But it is the strong abstract design that gives it away: it is unmistakably inspired by the work of the late Roberto Burle Marx, a Brazilian artist and landscape designer with an international reputation.
The central feature of Silva's scheme is a sweeping, inverted "S" that travels the length of the garden as an undulating dry-stone wall, with lawn to one side and honey-coloured gravel onto the other. "I wanted something with an immediate and strong visual impact," he says, "It's quite a big garden, but I didn't want to divide it into rooms as many people do."
The slate wall owes as much to the contemporary British sculptor Andy Goldsworthy as to works by Burle Marx, and such was Silva's attention to detail that he had it demolished twice while partially built before he finally decided it was right. Luckily, both the budget and the builders were accommodating.
The garden's water feature, which looks like a rock formation, harmonises with the wall. Silva bored holes through the rocks and attached a pump system to create a larger version of the pebble fountains that you find in garden centres. The key to the garden is its practicality. The wall, for example, has many functions. "Kids run along it, it's a seat, we lie on it in the sun - it's not just a showpiece," says the owner. The decked are, beyond the central flowering cherry and the fountain, is made of high-quality hardwood and is hemmed in by the final sweep of the wall. As well as being a space for sitting, eating and entertaining, it is used as a stage for live music at parties - there are electrical sockets safely hidden among the rocks.
The planting is designed for modern massed-foliage effects and shape. Plants include cut-leaved Rhus typhina, various acers, tree ferns, eucalyptus, ligularia (unfortunately extremely susceptible to slugs) and phormiums. It is enlivened by dramatic splashes of colour: Silva is particularly pleased with the show this year from the that late-summer stalwart, brilliant red Crocosmia 'Lucifer', and by a highly contemporary combination at the end of the garden: the tufty Gras Stipa gigantea with the leggy, purple and translucent Verbena bonariensis.
Burle Marx approached his gardens and landscapes as an abstract painter might a canvas. It is fashionable for designers around the world to claim to use his influence, but it takes a native such as Silva to pull it off with such aplomb. | 
