. Inspired by the output of the nearby Sheffield Department of Landscape, he transitioned into horticulture, gaining broad practical experience before completing the RHS Wisley Diploma; studying there during a time of rapid change in search of more sustainable design and management approaches. He wrote his dissertation on the sustainability of glyphosate vs other weed management approaches.

Outside of work, Owen is a keen gardener with a passion for long-season mixed plantings, and an avid propagator with a passion for seed. He loves visiting nurseries, gardens and landscapes.

Rebecca McMackin is an ecologically obsessed horticulturist and garden designer. She is currently the Arboretum Curator of Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, caring for one of the best tree collections in New York City. 

Prior to this, she spent a decade as Director of Horticulture of Brooklyn Bridge Park, where she managed 85 acres of diverse parkland organically. Their research into cultivating urban biodiversity and ethical management strategies has influenced thousands of people and entire urban parks systems to adopt similar approaches. 

In her imaginary free time, Rebecca writes, lectures and designs the occasional public garden. Her garden for the entrance to the Brooklyn Museum opened in 2023. She is passionate about pollination biology, environmental justice, and urban ecology. Rebecca holds a MS in Biology from the University of Victoria, a MS in Landscape Design from Columbia University, and was a 2023 Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She has been published by and featured in the New York Times, the Landscape Institute, and on NPR and PBS.

After education at Oxford, Richard worked as a lecturer in Social Studies in further education, then as a Senior Editor at Penguin Books. He became a full-time writer in 1974. He is the author of some forty books including Whistling in the Dark: In Pursuit of the Nightingale (1993), winner of the East Anglia Book Award, 2010, in a revised version entitled The Barley Bird. Beechcombings: the narratives of Trees (2007). The ground-breaking and best-selling Flora Britannica (1996), winner of a National Book Award, and Gilbert White, which won the Whitbread Biography Award in 1986. His memoir Nature Cure (2005), was short-listed for three major literary awards, the Whitbread, Ondaatje, and J.R. Ackerley prizes. He writes for the Guardian, New Statesman and Granta, and contributes frequently to BBC radio.

In the 1980's he sat on the UK government’s advisory body, the Nature Conservancy Council. He has been awarded two Leverhulme Fellowships, and honorary doctorates by the universities of St Andrews, Essex and East Anglia. He was awarded a Civil List Pension in 2008 for services to literature, and made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2011. In 2014, he was visiting fellow at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He is President of Waveney and Blythe Arts, Vice-President of the Open Spaces Society, and Patron of the John Clare Society. He lives in Norfolk in the Waveney Valley with his partner Polly Lavender.

Sally O’ Halloran has been involved in horticulture/landscape management for over 26 years in a career that has seen her gain experience both operational and managerial in public gardens worldwide and most recently in higher education in the University of Sheffield. She joined NMBU as an Associate Professor in the School of Landscape Architecture in February 2022. Her teaching and research focuses on plants used by landscape professionals in urban and rural landscapes and how they can be used to develop resilient planting designs.

Sarah Wilson has a varied background in horticulture, having worked in garden care, design and retail. She is currently the CEO of Veterans' Growth, a charity providing horticultural therapy to help clients with their mental health and wellbeing. She also hosts the Roots and All podcast and is passionate about gardening sustainably with wildlife in mind.

Having changed career in the early 2000’s, Sheila studied at Kew, worked for English Heritage, and has been a garden manager at RHS Garden Wisley with responsibility for Education, Edibles, Seed and Wellbeing since 2015. This time has included the development of the hilltop gardens at Wisley which feature gardens for Wildlife, Wellbeing and Food. Sheila is passionate about growing food in sustainable ways to support planetary and human health, and has been instrumental in developing Wisley’s planet friendly gardening initiative to develop actions towards increasing biodiversity and sharing knowledge around sustainability and resilience in horticulture. Sheila is well known for her interest in soil health and enjoys developing thoughts around how systems connect and how people can rediscover their role in that connection.  

Steph's love of the outdoors started behind the lens of a camera. A career in photography and graphic design gave her the opportunity to trek in wild landscapes across the globe. Like many who experienced burnout during the pandemic, she turned to the garden. Nature shifted from being the backdrop in her photography to her primary passion.

In 2021, Steph started training in horticulture at RBG Kew on a course designed to improve diversity within the industry. She progressed and is currently completing an apprenticeship there. Her journey began by repairing her disconnection with the seasons and has since developed into a growing awareness of the limitless stories about plants and the communities of life they support, both human and non-human. In noticing and learning, they have lent metaphors that have deepened her connection with nature and herself as a second-generation immigrant in Britain.

She has discovered how valuable gardening can be to conservation, education, art, and finding a sense of belonging. But while it is rich in value, it is not accessible to all. Steph aspires to share her knowledge with communities who have limited access to green space, and to encourage people to nurture relationships with themselves, others and nature through curiosity, awe, and wonder.

Stephanie Mahon is a multi-award-winning garden editor and writer, and host of the Talking Gardens podcast. She became Editor of Gardens Illustrated in 2021, having previously edited Garden Design Journal for the Society of Garden Designers, and The English Garden magazine. Stephanie has written about plants, design and ecology for The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, RHS The Garden, Homes & Gardens and Country Living, and penned four books, including Wild Gardens: Inspired by Nature, which was the Garden Media Guild Book of the Year 2022.

Professor Tracy Lawson is a professor in the Plant Productivity group, Director of Plant Phenotyping and Director of Essex Plant Innovation Centre (EPIC) at Essex, with over 30 years experience in photosynthesis research. Her research focuses on the stomatal control of atmospheric gas entry into the leaf, associated water loss and the mechanisms that regulate this process. Recent research has paid particular attention to stomatal kinetics and the impact of dynamic environments on both photosynthesis and stomatal behaviour. Tracy’s work also concentrates on phenotyping including chlorophyll fluorescence techniques (for quantifying light use and photosynthetic efficiency) and thermal imaging (for measuring stomatal responses and kinetics). Lawson’s lab developed the first imaging system for screening plant water-use-efficiency (McAusland et al., 2013). EPIC brings together the research skills, expertise and technologies across faculties (incl. Life Sciences, Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, Institute for Analytics and Data Science (IADS) and Essex Business School) to address the grand challenges facing farmers, technologists and all those in the agricultural and horticultural sectors. Combining our expertise in these various areas provides us with the opportunity to explore new opportunities to engage and work with industry.

Veronica Sekules has a background working in environmentalism and art galleries. She worked for many years as curator, then head of education at the Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia. She has worked freelance in education and heritage and as a consultant with many national and international projects. She is a published author in art history, cookery and education. Since 2016, she founded and runs GroundWork Gallery in King’s Lynn, Britain’s first contemporary art gallery dedicated completely to art and the environment. The gallery has won numerous awards, most recently the Community Award from sustainability organisation Blue Patch.