Mervyn Cox had returned from Australia and was looking for work.

Although qualified as a horticulturist and highly experienced, nobody would employ him. Mervyn has been deaf since birth and was rapidly losing his eyesight due to retinitis pigmentosa, caused by Usher Syndrome.

How does a landscape architect transform a garden that he can't see? That's where Mervyn's wife and some specially designed tools come in. Cheryl joined the business 10 years ago.

Cheryl is my eyes. I try not to let new clients know about my disability otherwise they'll lose confidence. When we first go in, she describes in detail what I can't see. Then I use my technical expertise to draw up the plans and we create the garden together.

After 15 years, many people in Wellington know that Mervyn is deafblind, and that he creates miracles out of his intimate relationship with stone, earth and plants.

A couple of years ago he was on the verge of giving up work as his eyesight narrowed to a hazy tunnel vision. But with help from the Foundation of the Blind he sourced talking tape measures, then a dumpy laser level that gives off a continuous sound when it's level, and a closed circuit TV (CCTV) machine that magnifies print to 12 times its original size.

It was only through the crisis two years ago when he felt angry about his fate and left his marriage for a time that Mervyn began to fully accept his disabilities were for life and that he too could get skilled support from others.

Cheryl and Mervyn went on a deafblind camp organized through the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind a couple of months ago. There they met other deafblind people and their carers from all around the country, and made new friends who can empathise and offer their insight.

I wished I'd gone to the Foundation years ago. There's so much help out there. For Cheryl as well.

But Mervyn Cox is busy transforming more than just landscapes.

When he and Cheryl temporarily injured themselves and needed help with day-to-day tasks they took on two teenagers at risk, from the Challenge 2000 programme.

In a couple of months, they had taught them the basics of landscaping. One now has a landscape job in Auckland.

Helping teenagers who everyone else has given up on has become Mervyn's own challenge. He wants to set up a programme among the 30 or so landscapers in Wellington to offer kids who don't want to carry on with school a chance to learn hands-on skills. All that's holding up his dream is getting funding for it.

Mervyn's low vision and hearing has not stopped him from being successfully self-employed or helping at-risk youth.