Tom Stuart-Smith on Landscapes, Legacy & The Uplifting Power of Nature

Landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith has spent most of his life on the same plot of land, tending its gardens and letting the land shape him in return.
 
Tom has designed gardens at places like Chatsworth, Tate Britain and The Hepworth Wakefield. He’s won nine gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show, and was awarded an OBE in 2023.
 
But long before any of that, he was a child roaming Serge Hill in Hertfordshire, the estate his grandfather bought decades ago. Tom spent his childhood climbing its trees and staging Shakespeare plays. And apart from a brief spell away, he’s lived just 200 yards from his childhood home for almost his entire life.
 
Tom’s wife, Sue Stuart-Smith, is a psychotherapist and author of the book The Well Gardened Mind. Together, they created the Serge Hill Project – a part of the estate where community groups, schoolchildren, young offenders and people recovering from illness can get hands-on with the soil and experience the uplifting power of nature.

This is a conversation about landscapes, legacy and what it really means to stay rooted in one place.

The episode was recorded at The Apple House, a modern pavilion on the estate designed by their son Ben.

A full tour of the building and its surroundings is available to our Patreon community.
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Matt Gibberd’s book, A Modern Way to Live, is available here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320176/a-modern-way-to-live-by-gibberd-matt/9780241480496

Music by @simeonwalkermusic

Identity & design by @lena.winkler.creative.office
Produced by @podshoponline

The full visualised tour of Tom’s estate is available to our Patreon community.
Patreon: http://patreon.com/HomingWithMatt