On the completion of building a house everyone is faced with the challenge of making a new garden, except those rare and fortunate ones who have bought a natural one and have been wise enough to protect it from builders.

Never forget that your garden is the first indication of your taste, and for that matter your character. I left one family feeling so sad the other day, that I should be able to help them so little.

You see, it was all because they had called me in after they had finished their building instead of before.

The result was that I viewed with utter dismay the huge boulders that had been bulldozed over the hillside in the process of levelling a site for the house; also I despaired of ever finding an economical supply of filling for building up the drive approach to the entrance, which should have been done at the outset with what had gone over the side.