Its inspirations included the raked gravel gardens in Japan.

And their sun-loving, drought-tolerant plants thrive in a gravel garden that needs no water.

The gravel garden, in these circumstances, seems a godsend, but it really came about, like many good ideas, from a convergence of events.

Last year, Andy Sturgeon won with a beautiful contemporary gravel garden.

"I hate white flowers," one woman pronounced at my gravel garden, where thankfully, none were showing.

Ryoanji was too crowded and noisy for her; she left the famous gravel garden unseen.

Both the gravel garden and the floor beneath the sun porch are covered in crushed stone.

But when their spot was needed for the wall surrounding a new gravel garden, I moved the trees, by then three feet tall.

The gravel garden, she explained, is never watered, even though this part of usually soggy old England gets only 20 inches of rain a year.

"I will not irrigate the gravel garden," she said emphatically.