David Rocksavage had taken on the formidable task of restoring Houghton Hall house and gardens, one of the most perfect and grandest of early 18th century architectural gems in the country, sometime before he asked the Bannermans to help him with the 5 acre walled garden. With enormous style and plantsmanship he already had a vision of a flourishing and exuberant many-roomed garden in the great Sissinghurst tradition, but it was to be based, with the help of the Bannermans, on his special passions, passion flowers, orchids, sweet peas, irises, trained fruit trees and roses. Over ten years this came together by the subtle use of eye-catchers and structures such as a giant fruit cage shaped like William Kent’s nearby cupolas on the Houghton stables – but the most remarkable being the Antler Temple made using oak and antlers from the deer in the park at Houghton; a colossal wisteria pergola with massed peonies and lilies; a late border of asters and heleniums; the 100 metre main borders were replanted with ‘saturated colour’, ventian red, tyrian purple and dutch orange; water, fountains, and allees were thrown up and put down and in 2008 the garden was voted HHA “Garden of the Year”.