Tom Stuart-Smith returned to Main Avenue at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024 with a hazel grove for the National Garden Scheme. Joanna Fortnam took an exclusive look behind the scenes at its creation. The 2024 RHS Chelsea Flower Show witnessed the return of garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith with his first show garden in 14 years.
A Gold medallist eight times and winner of three Bests in Show, he was drawn back by the chance to create a show garden for the National Garden Scheme (NGS), the largely volunteer-run organisation that opens private gardens for charity. Sponsored by Project Giving Back, this is only the second Chelsea garden in the history of the NGS, and occupies the significant corner site on Main Avenue. From the start of the week on Monday morning, guests milled around this wonderful, natural, fresh space.
Judges were also swayed by what has been done here, awarding it a Gold medal; and while it didn’t win Best in Show, many felt it probably should have done . Mr Stuart-Smith’s design is based on a grove of hazels with spreading boughs and wizened trunks that’s as magical as anything painted by Arthur Rackham. As he says: ‘There’s nothing like a woodland for making you feel that you’re in the cradle of Nature.
’ The story this fairytale glade tells about the NGS (which is approaching its centenary in 2027) is one for the 21st century: the rise of the shared, community garden. As most people know, the NGS — founded almost 100 years ago with the suppo.
