Benny is a London-based community gardener who trained and worked as a marine biologist for six years, before falling in love with plants.
For the last 11 years, Benny has been gardening - gardening with wildlife in mind - not as something which excludes people, but with people front-and-centre.
He believes access to greenspace is crucial to a cultural shift which will connect more people to plants, nature and food-growing. He believes the future of climate resilience and recovery lies with people who work with their hands in the soil.
In the last couple of years Benny has been working as part of 'Greening our Neighbourhood', a small group of people working with Barnet Council to dig up pavements in front of schools, to instead plant pollution-absorbing, life-encouraging plants as a barrier and buffer between polluted roads and schools.
Benny also works with John Little and Fiona Crummay at their experimental garden, Hilldrop, in South Essex.
Benny's plant passion takes the shape of combining wild, native plants with a sprinkling of more ornamental garden plants (a 'wildamental' approach).
When Benny isn't working as a gardener, he is usually out somewhere trying to identify and record insects.
House and Garden interview: https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/article/benny-hawksbee-bee-expert
Gardens Illustrated interview: https://www.gardensillustrated.com/gardens/gardeners/benny-hawksbee-interview