鐵鍬天賦：Tony和Marie Newton

Newton的花園分成界限鮮明的兩個(gè)部分。靠近房子的是上花園，這塊地方植物種得很整齊——長長尖尖、黃綠相間的冬青木、藍(lán)綠的松柏、深紅的杜鵑——環(huán)繞著一片繁茂、青翠的草地。每棵植物都不能碰到自己的鄰居。
之后，花園改變了。較低的地方擠擠挨挨、濃蔭蔽日，又彎彎繞繞。下到這里，相互間的觸碰就很多了。那里有高大的竹子，頭頂橫著棕櫚樹枝，腳下落葉咯吱作響。光線斑斑點(diǎn)點(diǎn)、不可預(yù)知。一道清澈的溪流在周圍沙沙地流轉(zhuǎn)。
所有這一切組成了這座私人家庭花園，它比我以前見過的所有園子都要美麗。
而所有的一切，都是Tony和Marie自己完成的——除了搬進(jìn)來時(shí)他們繼承的兩棵樹，他們種下每一棵植物，親手鋪設(shè)小徑，裝配水景，建起那座大大的木亭、作下花園的中心。
Marie說：“有時(shí)候，我們會(huì)在清晨拉開窗簾，看到一些東西—一可能是十月早晨一片令人驚嘆的絢麗鮮紅——都不敢相信這是我們自己創(chuàng)造出來的?！?BR> Tony和Marie今年都62歲了，已經(jīng)退休兩年，他們?cè)?982年買了這棟房子，對(duì)花園并沒有太多的想法?！八s草叢生，完全被忽略了。那里有一些又大又老、生了病的松柏。有很多的種子。”
這對(duì)夫婦最開始撇下了花園，整日忙于供養(yǎng)家庭——他們五年之間有了四個(gè)孩子。但是之后他們重新鋪設(shè)了小路，孩子們漸漸長大，他們開始了景觀美化——他們運(yùn)進(jìn)了11噸泥土、大塊的石頭和一株7英尺高的棕櫚樹。接著他們開始修筑那條溪流，最初那只有12英尺長，但他們把它延長了4倍。
Tony和Marie是兩個(gè)完全靠自學(xué)的園丁，除了禁止飛燕草之外沒有任何規(guī)矩，因?yàn)樗麄儦g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).