圖文欣賞:世外桃源般的夢幻美景
Tony Newton做了35年的普通開業醫生。但有時候，他說話時，你會突然想，他的工作生涯是不是作爲一個維多利亞時代的校長度過的。
因爲他從不忌諱對那些不謹慎、不服從分子施加一些鐵腕。
“他們需要管理，你知道的。他們之中總是有一些惡棍，”他說着，眼睛眯起來，擺了擺手指。“所以你得告訴他們誰纔是掌權的。叫他們看看誰是老大。”
Tony Newton spent 35 years as a GP. Yet sometimes, when he's talking, you momentarily wonder if he'd spent his working life as a Victorian-era schoolmaster.
For he isn't afraid to impose a little iron discipline on the unwary or the unwilling.
"They want to take control, you know. There's a bit of thug in all of them," he says, his eyes narrowing, his finger wagging. "So you've got to tell them who's in charge. Show them who's boss."
獲獎：託尼和瑪麗.牛頓的花園凝聚了20年愛的勞作。
那些危險分子是誰呢，誰需要教訓？是一幫本地混混？一羣整個下午都在本地火車站抽菸的小青年？
不。他所說的，是他後花園裏的灌木叢。尤其是那一羣絢爛的槭屬植物——楓樹——它們那發脆的、閃亮的葉子變成了深深的銅紅色，在今天燦爛的秋日暖陽裏熠熠閃爍。
託尼完全沒有時間來多愁善感：他和他的妻子瑪麗在他們的花園中種的這3000株植物，每一棵都必須“掙得自己的位置，用自己的方式回報”，要不然就會受到即時的懲罰——被趕出這片土地。
等等。在後花園裏種3000棵植物？
沒錯。而且這不是由一隊專業園丁打理的豪華古宅。這只是一個普通的郊區後園，緊鄰着這對夫妻價值360000英鎊的中產階級房子，但現在的它是非同尋常的。
Award-winning: Tony and Marie Newton's garden has been a labour of love for over 20 years
Who are the menaces who need some sense knocked into them? A local gang? The bunch of teenagers who spend their afternoons smoking in the local railway station?
No. He's talking about the shrubs in his back garden. In particular, a group of glorious acers — maples — whose crisp, shiny leaves have turned such a deep, coppery red that they are positively glowing in the glorious autumn sunshine today.
For Tony there's no room for sentimentality: every one of the 3,000 plants he and his wife Marie have planted in their garden must "earn its place and pay its way" or risk instant punishment by being whipped out of the ground.
Hold on a moment. Three thousand plants in one back garden?
Quite so. And this is no stately home maintained by an army of professional gardeners. It's an ordinary suburban back garden, perched behind the couple's £360,000 pebble-dashed home, which has been turned into something quite extraordinary.
鐵鍬天賦：Tony和Marie Newton
Newton的花園分成界限鮮明的兩個部分。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、藍綠的松柏、深紅的杜鵑——環繞着一片繁茂、青翠的草地。每棵植物都不能碰到自己的鄰居。
之後，花園改變了。較低的地方擠擠挨挨、濃廕庇日，又彎彎繞繞。下到這裏，相互間的觸碰就很多了。那裏有高大的竹子，頭頂橫着棕櫚樹枝，腳下落葉咯吱作響。光線斑斑點點、不可預知。一道清澈的溪流在周圍沙沙地流轉。
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——除了搬進來時他們繼承的兩棵樹，他們種下每一棵植物，親手鋪設小徑，裝配水景，建起那座大大的木亭、作下花園的中心。
Marie說：“有時候，我們會在清晨拉開窗簾，看到一些東西—一可能是十月早晨一片令人驚歎的絢麗鮮紅——都不敢相信這是我們自己創造出來的。”
Tony和Marie今年都62歲了，已經退休兩年，他們在1982年買了這棟房子，對花園並沒有太多的想法。“它雜草叢生，完全被忽略了。那裏有一些又大又老、生了病的松柏。有很多的種子。”
這對夫婦最開始撇下了花園，整日忙於供養家庭——他們五年之間有了四個孩子。但是之後他們重新鋪設了小路，孩子們漸漸長大，他們開始了景觀美化——他們運進了11噸泥土、大塊的石頭和一株7英尺高的棕櫚樹。接着他們開始修築那條溪流，最初那只有12英尺長，但他們把它延長了4倍。
Tony和Marie是兩個完全靠自學的園丁，除了禁止飛燕草之外沒有任何規矩，因爲他們歡迎蛞蝓。
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).
