Join us for a private tour of Tom Stuart-Smith’s world-renowned garden at The Barn, in Serge Hill in Hertfordshire (Sergehill Lane, Bedmond, Hertfordshire, WD5 0RT). Visit the Barn Garden and the new Plant Library, which holds more than 1200 different varieties of mainly herbaceous plants, then visit Serge Hill, a Regency house situated next door to The Barn Garden, set in beautiful parkland with a walled garden planted by Kate Stuart-Smith (Tom’s sister).
Tom was bought up at Serge Hill, and it is where his family has lived since 1924. Tom and his wife, Sue Stuart Smith (author of the Well Gardened Mind) have lived together at The Barn since 1987. Their three children have grown up as the garden grew around them; Barn Garden beginning when their first child was a baby.
Tom is a landscape architect whose work combines naturalism with modernity and built forms with romantic planting. Tom has designed gardens, parks, and landscapes throughout the world. He gives talks and lectures, and continues to write occasionally for the Guardian, Financial Times, and Daily Telegraph, amongst others. An exhibition on his work, the first about a living garden designer in the UK, was held at the Garden Museum in 2011. Tom is a Vice President of the Royal Horticultural Society, a Trustee of the Garden Museum, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, a Fellow of the Landscape Institute, and a Fellow of the Society of Garden Designers.
10.30am, an introduction from the Head Gardener to both gardens. Explore at leisure Barn Garden and the Plant Library (approximately 2 hours) and Serge Hill (1 hour).
Tea/Mint tea fresh from the garden, coffee and cake. (Please plan for lunch after you depart the gardens, as there are no catering options nor picnic areas).
The gardens are situated around narrow lanes and as such, there is limited car parking.
£60 (Friends: £55)
