Planting
Things are as good as they are. Only you can make them better.

Inspiration
The creation of a jungle paradise is something I enjoy immensely.

An oriental concept suggests that beneath every area waiting to be planted, there is a dragon sleeping in the ground.
The work of the gardener is to evoke the essence of this sleeping dragon, to give it visible bones and body and beauty and, if successful, breath.

I want my gardens to reveal these dragons, and to continually lure people away from their daily business and into another world.

The Garden
When you step into a garden you enter a haven away from the hectic world, a timeless harmonic space. Even the smallest garden should carry a hint of the breath of some immense being.

In a succesful garden, new spaces are revealed. On entering a new room, you might duck under a low branch. The act of bowing produces a change of oxygen to the brain, and when you lift your head and look about, you have undergone a minimal change of pace and consciousness.

The garden has so much more to offer than Exterior Decoration. A Persian Clock Garden is a planted circle divided into 12 slices, each planted with groundcovers that open only at a specific hour of the day.
A Tropical Rain Garden isperfect for an inner courtyard, where the approaching rain beats rhythm and tune on a variety of leaves, bringing orchestral fall-tones as water pours from smaller leaves to larger surfaces, fading to musical drip-tones as the rain passes.

Imagination is key.

Landscape
There is no finished picture. A garden is an organic process, shapeshifting as the space unfolds.
Color, shape, form, scent, sound, these outline the sleeping beast. At some point this outline plugs into the power of Nature, and the garden breathes.
I only claim to be a knowledgeable and passionate gardener, and when this passion is transferred to my clients it is a true measure of succes: the awakening of a passion for plants.

The Future Garden
The future garden will rely on the only approach that makes sense; the use of indigenous plants that grow and thrive in the existing climate and soil.

Gardening and Climate go hand in hand. The same varieties of plants are available in garden centres in Florida, London, Rio, Sydney or Bali, and the gardens of the world are losing their individuality. Indigenous planting will bring back many good things, one of which is ecological sanity.

When I started gardening in East Africa in the early '80's there were some two indigenous species commonly found in most nurseries. Now there are more than thirty, and I am very pleased to have encouraged even this minor change in approach. There are hundreds more local species waiting in the wings.

In my work I put a strong emphasis on indigenous plants, and at all times I stock a limited collection of rare trees and feature plants that are useful in this part of the world, along with many rare and exotic tropical plants from diverse destinations visited during my gardening and surfing expeditions.