The Serge Hill Project for Gardening, Creativity and Health is a not-for-profit initiative based on the understanding that working with nature can radically transform people’s lives.
Located in Hertfordshire on the site of an old orchard with the beautiful Apple House at its centre and a unique collection of plants called The Plant Library, the project offers resources to local schools, community groups, youth organisations and mental health charities.
Our community programme fosters social inclusion through nature connection, gardening and other forms of creativity. We also run an innovative programme of public events, workshops and talks, which along with grants and donations help to support our work.
‘Gardening is unique amongst the creative therapies in drawing on the power of nature’s growth and in the extent to which it brings together the emotional, physical, social, vocational and spiritual aspects of life.
Some of the benefits of gardening derive from the focus on caring for plants, others from the direct influence of green nature on our nervous systems. The safe green space of a garden is calming which reduces stress and helps promote human connection.’
— Sue Stuart-Smith
Join us in mid June to explore three large country gardens within a short walk of each other: The Plant Library of over 2,000 species of perennials and bulbs, Tom and Sue Stuart-Smith’s Barn Garden and Kate Stuart-Smith’s neighbouring Serge Hill Garden.
Support Us
The benefits of green spaces and connecting to nature are increasingly recognised, yet many people lack the opportunity to interact with the natural world. The Serge Hill Project provides a vital resource for those who might otherwise have little access to nature and gardening.
Within the one acre site, in addition to The Plant Library and The Apple House, there are vegetable beds, plots for schools and therapeutic groups, a garden shelter and a pond. Regardless of age or prior knowledge of gardening, our participants and visitors can all experience the mental, physical and social benefits of time spent in close proximity to nature
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Hosted by Tom Stuart-Smith Studio Working With Drought: Planting For Changing Climates is two-day symposium focussed on climate resilient plants and planting - with talks, debates and demonstrations taking place in the beautiful The Apple House eco barn and Tom Stuart-Smith’s Plant Library of over 2000 perennials and bulbs; half of which are growing in sand.
Following the sold-out success of Working With Earth: Landscape and Architecture (2024) and Working With Water: From Ecology to Engineering (2025), our third symposium brings together a community of some of the world’s most innovative and acclaimed planting designers, nurseries, landscape architects, garden designers, botanists, horticulturists, naturalists, environmentalists and researchers working across the field of ecological planting and climate resilient landscapes today to share their practices, including:
James Basson
Dr Chris Gibson
Giacomo Guzzon
James Hitchmough
Mattis Köpe
Nick Macer
Nick Pusterla
Fernanda Rionda
Dr. Henrik Sjöman
Tom Stuart-Smith
Millie Souter
With more to be announced.