Hopefully you don’t think of soil as just dirt.Soil is actually an incredibly complex ecosystem, with billion
Meet the gardener proving that plants can grow in anything from rubble to crushed sinks | House & Garden
23.06.2023 - 10:25 / houseandgarden.co.uk
Experimental gardening pioneer John Little tests many of his ideas at Hilldrop, his four-acre plot in Essex
John Little has big ideas about public space landscapes. He has been experimenting with both green-roof and brownfield planting for almost 30 years and he is passionate about transforming unpromising and neglected land into plant-filled and wildlife-rich spaces that communities can enjoy.
Brought up in a family of shoe salesmen, John took over the family business in Essex and worked in retail for many years. In 1995, he decided to sell the company and start his own green-roof business. ‘My dad and grandad always gardened, so I had that connection. But it was wild plants that I loved the most,’ he recalls. ‘As you get older, you realise that plants are the centre of everything. They keep you healthy, they cool cities, they reduce flooding and they bring back joy.’
With the proceeds from the sale of the business, he bought a four-acre site near Stanford-le-Hope in Essex, built his own green-roofed eco house and started work on the garden. This has become the hub of his experimental work. What he sets out to demonstrate is that an array of plants can grow successfully and sustainably in inhospitable situations – thriving in anything from sand to builder’s rubble.
‘The aim is to get as diverse a mix of plants as possible,’ says John. ‘It’s difficult to do that with a rich soil that’s going to be open to the most competitive species, like brambles and nettles. You have to kick these weeds in the teeth by not giving them the nitrogen that they need to outcompete everything else. If you do this, there is much more chance of getting a wider variety of plants without one or two dominating.’
He goes on to cite Canvey Wick Nature
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