Tim Curry's Garden Design Focused on Sunrise and Sunset

The late actor Tim Curry was a passionate horticulturist who designed gardens. His favorite feature in his own Los Angeles garden was a pair of patios with benches positioned to watch the sun rise and set.

According to a biography cited by Gardening Know How, Curry created two distinct seating areas. "I made two patios with benches. From one you can see the sun rise and from one you can watch the sun set," he explained. He used these spots to sit and imagine future projects. This approach highlights that a garden's purpose extends beyond planting to include spaces for enjoyment and contemplation.

A Practical and Philosophical Approach

Curry's gardening philosophy was about more than aesthetics. In the book The Great Private Gardens of the World, he described his approach as "organizing nature not only into pleasing shapes, but also as a kind of spiritual resource." The benches served as places to pause and think. This suggests a garden should be designed around desired feelings, not only visual goals.

His perspective may have been influenced by his father, who created a garden during years of illness. Curry once remarked that the 20th century focused on immediate gratification, whereas "Gardens are about making something terrific for those who come after." He viewed planting as an optimistic act for future generations and local wildlife.

How to Recreate the Feature

Recreating this feature is simple. Find a spot in your garden where the morning or evening light is particularly beautiful and place a chair or bench there. For a fuller homage to Curry's idea, identify an east-facing location for morning coffee and a west-facing area with a good view for the evening. Observe how the light falls in different seasons and position your seating accordingly.

Curry also believed in personal style. The source recommends choosing a seat with its own panache. The core idea is to create a dedicated place to sit and enjoy the garden's changing light.

Curry's Horticultural Legacy

Tim Curry was not only a casual gardener. He designed, developed, and restored gardens professionally, even creating a garden for Freddie Mercury. When restoring his 1920s Spanish Colonial Revival house in Los Feliz, he painstakingly tracked down the property's original plans. His favorite part of the resulting garden was the clever seating, not the colorful planting.

He joked about his English roots, saying "if you're English, a trowel appears in your hand when you're 30 like a prosthetic device." His work combined this hands-on passion with a thoughtful vision for what a garden could be-a resource for reflection and a legacy for the future.