相反的，他們種上了成百株杜鵑、松柏和槭樹，幾十棵冬青、杜鵑，還有許多的馬醉木——一種開白花的常綠灌木、攀援樹木的衛矛——如今它正呈現出一派火紅景象。他們的想法是，這座園子在春夏秋冬都要燦爛鮮豔。
這對夫婦每天都要出門，做將近三個小時的園藝。他們不是從一邊做到另一邊，而是Tony從一個方向出發、他的妻子從另一頭出發——帶着一臺收音機，調到古典頻道。
這些日子裏，他們把工作時間規定在了白天。但是在退休之前，他們有時候會在工作歸來後做園藝，把手電筒綁在頭上來照明。
一年之中有幾次，他們會讓公衆付費入園欣賞，並以此爲慈善機構籌集了一大筆錢。“幾年下來，我們接待了8500個遊客，籌集了25000鎊，”瑪麗說。
說到錢，Newton家爲這個花園付出了多少呢？他們不能、也不會給出他們投入的具體數目，但是肯定到五位數了，甚至可能上了六位數。很顯然，花的每一分錢都是值得的。
在談論他們所創造的一切時，他們臉上的微笑充分說明了心中那份完全有理、微微陳舊的驕傲。
所有這一切引出了一個問題：他們能忍受搬離這座房子嗎？從Marie的臉色我們可以清楚地知道，她已經想過了這個問題，明白這個答案很痛苦。
“如果你是實際的，你就會明白我們無法保持這樣的工作量20年……”她說。但是她會很高興地知道，即使某一天他們必須離開，他們的辛勞會給成千上萬的人帶來快樂。
“這會是份可愛的遺產，”她說着，淘氣地露齒一笑。“如果太多了，我們可以隨時用上電鋸。”
Instead, they've planted hundreds of azaleas, conifers and acers, dozens of holly bushes, rhododendrons, lots of pieris (evergreen shrubs with small white flowers) and euonymus (spindle trees) which are currently providing a glorious display of red. The idea is to have a garden that looks brilliant in spring, summer, autumn and winter.
The couple are outside every day, doing up to three hours of gardening. Rather than work side by side, Tony heads in one direction and his wife in another — carrying a radio tuned into Classic FM.
These days, they restrict their exertions to daylight hours. But before they retired, they'd sometimes garden after work, strapping torches to their heads.
A few times a year they invite the paying public to visit and raise large amounts of money for charity. "Over the years, we've had 8,500 visitors and raised £25,000," Marie says.
Talking of money, how much has the garden cost the Newtons? They can't or won't put a price on the money they've ploughed into it, but it must run into five figures, and possibly six. It's clearly been worth every penny.
The pride — fully justified, lightly worn — that they feel is manifested by the warm smiles on their faces as they talk about what they have created.
All this begs the question: could they ever bear to move house? It's clear from Marie's face that she's given some thought to the question and finds the answer painful.
"If you're realistic, you can't think we could keep this workload up in 20 years' time ..." she says. But she'll be happy in the knowledge that even if they have to leave one day, their endeavours will have given pleasure to so many thousands of people.
"It'll be a lovely legacy," she says. Then a mischievous grin plants itself on her face. "And if it gets too much, we can always get a chainsaw!"
