铁锹天赋：Tony和Marie Newton

Newton的花园分成界限鲜明的两个部分。靠近房子的是上花园，这块地方植物种得很整齐——长长尖尖、黄绿相间的冬青木、蓝绿的松柏、深红的杜鹃——环绕着一片繁茂、青翠的草地。每棵植物都不能碰到自己的邻居。
之后，花园改变了。较低的地方挤挤挨挨、浓荫蔽日，又弯弯绕绕。下到这里，相互间的触碰就很多了。那里有高大的竹子，头顶横着棕榈树枝，脚下落叶咯吱作响。光线斑斑点点、不可预知。一道清澈的溪流在周围沙沙地流转。
所有这一切组成了这座私人家庭花园，它比我以前见过的所有园子都要美丽。
而所有的一切，都是Tony和Marie自己完成的——除了搬进来时他们继承的两棵树，他们种下每一棵植物，亲手铺设小径，装配水景，建起那座大大的木亭、作下花园的中心。
Marie说：“有时候，我们会在清晨拉开窗帘，看到一些东西—一可能是十月早晨一片令人惊叹的绚丽鲜红——都不敢相信这是我们自己创造出来的。”
Tony和Marie今年都62岁了，已经退休两年，他们在1982年买了这栋房子，对花园并没有太多的想法。“它杂草丛生，完全被忽略了。那里有一些又大又老、生了病的松柏。有很多的种子。”
这对夫妇最开始撇下了花园，整日忙于供养家庭——他们五年之间有了四个孩子。但是之后他们重新铺设了小路，孩子们渐渐长大，他们开始了景观美化——他们运进了11吨泥土、大块的石头和一株7英尺高的棕榈树。接着他们开始修筑那条溪流，最初那只有12英尺长，但他们把它延长了4倍。
Tony和Marie是两个完全靠自学的园丁，除了禁止飞燕草之外没有任何规矩，因为他们欢迎蛞蝓。

Talent in spades: Tony and Marie Newton

There are two distinct halves to the Newtons' garden. Nearest to the house ("the upper garden") is an area of formal planting — spiky yellow and green hollies, bluey-green conifers, deep red azalea bushes — set around an area of lush, green grass. Here no plant is allowed to touch its neighbour.
Then the garden changes. The lower area is busy, shady, twisty. There's lots of touching going on down here. There are huge bamboos, palm tree branches overhead, crunchy leaves underfoot. The light is dappled and unpredictable. A clear stream swishes its way around.
All of which adds up to a private family garden more beautiful than any other I have seen.
And Tony and Marie did it all themselves — from planting every one of the plants (apart from the two they inherited when they moved in) to laying the paths, assembling the water features and building the large wooden pagoda that forms a focal point of the lower garden.
Marie says: "We sometimes open the curtains in the morning and catch sight of something — an amazing red glow on an October morning, perhaps — and you can't quite believe that we created this."
Tony and Marie, both 62 and retired for two years, bought the house in 1982 and didn't give the garden much thought. "It was quite overgrown and had been neglected. There were some huge, old and diseased conifers. There were a lot of weeds."
The couple left the garden at first, too busy bringing up their family (they had four children in five years). But then they relaid the paths and made a go-kart track the length of the sloping garden, which doubled as a sledge run in the winter.
As their children grew up, they started landscaping — importing 11 tons of soil, some big rocks and a 7ft-tall palm tree. Then they worked on the stream, originally 12ft long but they increased it four-fold.
Tony and Marie are entirely self-taught gardeners and have no rules apart from banning delphiniums (because they encourage slugs).