Ben on right, his brother Jon on left.
| {1983} | Born in Setauket, N.Y. on Long Island. |
| {1987} | Ben started his first garden. |
| {1988} | Known to always have a gardener’s trowel or paintbrush in hand. |
| {1989} | Ben découpaged his mother’s cocktail table. She was pretty impressed. |
| {1992} | Ben started “Ben’s Garden” selling découpage & notecards. |
| {1994} | Mails Smith & Hawken and New York Botanical Garden a catalog, gets orders from both. Orders pour in. Ben puts his friends to work in his parent’s carriage house. |
| {1995} | Ben had to change the “Please call 24/7, we’re waiting,” in his catalog, because his mom was not happy answering the phone. |
| {2000} | A.P. English High School teacher conferenced his parents. Pages were missing from his textbooks. (He was making paperweights with the quotes.) |
| {2000} | Publishes first issue of Ben’s Garden Quarterly. |
| {2001} | Met with C.Z. Guest, a famous socialite, to ask her to write for his magazine. While eating tiny sandwiches and watching her son practice polo, Ben talks about talking up polo as a sport. She laughs and agrees to write for his magazine. |
| {2002} | Graduates High School. |
| {2002} | Running Ben’s Garden at home in Setauket was driving his parent’s and neighbor’s nuts. |
| {2003} | Has a personal meeting with head buyer at Anthropologie, get’s an order. They end up buying all of Ben’s designs within 6 months. |
| {2003} | Becomes a Master Gardener through Cornell University. Wholesale clients grow to include: ABC Carpet & Home, Dean & DeLuca, Kate’s Paperie. Ben begins regularly exhibiting at national trade shows in Atlanta, San Francisco and New York City. |
| {2004} | Ben turns 20, and moves to Oyster Bay and opens his first store & studio. |
| {2006} | Ben’s découpage featured in InStyle Magazine. Business booms. |
| {2006} | Starts writing quarterly magazine column From Ben’s Garden for @Home Magazine. Ben’s A.P. English High School teacher is impressed. |
| {2007} | Opens second Ben’s Garden store in Huntington, N.Y. on Long Island at 3850 Sq. Ft. |
| {2008} | Ben’s Garden Studio in Oyster Bay expands into the space next door, to meet increased wholesale demand. Turns out customers like great handcrafted things made in the U.S.A. |