Five specific concepts that make up my dream garden? Well, first you have to understand where I'm coming from. I've traveled a lot and have had three or four gardens of my own. I have experienced the semi-pro gardens of my grandparents, cousins, husband, grandfather and uncle. I've also seen some beautiful gardens in Europe, the U.S. and even China. So there are five gardens I covet:

1. The English country cottage garden: The best example I have ever seen was a friend's in Berkeley in the 1970s. It was full of tall colorful perennials and self-seeding annuals, mulched with cocoa hulls (smelled wonderful as you walked up the steps) and fenced with a polished redwood fence.
2. The wildflower meadow: Again, the best example was owned by friends, who had 10 acres of reclaimed meadow in the Hill Country in Texas. There is nothing like the wildflowers of Texas: bluebonnets and paintbrush in spring, coneflowers and Mexican hats in summer.
3. The woodland garden: Never actually saw the ultimate of this, although we did come close in one we planted in southwest London the four years we lived there. This townhouse had a front and a back garden dominated by two conker trees. Conkers (horse chestnuts) of that size were protected by the borough, so we had to keep them. We had to get written permission just to trim them! And they create deep, dark shade and suck water out of the ground. Growing something in those two gardens was a challenge my husband could not resist.

   We bought the British gardening encyclopedias, watched Gardener's World faithfully on BBC2, went to the garden shows at Chelsea and Hampton Court and to the country house and local garden centers, and spent a fortune on plants trying to see what would and what wouldn't grow in that dry, dry shade.