Some projects teach you something you didn't expect. For Todd of Rochford Landscapes, a garden in rural Matakana became exactly that.

The clients are a Japanese couple – two of the nicest people Todd reckons he's ever worked with. They split their lives between inner-city homes in Tokyo and Singapore, a world away from rural Matakana, and knew the property they'd bought needed something, but weren't sure what. Busy and often overseas, they didn't want to manage the outdoors themselves – they just wanted it complete, low maintenance, and beautiful the moment they arrived.

So they trusted Todd's team completely, offering next to no input. They handed over the keys and said go and do your best within the budget. That carries weight. "You're spending someone's money without being told what it's for, so you have to make the call on what matters and back yourself firmly," Todd says.

Much of that came down to working with landscape architect Carl Pickens – down to earth, detail-focussed and talented. The brief was simple: create a fire pit courtyard to complement the existing pool and renew the existing plantings. The team mimicked the pool's curve in a boundary wall, sheltering the fire from south-westerly winds while preserving the views. NZ paradise stone and bawbaw clad the fire and pave the ground around it, alongside a linear bespoke seat and weather-proof wood store. Corten steel edging and low- maintenance native planting complete the space.

On-site only a few months a year, the garden couldn't cost them all year round, but it had to pop the moment they walked in. Todd likens it to a super yacht parked in the Caribbean: ready to use at a moment's notice, but ticking over at minimal cost in the meantime. From the outset, the team were designing something they knew they'd maintain for years to come. Rochford's dedicated aftercare team looks after each garden, evolving it over time, which is where the real relationship lives. When an unrelated slip hit the property, Rochford was there, project managing the remedial work so seamlessly it looked like it had never happened.

Through the process, the couple were clear on only one thing: the fire pit. That was their priority. And within it, one small request the wife mentioned three times across the job – she wanted to rest her champagne glass on the edge of the fire pit while she sat by the flames. That was her one thing.

Quietly, everyone assumed she'd never really do it. It's a genuine design problem too – how do you stop a capping stone heating up and either warming the champagne or cracking the glass? It's the kind of detail easy to drop in the too-hard basket. But that's not what this team did.

When Todd returned a year on for photos, he expected to do his thing and head home. Instead, the couple lit the fire, brought out nibbles, opened some amazing champagne, and sat around yarning like old friends. Then there it was – the champagne glass, resting on the capping stone right before his eyes.

He was stoked. It taught him that clients are just people, whatever the language, background or budget – and that if you really listen and take even the small things seriously, that's when it all comes together.

www.rochfordlandscapes.co.nz | www.carlpickens.co.nz

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