IT is all lawn and order in the Miles' Crapstone garden — not surprising, the couple are professional horticulturists and designers who care for some of the area's most beautiful grounds.
Their many shrubs and plants are displayed upon an immaculate lawn for all to see as this year David and Jenny opened up their delightful garden for the fifth year running to raise money for Children's Hospice South West.
The shapes in the small garden hit the eye and it is shape to which the pair repeatedly return.
'The shape is there in winter as well as summer,' says Jenny.
And David, who carries out freelance and advisory work, agrees: 'Most people look at the shape of the beds. I look at it the other way round and think of the shape of the lawn.
'Don't think of any one individual bed, as that shape has to bear some relationship to the shape of the next bed and so on round the garden. Then you will see the critical points where you will need an accent plant — something very special — or a small tree.
'You put the biggest things in first, the ones that are going to be there all the time, then you start infilling with other major plants before coming down to ground cover. It's all progression really.
'People like to do gardens themselves but just don't know where to start. Sometimes they want help with the outline and shape, but more often than not it's choosing plants with which they need a hand.'
Gardening fashions come and go but the Miles create their own style.
'We love integrated planting,' says David. 'We don't have a shrub bed or herbaceous border, we like to mix everything up and create layers of colour — one under the other.
'I like to use space two or three times and what you can't see now are the spring bulbs which we put under the deciduous shrubs.'
And he is not afraid of change.
'I think a plant you loved ten years ago, you sometimes find you have had enough of — you discover it had foibles you didn't realise.'
The numerous TV gardening programmes are not part and parcel of the Miles' life.
David says: 'I get very frustrated. They can never dwell on a subject for more than two minutes at a time — I don't think it is the presenter's fault.
'You can't possibly impart the sort of knowledge that people need to carry out a makeover in half an hour, it just isn't possible.'
'In fact I read an interesting article the other day by a commercial landscaper who thought he was getting between ten and 15 per cent of his new business from people who had attempted garden make-overs and had got stuck. So he was quite happy!'
Jenny is more generous: 'The TV programmes are good entertainment and good for gardening generally — and for the sale of plants.'
And decking?
'It is an urban phenomenon and suits an area where people are trying to create an outdoor room,' says David. ' But I think it could prove to be a short-lived fashion.'
David and Jenny met while working for a large nursery in Suffolk after training in horticulture. Before moving down to Devon 20 years ago, they ran a nursery in Essex which belonged to Jenny's parents.
'We took it over as a stop-gap when Jenny's father died suddenly,' says David. 'But the commercial side just wasn't our scene.'
The move was a homecoming for David. His father Bill had been the head gardener at the Garden House at Buckland Monachorum and David was educated at the local primary school and Tavistock Grammar School as it was then.
To start off their new gardening maintenance business the pair had 2,000 leaflets printed.
'We put 200 round the first weekend and then threw the rest away,' explains Jenny. 'We found we just didn't need them.'
They are both slim, fit and tanned and admit they would hate having an indoor job.
'We have a full client list so can plan our weeks in advance,' says David who leaves Jenny to keep their own garden up to scratch.
'I like to sit and look out at it over the weekend but I do get stuck into construction jobs such as building new compost bins and stone walls.'
They are justifiably proud of the £4,000 they have raised for the children's hospice in Barnstaple.
David says: 'Last month 300 people came through the door. And last year we had even more and that was getting preciously close to the limit as our garden is quite small.'
The opening has turned into a joint village affair with locals running a stall crammed full of plants the Miles have grown themselves.
'The hairdresser across the road from us opens up and turns her salon into a tea room for the day and the cricket club lends its field for parking,' says Jenny.
'We seem to have created a village event which is very nice.'