Beauty knows no bounds in Roger Roberts's Duffield garden and now the retired amateur is opening it for charity.
FOR the next two weeks, Roger Roberts will spend every waking hour working in his garden.
The 63-year-old has a pile of jobs to do before he opens his stunning space to the public.
"It's not stunning yet," he says, wiping his brow. "I've literally got masses to do but I'll get there and the garden will be perfect for when people come and see it."
Roger has spent more than 15 years creating his outdoor masterpiece in Duffield.
He has more than 1,000 plants in his garden and it is truly stunning. After a four-year break, the retired amateur is back in the game. And this year, he promises visitors more than ever.
"I've probably raised about £10,000 for the National Garden Scheme," says Roger.
"My wife, Susan and children, Ben and Sarah, all get involved. It is a real family affair and this year will be no exception."
Roger is not panicking about everything he has to do before his first open day on June 8. He is quietly confident. He also says his home – for the next few days at least – will be outside.
But that is not at all bad when you see just how Roger has cultivated his land.
He has created so many wonders in his garden it is impossible to talk about them all. But wait until you see his Japanese tea house, his Italian-walled rose garden with its hand-painted mural and the stunning stream which feeds into a beautiful pond.
Says Roger: "When Susan and I bought this house, there was soil, space and a smidgeon of land where I could make things happen. If I put the effort in, I knew I could make a real garden – something I would be proud of."
Roger soon realised that his garden was a refuge from work, a cherished haven, a place where he could make great things happen. He has achieved all that.
"Gardening was destined to be my theatre of creativity," he says. "It started with tomatoes – dozens of tomato plants in old cooking oil drums. It was such a pleasure to research how to cultivate them, tend their progress and harvest their fruit.
"One of my brothers also caught the gardening bug. He moved to Vancouver to retire and has created a national collection of hydrangeas."
Roger did not do anything to his garden for the first couple of years after he bought the house. He wanted to enjoy the blank canvas and admire the lawn.
Between his business trips, he started spending more time in the garden. His plan was to create different aspects and draw in a variety of styles.
In 1997, Roger created a Mediterranean border near his patio area. It was sheltered, warm and sunny and he wanted to make an interesting display of plants.
He says: "I had to lift the grass and lay down a membrane. That was a laborious job. But once I started planting, it was really enjoyable.
"I bought things like brugmansia, gazania, phormium, agave and yuccas. It was lovely, but in 2010 the winter destroyed a whole host of my plants.
"In 2012, I had to dismantle the site and clear all the aggregate away. This is now a perennial border and I've used plants recommended by Piet Oudolf in the natural planting style."
Each year, Roger tried to take on a new project in the garden. Although he was regularly away on business, he still found time to spend in the garden. And, thanks to his contacts in the beer trade, he says he found just the right person to build him his Japanese house.
Roger scoured the country for plants to form what was to become his tropical centrepiece. He studied books and made sketches before he started work.
He wanted this part of his garden to bring an exotic mix to his outdoor space and he has done just that. He is proud of his banana grove, which is carefully tended to avoid damage in bad weather.
"I planted the border around this time of the year," recalls Roger. "I used bulbs and tubers, perennials and shrubs. I've got dahlias and amorphallus, acanthus and alocasia and two trees, aralia and catalpa.
"Later, I added an arch on either side so I could frame the path entrances. I added climbers, too."
Perhaps Roger's biggest task was when he decided to create his miniature Japanese border, complete with "house".
On the right-hand side of his house, facing west beneath a conifer hedge, he planted a Japanese cherry tree and a stag's head sumac.
The mossy area, which sat in shade for most of the day, was where Roger cut a deep curved border. He carefully selected plants like rhododendron, fargesia, acer, pieris, ophiopogon, and created an authentic Japanese area.
"At first, I didn't commission the Japanese house," says Roger. "It was going to cost a lot of money and back then, we didn't invest.
"But as the garden started to take shape, I started to see how beautiful a Japanese tea house would look. It was a serious investment but it looks amazing."
On open days, Roger decorates the inside with a low Japanese table and an beautiful orchid.
Colour-themed borders also add sparkle to Roger's garden and play host to an amazing array of unusual plants.
They need continuous refinement and replacement to keep them in order, but every shrub and bulb is listed in his garden directory.
All the plants are labelled outside, too, so if you visit and like something you will be able to write down its name.
Roger says: "These borders take on a special effect in the summer dusk when the back light from a slowly sinking sun shines through the leaves and flowers – especially the eryngium, cotinus and crocosmia.
Roger has also created a woodland shady area, with a flagged path, sitting beneath a gigantic copper beech. It is an ideal space for shade-loving plants and he has even created a place for reclusive hedgehogs, thanks to his stack of tree logs and branches.
It is almost completely private here. The shrubs and perennials envelope the area to such an extent that only a slim aperture reveals the rest of the garden.
"This is a lovely place to sit in the late evening as the sun dies down," says Roger. "I can sit here for hours.
"There are so many places to sit in, but this is perhaps my favourite."
At the furthest point, and invisible from the house, is another one of Roger's treasures.
Sunk behind a retaining wall is an area of true splendour. It is Roger's Italian walled rose garden, complete with hand-painted mural.
He says: "This was once a small orchard with the remnants of four sickly pear trees, a rubbish tip and an enormous mound of grass clippings.
"My love of Italy, in particular Tuscany, inspired me to dream up a simple design for a walled, symmetrical rose garden.
"A heavy trunk and root grinder was brought in to clear out the tough trees and a 6ft high wall was erected on three sides with the two parallel sides ending short of the retaining wall and curving down.
"Italian-style roof tiles were placed on top and the walls were plastered and painted in terracotta pink.
"A half-moon pool was built in the middle of the rear wall and a mythical male god spouts water."
But Roger's piece de resistance has to be a trompe de l'oeil depicting a Tuscan scene with juniper-fringed lanes and hill top villages.
Three borders, surrounding the wonderful seating area, are packed with hybrid tea roses in various tones of scented pink.
Paul Sherville, Just Joey, Lady Sylvia and Silver Jubilee roses show off their finery in the summer months.
"It's the last place in the garden to see the sunset," says Roger. "This is the place to sit on a balmy summer's evening, rose scent lingering in the still air and water trickling in the pond."
On each side of Roger's house, passageways lead to the front. The back door path has a soil border backed by a beech hedge up to a point where his neighbour's gable end forms the boundary.
In the border, Roger has planted pachysandra as ground cover, has positioned old chimney pots at intervals topped with hostas and covered the towering gable end wall with ivy.
On the other side, there is a path and a raised border supported by a dry stone wall. An iron arbour runs the full length of the path and climbers weave their way through the metal framework.
Roger's front garden is just as impressive and pretty. It is a traditional cottage garden and, believe it or not, among other things, a vine of black grapes grows up the front of his house.
But despite all the hard work ahead, Roger is looking forward to airing his garden once more. He knows people from the across the county will come and see what he has done.
"Bring it on," he says. "I'm actually looking forward to it. I've just got a lot to get done before the first open day.
"Susan will help me and it's amazing how much time you have when you're retired."
HOW TO FIND IT: Roger's garden is at Wharfedale, 34 Broadway, Duffield, Derby.
OPENING TIMES: It will open 11am-4pm on June 8 and 29, July 20 and August 10 and 24. Entrance is £3. Cakes and drinks will be available. Plants will be on sale, too.
Private visits are welcome for parties of 20 or more, between June and September.
WEBSITE: To view Roger's garden, visit www.garden34.co.uk. To find out about other Derbyshire gardens opening as part of the National Garden Scheme visit www.ngs.org.uk