Flights Mill is a very special garden set between a canal and a river, with a mill race flowing under the house. Surrounded by water, it is a much loved family garden belonging to people who welcome biodiversity, wildlife and want to grow their own food. The garden was very overgrown and not at all child-friendly when I was commissioned to tame it and plant a garden which could be 'maintained in eight hours of paid help per week.' Creating windows through the dense yew hedge which enclosed the formal lawn meant that we could catch glimpses of the whole garden. We made a terrace in the middle of the orchard, and designed and had fabricated a galvanised steel vine supporting pergola which echoed some of the Victorian parts of the mill house. A mixed native hedge creates a break between that and the vegetable garden, and a copper beech hedge encloses the greenhouse and compost area. The mill race has been dredged to improve the flow of the water, and the banks of the river supported and enhance with ready planted coir rolls.