Beneath the boughs

Tom Stuart-Smith returns to Main Avenue with a hazel grove for the National Garden Scheme. Joanna Fortnam takes an exclusive look behind the scenes at its creation

- Joanna Fortnam

THIS year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show sees 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. It will occupy the significant corner site on Main Avenue.

Mr Stuart-Smith's design is based on a grove of hazels with spreading boughs and wizened trunks that promises to be 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 fairy-tale 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 support of COUNTRY LIFE, which published the first Yellow Bookoffers people, for the price of a ticket, the chance to mooch away a golden afternoon in someone else's garden, with tea and a hefty slice of Victoria sponge in a summerhouse. Last year, a record $3,403,960 went to the NGS's mainly nursing beneficiaries.