From New York piers to Irish walled gardens: how one horticulturist’s wildlife-first approach shows what’s possible — and why we’re following in her footsteps.

By Ciarán De Buitléar · Gardeningwell · County Meath, Ireland

Rebecca McMackin is one of the most influential voices in modern ecological horticulture. Her decade as Director of Horticulture at Brooklyn Bridge Park — an 85-acre public park built on former industrial piers in New York City — shows what happens when you garden for life, not just looks. (rebeccamcmackin.com)

At Gardeningwell, our scale is smaller — a Victorian walled garden in County Meath, school plots, home gardens — but the principle is the same: let habitat, not “tidiness,” be the goal.

Why her work matters

Brooklyn Bridge Park isn’t just a green space — it was engineered as a system of meadows, wetlands, woodlands and salt-marsh, maintained organically, with wildlife at its heart. Rebecca’s team pioneered practices like “leave the leaves,” intentionally allowing plant residue so insects and small mammals can overwinter, and observing which plants and insects are actually using each zone — then adapting.

If this can be done on shipping piers above New York’s East River, it can be done on estates, verges and back gardens in Ireland. The shift is from “garden as décor” to “garden as ecosystem.”

Her message, in plain terms

• Gardens are habitats. Lawns and beds aren’t just pretty – they’re ecosystems. We either design for life or for sterility.
• What we call “mess” isn’t mess. Leaves, dead stems, long grass, log piles – these are winter shelter, food and nesting for insects, frogs and hedgehogs. Rebecca’s work calls it essential.
• Observe first, intervene second. Instead of “cut everything back now”, watch what’s living there already and manage accordingly.
• Plants aren’t decoration — they’re relationships. Many plants evolved in partnership with animals; planting imported ornamentals often breaks those relationships.

Where this overlaps with Gardeningwell

At Gardeningwell we may not have Manhattan views, but our guiding questions are identical:

• What lives in this patch of garden already?
• If we cut everything back and replace it with a tidy bed, how much life have we removed?
• Can we show children and homeowners that “wildlife gardening” isn’t messy by accident — it’s intentional and beautiful?

We work with local schools, community groups and homeowners — teaching peat-free, pesticide-free gardening, wildlife corners and seed-saving — with the same ambition Rebecca brings to public parks: habitat first, lawn second.

Why we’re highlighting her

Because we’re not doing this alone.

Rebecca McMackin’s work offers three things we need:

1. A clear demonstration that ecological horticulture works at scale. Her Brooklyn Bridge Park team turned industrial piers into vibrant ecosystems.
2. A vocabulary and philosophy for what a garden can be: habitat, system, ecosystem — not décor.
3. A bridge between public-space practice and home-garden possibility: if she can do it on a concrete pier, we can do it in a back garden.

This matters for Ireland. Because the question isn’t whether we could leave seed-heads standing and log-piles in corners. It’s whether we will. Whether we’ll shift from “tidy” to “alive.”

What you can do next

• Read our guide to Wildlife Gardening — practical steps you can copy at home.
• Read our feature Mess Is More — why “tidy” gardens are quietly starving wildlife.
• If you’re a school, youth group or homeowner in County Meath (or anywhere) and want to visit or learn from our site, get in touch.

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