This online talk and all our lectures are FREE for Friends to access. Members of the public are welcome to join us for the live-streaming of the lecture via Zoom for just £5; please email fobs.talks@gmail.com for details.

‘Cultivation works both ways; it is inward as well as outward' - Sue Stuart-Smith, The Well Gardened Mind  

Founded in 2023, by renowned Landscape Architect Tom Stuart Smith and Sue Stuart-Smith, Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist and author of The Well Gardened Mind, The Serge Hill Project for Gardening, Creativity and Health is a not-for-profit which works to foster community inclusion through gardening and other creative acts.

Set in an old one-acre orchard in Hertfordshire, the Project’s work takes place in The Apple House eco-barn and a surrounding Plant Library, a living catalogue of over 2000 perennials and bulbs.

Becky Fincham, Head of Programmes at The Serge Hill Project and Tom Stuart-Smith Studio will describe how the Project has become a destination for gardeners, garden designers and plant lovers, through its public programme of talks and workshops and garden openings.

Also working with local schools, community groups and social prescribers, the Project is exploring and developing new ways to engage people with the world of horticulture; working on the understanding that time spent in nature can radically transform people's health and wellbeing. 

After a 17 year career in PR and Events in book publishing, Becky saw the light and retrained as a professional gardener and garden designer in 2018, looking after a number of Hertfordshire gardens including Bella Stuart-Smith's Pie Corner.

Today she manages the daily running of The Serge Hill Project, developing the programme of events and collaborations, whilst facilitating workshops including the Gardening For Health groups. She is currently studying Social Therapeutic Horticulture to support this work.   

Serge Hill on Instagram

Becky Fincham on Instagram

Serge Hill website