Tom Stuart-Smith – The Barn
Few designers can match Tom Stuart-Smith’s stellar reputation, built up in gardens he has created around the world and with no less than eight gold medal-winning gardens at Chelsea, three of which achieved Best in Show. This year he would have been one of the judges of the show gardens. His work combines naturalism and modernity in a unique style and as Tom explains in this film, it all comes back to home which is The Barn, where he and his wife Sue together have made their own garden since the early 1990s.
A Closer Look…
Tom was brought up at Serge Hill, the family house next door to The Barn and so this is his lifelong home. As he explains in the film, The Barn garden was begun when their first child was a small baby and has grown up with their children who are now young adults.
Over the years the garden has moved out from the areas around the house and as it has done the expanding areas have illustrated Tom’s developing style as a designer and plantsman. There is the distinctively informal style of mixed perennials scattered together which he used so beguilingly in successive gardens at Chelsea, as well as an ever-acute spatial awareness, and the pure naturalism of the large meadow area where everything has grown from seed and naturalised.
To find out when The Barn opens again click here
If you enjoyed this content please consider making a donation to help us continue to support our nursing and health beneficiaries.
