相反的，他们种上了成百株杜鹃、松柏和槭树，几十棵冬青、杜鹃，还有许多的马醉木——一种开白花的常绿灌木、攀援树木的卫矛——如今它正呈现出一派火红景象。他们的想法是，这座园子在春夏秋冬都要灿烂鲜艳。
这对夫妇每天都要出门，做将近三个小时的园艺。他们不是从一边做到另一边，而是Tony从一个方向出发、他的妻子从另一头出发——带着一台收音机，调到古典频道。
这些日子里，他们把工作时间规定在了白天。但是在退休之前，他们有时候会在工作归来后做园艺，把手电筒绑在头上来照明。
一年之中有几次，他们会让公众付费入园欣赏，并以此为慈善机构筹集了一大笔钱。“几年下来，我们接待了8500个游客，筹集了25000镑，”玛丽说。
说到钱，Newton家为这个花园付出了多少呢？他们不能、也不会给出他们投入的具体数目，但是肯定到五位数了，甚至可能上了六位数。很显然，花的每一分钱都是值得的。
在谈论他们所创造的一切时，他们脸上的微笑充分说明了心中那份完全有理、微微陈旧的骄傲。
所有这一切引出了一个问题：他们能忍受搬离这座房子吗？从Marie的脸色我们可以清楚地知道，她已经想过了这个问题，明白这个答案很痛苦。
“如果你是实际的，你就会明白我们无法保持这样的工作量20年……”她说。但是她会很高兴地知道，即使某一天他们必须离开，他们的辛劳会给成千上万的人带来快乐。
“这会是份可爱的遗产，”她说着，淘气地露齿一笑。“如果太多了，我们可以随时用上电锯。”

Instead, they've planted hundreds of azaleas, conifers and acers, dozens of holly bushes, rhododendrons, lots of pieris (evergreen shrubs with small white flowers) and euonymus (spindle trees) which are currently providing a glorious display of red. The idea is to have a garden that looks brilliant in spring, summer, autumn and winter.
The couple are outside every day, doing up to three hours of gardening. Rather than work side by side, Tony heads in one direction and his wife in another — carrying a radio tuned into Classic FM.
These days, they restrict their exertions to daylight hours. But before they retired, they'd sometimes garden after work, strapping torches to their heads.
A few times a year they invite the paying public to visit and raise large amounts of money for charity. "Over the years, we've had 8,500 visitors and raised £25,000," Marie says.
Talking of money, how much has the garden cost the Newtons? They can't or won't put a price on the money they've ploughed into it, but it must run into five figures, and possibly six. It's clearly been worth every penny.
The pride — fully justified, lightly worn — that they feel is manifested by the warm smiles on their faces as they talk about what they have created.
All this begs the question: could they ever bear to move house? It's clear from Marie's face that she's given some thought to the question and finds the answer painful.
"If you're realistic, you can't think we could keep this workload up in 20 years' time ..." she says. But she'll be happy in the knowledge that even if they have to leave one day, their endeavours will have given pleasure to so many thousands of people.
"It'll be a lovely legacy," she says. Then a mischievous grin plants itself on her face. "And if it gets too much, we can always get a chainsaw!"