Ben The Grower - Ben Thornton

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Ben The Grower - Ben Thornton Disabled Gardener & Designer🌿
Rare Spinal AVM Injury - 2009 🏥🩸
Award Winning Designer 🥇🌿
NoDig, YouTube & More 🇬🇧

Tonight I’ve found myself diving into the wonderful world of Geoff Hamilton, and I can’t help thinking this is exactly t...
19/10/2026

Tonight I’ve found myself diving into the wonderful world of Geoff Hamilton, and I can’t help thinking this is exactly the sort of gardening television I wish we had more of today. 🌿

Someone who wasn’t afraid to experiment, question traditional methods and do things differently, rather than just following the rules because that’s how gardening has always been done.

It’s such a refreshing way of looking at gardening, even all these years later.

Now, where can I watch all his old programmes? Because I think I’m going to be hooked! 💚

19/10/2026

You really don’t need a big garden to grow your own food! 🌱

My main outdoor allotment growing space is only 6m × 10m, with ten VegTrug raised beds, and the amount of food I’ve grown this year has been unbelievable!

From tomatoes, cucumbers and aubergines to carrots, sweet peppers, chillies, squash and so much more. It’s honestly been one of my most successful growing years yet!

And here’s the thing. I’m a disabled gardener, and I’ve managed to grow all this while adapting how I garden to what my body can manage.

Growing your own doesn’t have to mean having acres of land, a huge greenhouse or even an allotment. A few pots, a raised bed or a little corner of your garden can be enough to get started.

Start small, grow what you love eating and see where it takes you. 🌿

19/10/2026

The time has come, I have no choice 🙃🫣🥵

And that’s the squash harvest of 2026! 🎃🌿🙌🏼 That felling when you have grown from seed! What an unbelievable year it has...
19/10/2026

And that’s the squash harvest of 2026! 🎃🌿🙌🏼 That felling when you have grown from seed!

What an unbelievable year it has been for growing squash. I knew we’d had a good harvest, but seeing them all together like this is just crazy!

And to think every single one of these was grown in raised beds! Making use of vertical space with arches can completely change how much I can grow without needing more ground space.

From the Red Kuri to the enormous tromboncino, I genuinely couldn’t be happier with how they’ve performed this year.

Now the question is, where the hell am I going to store them all? 😂

What’s been your biggest growing success of 2026?

18/10/2026

Can you believe all this squash came from a tiny allotment?! 🎃🌿🧡

37 squash altogether, and I genuinely cannot believe how much food I’ve managed to grow this year!

My main growing space is only 6m x 10m, with 10 raised beds, and somehow I’ve managed to grow more squash than I know what to do with! 😂 Just three red kuri squash plants produced 20 beautiful squash, alongside all the tromboncino and other winter varieties.

And the thing I really want people to take away from this is that if I can grow all this as a disabled gardener, then you can grow your own food too! 💚

You don’t need acres of land, a massive garden or the ability to garden in the traditional way. Sometimes it’s just about adapting things to work for you, making the most of the space you have and giving it a go.

I’m so incredibly proud of what I’ve grown this year. Gardening has given me so much, and I hope sharing what I grow inspires others to give it a try, regardless of their abilities.

Now I’ve just got to work out what to do with 37 squash! 😂

All of this from just TWO plants growing over one arch! 🎃🌿This is exactly why I love growing vertically! Taking advantag...
18/10/2026

All of this from just TWO plants growing over one arch! 🎃🌿

This is exactly why I love growing vertically! Taking advantage of space that would otherwise go unused and turning it into an incredible harvest.

Red kuri squash and tromboncino, all grown in raised beds, with the plants climbing up and over the arch rather than taking over valuable growing space.

It just goes to show you don’t need a huge amount of space to grow an unbelievable amount of food!

18/10/2026

These are Red Kuri squash, and they’ve been unbelievably productive this year! 🌿🧡 Beautiful orange-red skins, rich, creamy flesh with a lovely sweet, nutty flavour, and they can store for months!

20 squash from just THREE plants! 🤯🌿 And in my opinion, they’re one of the best-tasting squash varieties you can grow!

I absolutely love roasting them with garlic until they’re beautifully soft. And the fact we’ll be eating homegrown squash well into winter makes growing them even more worthwhile! 🧡

Have you ever grown Red Kuri squash? 👀🌿

I think I’ve officially peaked as a squash grower! 😂🎃🙌🏼I mean, just look at them! Some are perfectly straight, others ha...
18/10/2026

I think I’ve officially peaked as a squash grower! 😂🎃🙌🏼

I mean, just look at them! Some are perfectly straight, others have decided to grow in whatever bloody direction they fancy! 🤣

There is something so incredibly satisfying about growing something from a tiny seed and ending up with a harvest like this.

I’ve spent so much time this year experimenting, trying different things and sometimes completely ignoring the gardening rulebook. And looking back at what I’ve managed to grow, I genuinely couldn’t be happier! 🌿

These tromboncino squash have definitely earned their place among my favourite things I’ve ever grown. And I think the photos deserve a place on the grid!

Now I just need to work out what the hell I’m going to cook with them all! 😂

Has anyone got some good squash recipes?

18/10/2026

Seven enormous tromboncino squash from just ONE plant! 🤯🌿🎃 And you honestly won’t believe the size of some of these!

I think this might be my proudest growing achievement of 2026! 😍🙌🏼 One plant has produced seven absolutely enormous tromboncino squash, and we’ve also got six butternut squash growing on the same arch!

With the weather changing, it was time to get these beauties harvested before they fell and got damaged. And I genuinely cannot get over how well they’ve grown!

All grown from seed from Shegrowsveg, planted in Natural Grower compost and fed with their feed. Nothing complicated, nothing fancy, just healthy soil and letting the plants do their thing! 🌱

Unfortunately, I managed to snap the stem off one while harvesting, so that one will need eating first rather than storing with the others! 😂

It really does show what you can achieve when you put time and care into your soil. This arch has absolutely outdone itself this year!

Next up, we’re weighing and measuring these monsters! 👀📏

Have you ever grown tromboncino squash? Because I think these might be some of my biggest yet!

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