About Ben Busko, Founder and Creative of Ben's Garden

Objects Should Mean Something

The things you live with should say something.

We believe the objects you live with should reflect something personal: your humor, your memories, the people you love, and the things you want to keep close.

A tray might hold a candle beside the bed, letters on a desk, or keys by the door. A paperweight might anchor a stack of notes. But these objects can also hold something quieter — a moment, a feeling, a small piece of who you are.

For more than three decades, Ben's Garden has grown steadily by hand in New York City, where traditional craftsmanship meets a distinctly modern sensibility.

Each design is carefully composed, layered beneath glass, and finished by artisans who understand that beauty reveals itself in patience, restraint, and thoughtful detail.

The Atelier

Craft, patience, and a very New York point of view.

In our New York City studio, paper, pigment, glass, and light come together in a quiet choreography of craft. This is a working atelier in the truest sense: tables scattered with brushes, drawers filled with antique prints, and sheets of glass waiting patiently for their final layer.

Here, traditional techniques such as French decoupage are practiced much as they have been for generations. Images are cut, composed, layered, sealed, and finished entirely by hand.

Nothing here is rushed. Each object moves slowly through the studio, gathering care, precision, and intention along the way.

The Founder

One artist's vision, still at the center of it all.

Armed with a paintbrush and a boundless curiosity, Ben Busko began creating the first pieces of Ben's Garden in 1992. From the start, he approached design like a storyteller, layering color, vintage imagery, and heartfelt words in ways that felt entirely new.

Piece by piece, his singular aesthetic took shape: joyful, thoughtful, sometimes playful, always personal.

Today every design is still created by Ben and brought to life by a team of artists in New York City who share a deep respect for craftsmanship and the quiet power of well-made objects.

His work has been celebrated by Vogue, Oprah, Martha Stewart, Architectural Digest, The Strategist, Goop, and collectors around the world.

What We Believe

Beauty is where meaning lives.

The objects we keep close should say something about who we are — our humor, our heart, our history. The best ones make us pause, make us smile, and sometimes bring a memory gently back to life.

Ben Busko | Founder

You can always reach out to me directly at hello@bensgarden.com.

As Celebrated By

From Martha's Books to Martha's Television Studio.

When Ben joined Martha Stewart for two segments of The Martha Stewart Show, it felt like a full-circle moment. For years, Ben had learned the art of decoupage from Martha's books, studying her techniques and absorbing her philosophy that beautiful things are meant to be made by hand.

On the show, the two sat side by side creating decoupage trays while sharing favorite places across Long Island and the quiet rituals of making things slowly and well. Ben also presented Martha with a hand-painted historic map of Bedford, New York — where her new home was located — designed in the colors of her Lily Pond Lane paint collection.

Broadcast to millions of viewers worldwide, the show — an 18-time Emmy Award winner — introduced Ben's handcrafted trays to an audience that immediately understood the magic of objects made with care, history, and a little imagination.

Watch the Clip

1988 · The Garden

Where it all began.

On Long Island's North Shore, a young Ben planted his first rows of herbs and flowers. Marigolds, mint, lavender, lemon balm. Barefoot most days and sunburned by August, he learned that beauty takes time, that joy grows best with attention. That boy is still here. Only now the garden is bigger.

1993 · The Art Show

The kid with too much cash in his pockets.

At fourteen, Ben stood behind a folding table at Gallery North's juried art show in Setauket. The youngest vendor by more than a decade. By the end of the day, his shorts were so full of crumpled bills he could barely walk home. The first proof that beauty could make its way into the world.

1998 · Ben's Garden Quarterly

Before content was king.

A small seasonal publication devoted to gardens, beauty, and the quiet rituals of everyday life. Ben photographed, wrote, and printed it himself. Each issue was assembled in his bedroom on a refrigerator-sized printer. It was messy, obsessive work. And it taught him how to tell a story.

2001 · Oyster Bay

A first shop by the harbor.

At nineteen, Ben opened his first store in Oyster Bay. The little shop sat among history: Sagamore Hill, Teddy Roosevelt's summer White House. Behind the shop, hidden from the street, Ben planted a small garden. It was the same instinct that started everything.

2012 · Huntington

A store that grew like a garden.

In the heart of Huntington Village, Ben opened one of his most ambitious spaces yet. Nearly 4,000 square feet of glass, antiques, books, and one-of-a-kind objects. Outside, a living green wall climbed the facade — the first of its kind on Long Island. Proof that even walls can grow wild.

2016 · Martha Stewart

From Oyster Bay to Martha's kitchen.

Ben joined Martha Stewart for two segments of The Martha Stewart Show. For years he had studied her books. Now he was teaching her. The show reached millions of viewers and won 18 Emmy Awards. For Ben, it felt like a full circle.

2019 · Brooklyn Studio

Where the work really happens.

Inside a sunlit 14,000-square-foot studio in Brooklyn's Industry City, Ben's Garden became something larger than a shop. Tables filled with glass trays. Sheets of gold leaf. Outside the windows: New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty. The quiet, stubborn work of making things by hand.

2021 · SoHo

The greatest city in the world.

On the corner of Grand and West Broadway, beneath the cast-iron buildings of SoHo, Ben's Garden opened its Manhattan home. Inside is a small universe of trays, books, furniture, and objects waiting to be discovered. A garden planted in the middle of the city.

2022 · Stony Brook

A childhood dream comes home.

In the Three Villages where Ben first dreamed of making a life in art, Ben's Garden opened in Stony Brook Village. Just steps from Gallery North — the same place where a fourteen-year-old Ben once sold his first pressed-flower cards. This one took a garden, a paintbrush, and a few decades of stubborn belief.

Every chapter started the same way: with a pair of hands, an idea, and the belief that beauty is worth making.