Tom Stewart-Smith, Barn Garden

The Barn Garden at Serge Hill, Hertfordshire has been created by Tom and his family over the last 25 years and is periodically open for either groups by appointment or NGS open days. This inspirational garden is very much a home and not a show garden. It was stripped out and redesigned in 2007 to create a more contemporary space using elements and features from Tom’s Gold Medal and Best In Show Chelsea Flower Show garden in 2006. The rusting corten steel wall, brown stone pathways and steel water tanks used in the show garden fit the space perfectly and are complimented with colourful and naturalistic planting that adds interest across the seasons. The planting is drought tolerant, a recurrent theme in all the garden areas. Plants that are thriving include irises, echinaceas, euphorbias, sedums, salvias, eryngiums, achilleas and grasses like Stipa gigantea and Panicum.

"Making a garden for yourself is very different from doing it for someone else. So much of the pleasure is to do with the coaxing and tending, the daily observance of small details and the accumulation of change over the years".

– Tom