Hi GPODers!
When we saw the influx of GPOD submissions showcasing gorgeous garden destinations last week, we decided it would be the perfect opportunity to share one of the gardens that members of Fine Gardening team are very excited to visit this year. Every gorgeous garden that we get to visit for the magazine is something special, but there are certain occasions where we get to visit a landscape that feels like far more than just another work assignment. When the plan was made to visit Tom de Witte’s new home garden in the Netherlands, we knew it would be a particularly special trip. Here’s what our Editorial Director, Danielle Sherry, has to say about this landscape designer’s stunning new creation:
Some gardens are beautiful. Some are instructive. And then there are the rare ones that manage to be both at once—spaces where every decision seems intentional from an educational and aesthetic standpoint. Tom de Witte’s new home garden in the village of Groede, in the far southwest of the Netherlands, is that kind of garden.
Tom is one of the most respected landscape designers working in the Netherlands today. His plantings—layered, naturalistic—are informed by an encyclopedic knowledge of how plants actually behave. Perhaps you know his name from his decades-long working relationship with Piet Oudolf, the father of the New Perennial movement, or his awe-inspiring Instagram feed.
But Tom’s new garden in Groede is something different. When the staff at FG received a folder of photos from him recently, there was an audible gasp. The garden is clearly a space where he experiments freely, plants boldly, and lets his travel influences show.
Tom draws inspiration not just from the Dutch landscape—the polders, the dunes, the wide-open coastal skies of Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, where Groede sits close to the Belgian border—but from his travels much farther afield. Tasmanian rainforests, North American prairies, and the verges of the Zeeland polder roads all find their way into his plant palette and his thinking. The result is a garden that feels like a distillation of a life spent looking at how plants grow in the wild and figuring out how to translate that into human-designed space.
What strikes you first is the sense of movement and variety. Some areas of the garden have a distinctly prairie like quality that many North American gardeners from the Midwest will recognize instantly, with airy grasses and perennials rising and mingling in ways that feel natural rather than placed. Turn a corner, though, and the character shifts entirely—a more refined and composed section takes over, where Tom’s formal training at the Horticulture College in Boskoop and his eye for structure and rhythm become apparent.
It is a garden of multiple personalities, held together by a deeply consistent and cohesive plants-first logic. Texture, seasonality, and the way light plays through translucent seed heads and grass blades are the real organizing principles here.
Tom is also a designer who thinks seriously about how a garden is experienced over time—both across seasons and across years. He builds plant communities designed to be resilient and durable, not just spectacular at a single moment (no one hit wonders allowed!).
And he is keenly aware of how visitors move through a space: the garden is as much about sequence and viewpoint as it is about individual plants, although there are plenty of varietal standouts to capture your attention.
Every pathway, every turn, every threshold between one area and the next is thoughtfully considered. You never quite see the whole thing at once, and that perpetual sense of discovery is very much by design.
And this garden is still evolving. Tom’s new garden in Groede is young enough that you can see the designer’s thinking taking shape, but already full of combinations and compositions that would stop any plantsperson in their tracks.
To visit it now is to catch something rare: a great designer in the act of creating, with all the energy and ambition that brings.
Want to visit this garden with Tom as your guide? Go ‘On the Road’ with Fine Gardening!
This September, Fine Gardening is heading to the Netherlands for an exclusive nine-day garden tour—and Tom de Witte’s new home garden in Groede is one of the highlights of Day 7. Tom will be on-site to walk us through the garden himself, sharing his planting logic, his maintenance philosophy, and the design decisions behind this deeply personal space. It’s the kind of rare, behind-the-scenes access that simply doesn’t exist for the general public.
The Fine Gardening Stunning Gardens of the Netherlands Tour runs September 4–12, 2026, led by award-winning British garden designer Annie Guilfoyle alongside Fine Gardening‘s own Danielle Sherry and Carol Collins. Over nine days, the group will visit an exceptional range of private and public gardens across the country—from Piet Oudolf’s sculpture garden at Singer Laren, to Mien Ruys’s historic garden rooms in Dedemsvaart, to Arjan Boekel’s bold urban meadow in Arnhem, and much more. Tom’s visit also includes a stop at the nearby nursery In Goede Aarde, where a curated selection of perennials and grasses—from the familiar to the truly rare—are displayed in inspiring combinations.
Spots are limited and filling fast. To learn more or reserve your place, visit shop.finegardening.com/pages/tour/gardentravel-2026sep-netherlands
We want to see YOUR garden!
Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!
To submit, fill out the Garden Photo of the Day Submission Form.
You can also send 5–10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.
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Fine Gardening Recommended Products
Black and Decker 22-inch Cordless Hedge Trimmer
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Quick and easy to put into operation and is less noisy and lighter in weight than gas-powered hedge trimmers.
– 38 x 7 x 7 inches
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Razor-Back Potato/Refuse Hook
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