PRACTICE
Based in London, Tom Massey Studio designs award winning gardens for private and commercial clients, as well as for festivals and shows in the UK and overseas.
We draw inspiration from a range of sources and always consider the environment, location and context of the site. We strive to work with nature to produce sustainable, ecological and beautiful gardens that support local wildlife and promote biodiversity.
Since Tom Massey Studio was founded in 2015, Tom’s work has won multiple awards and widespread recognition, including being listed in House & Garden magazine’s ‘Top 50 Garden Designers’, Country & Town House ‘20 Finest Landscape Designers’ and Pro Landscaper magazine’s 25 most influential. Known for bold, daring and thought-provoking show gardens, the studio has won multiple medals at garden shows.
Tom Massey
Tom grew up in south-west London, and spent childhood exploring Richmond Park, accompanied by long summers on the Roseland Peninsula in rural Cornwall, where he developed a deep love and appreciation for the natural world. After completing a degree in Animation at the Arts University Bournemouth, Tom put his hand to many things - advertising, events and the renovation of a disused warehouse building in Hackney to set up and run a creative co-working space and cafe - before deciding to pursue a career in landscape design. Tom completed a diploma at the London College of Garden Design, based at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, and graduated with distinction.
As well as leading his design practice, Tom gives talks on garden design and related subjects, and returns to the London College of Garden Design as a visiting tutor. Tom enjoys pushing boundaries and searching for inspiration in unusual places. In 2018 Tom traveled to Domiz Camp in Northern Kurdish Iraq, to talk to people displaced from their homes, gardener to gardener, and understand why gardening and plants were so important to them in the harsh camp environment. This trip inspired Tom’s first RHS Chelsea Flower Show garden for the Lemon Tree Trust. Tom’s second garden at the show for Yeo Valley Organic, was the first garden to be approved by the Soil Association and championed organic principles, winning a coveted RHS Gold Medal and the ‘BBC Peoples Choice’ award.
In 2021 and 2022 Tom appeared on two series of a primetime BBC2 garden design television series ‘Your Garden Made Perfect’. His designs for the series explored a range of themes, from supporting wildlife and promoting biodiversity to experimenting with unusual growing mediums and reclaimed materials such as construction waste.
In April 2023 Tom’s first book was released, Published by DK and written in close collaboration with the Royal Horticultural Society science team, ‘RHS Resilient Garden' is a future focused book grounded in the latest RHS research. The book details how to work with nature and adapt your outdoor space to be more resilient to the affects of climate change and used innovative virtual reality and CGI imagery to convey the design ideas.
DesigNERS
Kate Mackay Roberts
Kate grew up in the rural West Country, where she was deeply inspired by her natural surroundings. She formed an early interest in design by observing her family undertake an extensive house and garden renovation. After completing a degree in creative thinking and graduating with 1st class honours, she took her bold design approach into an exciting 20 year career in London’s brand, event and retail design agencies.
Seeking a new challenge, and a desire to create physical spaces, Kate enrolled on the Garden Design Diploma at The London College of Garden Design. After graduating in 2021 with distinction, Kate began working as a designer at Tom Massey Studio where her creative, bold and detailed designs solutions, balance an understanding of client’s wishes, site context and environmental responsibility.
Kate won the 2022 Society of Garden Designers Student Domestic Design award and was highly commended in the Student Commercial Design category.
Toby Jones
Toby grew up exploring the countryside, woods and wild spaces of the Cotswolds, with his mother passing on her enthusiasm for plants as an expert gardener and grower. Previously cultivating a successful 15-year career as a communications professional in business, charity and sports organisations, he ultimately traded in the monoculture lawns of Lord’s Cricket Ground, to seek out and push the boundaries of a vibrant new industry in 2020.
Motivated by an interest in spatial design and construction, and a yearning to work in an industry that confronts the effects of the climate and biodiversity crisis head on, Toby turned to garden design. He graduated from The London College of Garden Design in 2021 with distinction, and currently returns as a visiting tutor focussing on computer aided design.
Toby’s work is detailed, mindful and responsive to the character, context and location of the site.
Amy Newsome
Amy is a 5th generation horticulturist with a Kew Diploma in Horticulture and an MA in Art History. She brings a deep appreciation of natural plant communities, ecological horticulture and the shifting line between art and wildness to her design sensibility.
From her time working in gardens of hospitality destinations (Le Manoir Aux Quat’ Saisons, Soho Farmhouse), and large historic gardens such as Kew, she designs with human joy in mind; working with scale, a sense of movement, fragrance, sound, and sight lines to create engaging moments of connection.
A strong creative thinker with experience in creative brand direction and marketing, Amy understands and really enjoys working on concept-driven designs for commercial projects that align with and express an organisation’s values and aims.
Amy is also an author (‘Honey - Recipes from a Beekeeper’s Kitchen’), a beekeeper, and a cook.