The first visit I make to see a garden newly built to my design is always an exciting one. Whether it's a small garden or a large one, built to a modest or bigger budget, to see the ideas I first sketched out as my client and I chatted round their kitchen table, then drew up into a workable plan is a real thrill. For it to be there in real life and full colour on the ground, every plant in position, every stone slab or piece of timber right where I'd intended, I find just as rewarding and exciting as the very first garden I designed.
Sometimes I will try something I've not done before, like an avenue of purple beech cylinders to reflect the towers of a castle which can be seen from the garden. Or a client will add something of their own, for example a slate water feature in one of the gardens below, so that there's an element of surprise to the visit too. Sometimes there are parts of the design which work even better than I'd anticipated and then it's such a delight, I really do have the best job in the world.
