One wall, three large tanks and a fountain were made from the newly fashionable Corten-steel, the surface of which rusts to a good orangey red. The use of large, knockkneed Viburnum rhytidophyllum in combination with the beautiful mosaic of naturalistic planting beneath also contrasted well with the simple, asymmetrical design.

The garden was enclosed on two sides by alternating sections of hornbeam hedge and the pre-rusted steel wall.

A narrow rill of water ran along the base of the wall, the hedge and the tanks.

In some places the water was hidden by planting, in others it was visible and touchable. The perennial planting was dazzling and complex, moving from white highlights at the edges to the rich purples and rusts of the bearded irises near the weathered-oak inner sanctum.

The planting had four elements. Two staggered groups of Viburnum rhytidophyllum, at 1.8m high, framed the views into the garden and provided height. They contrasted with the fresh green of the hornbeam hedge, the second layer of planting, fixed at a 2m height around two sides of the garden and alternating with the rusted steel panels. The third component was the wide moundy and uncut box hedge underplanting the viburnums.

The flower planting was the final element of the garden, made up of relatively drought tolerant species such as bearded iris, grasses, verbascums, salvias, silvery Stachys and Knautia. It was based on the flora of a European steppe, with a significant proportion of grasses and early season flowers. Plants that echoed the warm rust colouring of the walls included Anemanthele lessoniana, a deep red astrantia, rust coloured iris, Euphorbia griffithii and the orange geums 'Coppertone' and 'Georgenburg'.

All that was moderated by a sea of soft blues and purples, from Geranium 'Philippe Vapelle' and Nepeta racemosa 'Walker's Low', with delicate additions of white from Gillenia trifoliata and the excellent annual umbellifer Orlaya grandiflora, which you could sow now for flowering this year, if you hurry. Silver and grey foliage to lighten the picture was provided by Verbascum bombyciferum and the low-growing "rabbit's ears", Stachys byzantina.

Structure also came from the clumps of tall oat grass, Stipa giganteawhich punctuated each bed and from the box hedges planted under the viburnums. The paving was oak boarding and plummy Herefordshire cobble paving, suitably streaked with iron.

The wood was from a sustainable source and weathered to give a silvery patina.

The idea of using rust and weathered materials occurred to Stuart-Smith when working on a garden near the sea in Norfolk, where the beach was strewn with bits of scrap iron and a rusting ship's hulk.

What the public might not have seen, because they're not allowed walk around the interior of the gardens, was a silent fountain in a long orange tank which used 40 jets to play the first three phrases of Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde'. A music buff, StuartSmith said he "wanted to do something inexplicable which also had a metaphysical quality". The result was noiseless and quite fascinating.