The maximalist London garden of hairstylist Sam McKnight
Hairstylist Sam McKnight enlisted the help of his friend, the landscape designer Jo Thompson, to create a maximalist garden at his London house, filling its deep beds with layer upon layer of his favourite plants.
‘We’re at full capacity of planting; we can’t fit in any more,’ Sam McKnight observes as I tour his London garden with his friend and garden mentor Jo Thompson. ‘I recently said to my gardener that we might make the borders bigger and I could see him churning inside.’ The image of Martin the gardener, with four hours a week to keep the lid on Sam’s proliferating borders, is never far from the conversation. He is not the only one who lacks time. Hair-stylist Sam has recently launched a range of hair products, adding retail clout to his amazing longevity as Vogue’s safest pair of hands on photo shoots. His career was celebrated in a major exhibition at Somerset House that opened last year. Jo and Sam have been friends since she was introduced to him at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show five years ago.
