West Meets East is the name of Gaynor's Witchard's garden entry for the RHS Cardiff show.
A topical theme and Gaynor's drive to bring garden design to everybody, to reach the voix populi has led to an ambitious design.
However, this is a Japanese garden so the epithet 'honouring the master' applies and being true to its theme has given Gaynor many challenges.
"I am really having to take a step back," Gaynor said.
"I am thinking 'shall I put a plant in there?' I am so tempted to put an extra one in, and I go 'no you will ruin it'.
"You really have to think what you put in. I am full on with plants, I absolutely love plants. But this is teaching me to look at a plant in isolation rather than a group."
Japanese garden style is to understand and to appreciate how nature works. Their gardens have a sense of balance with particular placing. It all comes down to the harmony between rock, water, gravel, bridges and paths. The elements are symbolic.
"For instance, you might see rocks, usually they are arranged in threes, a taller rock, a smaller one and a smaller one again. This is meant to represent the rocky mountains. They are images for you to concentrate on. The planting is also to enjoy a particular plant for what it is," Gaynor said.
Gaynor's previous entries have had an educational edge to them, wanting to inspire children to grow gardens and see the connection to what they eat in the silver medal winning Get Your Hands Dirty or how to reuse vintage materials and fabrics in the Silver-gilt winning Irene's Garden named after Gaynor's mother.
But now unlike those English show gardens, the garden form does not follow the function.
“I am an English garden type person," said Gaynor.
"I put plants in herbaceous borders, I love plants so now I have to reign myself in. This is not like our British philosophy where you ask 'what do you want?' and the customer says 'I want a barbecue and somewhere for the kids to play'," Gaynor said.
The Japanese style can be copied in the UK by using native species but most of the Japanese plants are also freely available. The hardy bamboo varieties for one thing; these are also sculptural.
"I have got the black bamboo, it makes a statement, if there are three planted together very closely you can look at the stems the way they move, the movement in the air," Gaynor said.
The water on the other hand is calming and life-giving and the sheer natural beauty holds its own. Gaynor is proud to have included both a pond and a stream in her two sleepers high, 8 x 6m garden, built on 25 tons of stone dust. See Gaynor's RHS show Cardifff blog for the details of how the tons of stone dust grew.
This garden design has been typically well researched as Gaynor likes to pay attention to detail and the whole team wants to get it right. This includes the Alfresco group, especially Paul Melvin who works with Gaynor on most projects.
The team is also Steve and Tina Jeffries of the South West Landscapers centre known as T & S Plants to Landscape Juice Network members. Gaynor met Steve and Tina, who offered to supply plants, at the south west meet-up last November.
Gaynor met Paul Melvin at her first Cardiff RHS show in 2009 when they were working next to each other. As they get along well they have been working together ever since, respecting each other's different roles.
The pressure is on and every good plan needs adapting or so it has seemed. Paul Melvin the landscaper has built the pond 'from his own head' after Gaynor's plan for pebbles set in cement was too risky.
"We have managed," Gaynor said. "It is a short timescale so we couldn't have a concrete based pond in case it did not dry, so we used a rubber lining pond and that had to be covered so you cannot see the bottom but we have managed it."
One whole day, Gaynor estimated, was taken in putting right their problem with the bamboo fence which was not heavy enough to screen out light and 'you really have to have a good backdrop'.
The days have been long, twelve hours plus but her enthusiasm carries them all through in spite of, or is it because of her problem solving techniques?
"I have been waking at four o'clock in the morning trying to solve some problems that we have had along the way," Gaynor said.
"I get up in the morning and I think, I can't wait to get down there and to tell them, 'right this is my idea to solve this problem'. We have quite a lot of problems on this build, far more than usual but it is a far more ambitious garden. I couldn't tell you."
But Gaynor did say that the ton of pebbles on arrival was only a quarter of what they expected to turn up, so a mini gravel washing system had to be created, taking at least four hours of valuable time. This is ingenuity on the hoof. However, in spite of the sore feet it is the buzz that is unmissable.
"It gets into your blood," Gaynor said. "Creating a garden, in a small space, for a large audience to see that does not take hundreds of thousands, that is the challenge."
Gaynor, the designer, was at first that person who loved to watch TV gardening programmes especially Alan Titchmarsh's How To Be a Gardener, and the accompanying website's quiz.
Testing her knowledge, her result simply said the two words 'Go Further' and this has led Gaynor to this point.
"Next to the result was a list of colleges so I went on from there, passed, launched my business and started that at the weekends, then last year it was time to do it full-time,” Gaynor said.
After thirty years working in BBC pensions, Gaynor Witchard Landscape Design was launched.
Gaynor will be at the RHS site on Friday, April 7 waiting for the judges.
"We are down there at 6am making sure there are no plant labels showing or you can't see the tops of any pots if they are still in the pots, that kind of thing," said Gaynor.
Related:
Gaynor Witchard Landscape Design
West Meets East at RHS Cardiff 2011
Gaynor Witchard on the Landscape Juice Network
Comments