14th April 2026 @ 7.30 pm – 9:00 pm ZOOM EVENT

John Little is known for his experimental garden in Essex and pioneering work with wildflowers and green roofs. He specialises in designing and building wildlife-friendly structures and spaces, such as bus shelters with green roofs, often integrating salvaged materials.

He likes the stuff other people disregard: building waste and rubble, rubbish bins, bike stores and railings. He’s partial to an old car carcass and a bit of “bad pruning”.

One thing he’s not so keen on is topsoil. This is all coming from a man who makes some of the most inspiring landscapes around, those that are rich in biodiversity, economical to make and maintain, low impact in terms of embodied carbon, and pleasing – enriching even – to people.

John has made a business out of growing wild things on waste. He sows wildflower meadows into crushed toilets and sinks that flourish because of the low-nutrient content of such substrates. He creates insect habitats from the sort of rubbish that any building site has – plumbing piping and the ends of roofing felt, mastic tubs and light sockets.

In this talk John makes the case that gardeners, structure, topography, and dead stuff are more important than plants in driving biodiversity and that we should be designing these into all new landscapes. John argues:

• Put the best gardeners in the poorest places
• Move money from capital into care
• Understand that gardened places are best for biodiversity and people
• Understand that a modern public space gardener is much more than a horticulturalist
• Question our obsession with specifying topsoil in all new projects, especially on highways and new developments
• Keep waste on site and use it to make places beautiful and biodiverse
• Put soil and plants on roofs

After 18 years looking after social housing green space, John has started carenotcapital.org, a not-for-profit to train gardeners in everything other than horticulture. In 2008 he launched a range of small green roof shelters including bike and bin storage greenroofshelters.co.uk
John can be found on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grassroofco/reels/?hl=en

Members; no charge.

Non-members, please book tickets below.