A professional gardener was sacked from running a demonstration vegetable patch at a garden centre because of his anti-fox hunting beliefs, he told an Employment Tribunal yesterday.

Joe Hashman, who has written two books on gardening, was employed by the Orchard Park Garden Centre in Gillingham, Dorset, in March 2009 to set up and maintain the vegetable display plots.

But in September that year, Mr Hashman was dismissed after he was involved as a witness in two hunting prosecutions and following the accidental death of a local pro-hunting figure.

The 43-year-old from Shaftesbury told the hearing that he had a good relationship with the garden centre managing director Richard Cumming and he believed he had been employed on a long-term basis.

But he said he felt that his position became less secure when Mr Cumming informed him that the majority owners of the garden centre were neighbouring farmers Sheila and Ron Clarke.

He explained that the Clarkes’ farm manager was Andrew Prater, whom he had clashed with during hunting protests.

Mr Hashman said: “I told him that our relationship was not a friendly one because he was a passionate hunt supporter and I was an equally passionate opponent.

“Mr Cumming and I agreed that our common ground in respect of gardening rose above the hunting issue.”

But in July 2009, Mr Hashman was a witness at Scarborough Magistrates’ Court for a prosecution of two landowners charged under the Hunting Act 2004 having covertly filmed their activities for the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

He went on to write about this on his internet blog as well as criticisms of the Gillingham and Shaftesbury Agricultural Show for its “hunting influences”.

It was at this show that Mr Prater died in an accident and it was on the day of the funeral (September 3, 2009) that he was asked not to return to work, Mr Hashman told the tribunal. And two days previously, he had been a witness for another court case in Scarborough involving the celebrity chef Clarissa Dickson-Wright.

Mr Hashman, who is claiming discrimination, said that he believed that he had been employed on a long-term basis stating that he had been given plants to grow for the following season, including mangold-wurzels, for a hurling competition at the garden centre.

He said that following his dismissal: “Mr Cumming suggested that I enter the biggest one anyway ‘under a different name and we’ll make sure you win it’. By reply I said, ‘I don’t think so’.”

Mr Hashman told the hearing that he had successfully claimed for unfair dismissal from another position as caretaker for Shaftesbury Town Council, where his responsibilities included winding up the town hall clock and clearing out the pigeons that nested in the clocktower.

The hearing continues.