Gold medal Chelsea garden relocating to hospital

Tom Stuart-Smith's woodland-themed National Garden Scheme garden won a gold medal

A gold medal-winning garden from this year's Chelsea Flower Show is set to be relocated to a hospital site in Cambridge.

Hertfordshire's Tom Stuart-Smith scooped the top accolade for his woodland-themed National Garden Scheme garden.

His creation will eventually take pride of place at Maggie's, a cancer support unit operating at the Addenbrooke's Hospital site in Cambridge.

Mr Stuart-Smith said his vision was that his garden would offer hope, and help people "to feel that [the] garden is opening out - and has got a future".

A hut was made from oak and beech felled from Mr Stuart-Smith’s own garden in Hertfordshire

Queen Camilla visited the award-winning garden at Chelsea on Monday

His garden features a hazel coppice and drought-tolerant plants centred around a hut made from oak and beech felled from Mr Stuart-Smith’s own plot in Serge Hill, at Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire.

The National Garden Scheme is a charity which has been running for almost 100 years and sees about 3,500 private gardens open to the public each year.

As part of the scheme, Mr Stuart-Smith and his family have been opening up their family’s garden for 30 years and have raised more than £80,000 for charity through admission fees.

Mr Stuart-Smith said the shed would become a hut for the centre's volunteers

Tom Stuart-Smith said he hoped his garden would be a place of refuge

Speaking about opening his garden to the public, Mr Stuart-Smith said: "For us, it's very special to be able to share our garden in that way, [it's there] for the pleasure of sharing."

He said he was delighted his garden would be going to the Maggie's site in Cambridge, and said he hoped being surrounded by well-known flowers and plants would bring a sense of familiarity and perhaps remind people of their childhoods.

At the centre of his design is the garden shed, which he said would become a hut for volunteers at the centre.

"I think to have a place in the garden where something else is happening - something creative and alive is really valuable in that context where you feel your own life is closing down, potentially, to feel that a garden is opening out and has got a future."

Dame Laura Lee is the chief executive of the charity Maggie's

Mr Stuart-Smith's own garden in Hertfordshire is open to the public each year

One of those to visit his new Chelsea creation on Monday was Queen Camilla, who is the president of Maggie’s.

The charity's chief executive, Dame Laura Lee, said: "Aren't we so lucky... that we're going to get this wonderful garden.

"What you experience here is just a small taste of what the Maggie's garden is going to offer, which is hope, contemplation, refuge - a feeling of calmness.

"If you imagine you're arriving at Maggie's, at Addenbrooke's, and you've just had your cancer diagnosis and you're feeling a whole sense of anxiety and worry... can you imagine what that approach to the centre is going to be like, when you're walking through this garden here... a place where I can feel safe, where I can talk."

"Gardens offer hope - they offer a place that you want to be in," she added.

The Bridgerton garden at Chelsea Flower Show was designed by Holly Johnston

The Cambridge site is also set to welcome another garden which had a big impact at this Year's Chelsea Flower Show.

A Bridgerton-themed creation, based on the popular Netflix series, will also be moved to a courtyard setting at Addenbrooke's Hospital.

This year's Chelsea Flower Show is being held until 25 May.

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