‘I don’t think of myself as having a particular style,’ she says. ‘But I use the influence of the house, landscape and the lives of the people living there as the start button for the design that will follow. Planting gets the same treatment but I use successful plant combinations that I have experimented with in my own garden. My style is classic contemporary.'

Projects range from small courtyard gardens to large estates, and include the Millennium Garden at Castle Hill in Devon, new borders at Dunbeath Castle in Scotland, and the Cloister Garden at Wilton House near Salisbury. Xa’s own Garden at Helmingham Hall in Suffolk, which she has extensively redesigned over 25 years, is open to the public from May to September.