Gold Medal At Hampton Court

I was over the moon to be awarded a gold medal for my Conceptual garden at Hampton Court Palace Flower show.

I want to say a huge thank you to my main contributors - the RHS, Benchmarx joinery and Pantiles nursery, without whom this garden would not have been realised to it's full potential.

Also, to my fantastic builders - John-William, who led the project, and his dad Bill who worked incredibly hard to get the garden finished in 18 days.

I've had some really great comments and articles about the garden - especially in The Independent. I also found a YouTube clip thanks to Contextual gardens.

Finished and ready for judging tomorrow

Conceptual Garden for Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2011:

It's been a long 18 days building with lots of ups and downs - weather wise we had everything - rain, wind, blistering heat, more rain and beautiful sun for the last few days. Mid week was a low point when panic set in and I really didn't think I was going to get it finished - I had that sick feeling and didn't sleep for 3 nights. However, my family came up trumps and all piled in from every angle: my Mum came and helped paint on the 2 hottest days of the year and has been all around everywhere finding bits and pieces that I have needed, my Dad came up and laid turf and cleared rubbish, Charlie shifted rubble and soil, my sister painted and encouraged - and most importantly they appreciated and shared in what I was doing which helps spread the load!

My builders, John-William and his dad Bill, worked tirelessly - often on site for 12 hour days, the plasterers didn't leave until they were happy that they had achieved a perfect finish - even working weekends. All in all, I had a great team who helped me get the garden together. I left the site this afternoon with it ready for the discerning team of RHS judges tomorrow morning. Here are some photos of the finished garden. Now I can relax a little I can start the enjoy the show - it's such a stunning place to have been working (although I often forgot that when exhaustion set in) - but it is a privilege to be a part of such an awesome show!
For anyone who doesn't know the background of the garden - it's an outdoor art gallery where planting compositions have been inspired by the following artists: Monet, Hockney, Rousseau, Kandinsky, Mondrian and Hirst...

Air Plants

Gill from Just Air Plants dropped off some plants for my Conceptual garden yesterday - air plants are plants that grow in jungle canopies and don't need any soil - literally taking all their nutrients and water through their leaves. At BBC Gardener's World Live last year, where I built my first show garden, Joe Swift commented that my aluminum cold frames reminded him of a Damien Hirst installation.


Not quite up to Damien Hirst's work - but kind of him to make the suggestion!

So when I was considering what to do in my art gallery I happened to read an article in the American 'Garden Design' magazine about Air Plants. This gave me an idea about suspending them inside my cold frame in Hirst style. I googled 'Plants in Formaldehyde' just to see what came up. I did not find any images of plants in Formaldehyde but, instead, articles about the benefits of house plants in detoxifying the atmosphere to get rid of Formaldehyde, which I thought was quite an interesting connection.

I had virtually no knowledge of these strange plants and not a clue on who might be able to supply me with them - I had visions of trying to get them flown in from the US (which some of them did eventually do - when Gill told me they were in the country and awaiting their DEFRA inspection before I could take possesion of them it all sounded very exciting). The first search came up with a specialist company that were showing at Chelsea Flower Show this year and happened to be based 5 minutes from my house - some things are just meant to be. Gill has been a font of knowledge and has really helped me to choose the correct plants. I am also using some of her other Tillandsia in my Rousseau jungle scene.

Here is a Tillandsia 'Jackie Loinaz' suspended from our living room ceiling - the kids think it looks pretty cool!

Air Plants on the kitchen window sill

Work on site is going well - although it was another wet day up there today - hopefully tomorrow will be a little dryer as I have the guys in rendering and they have to be done by Friday - nothing like a little pressure!

Hampton Build - Day 2

Day 2 was a great day's building. We'd been slightly phased by the dire weather on the first day, plus I think it took us a while to get our heads around starting.



My builder John-William and his dad, Bill, both came up today and they work so well together that we really cracked most of the build. I have spent pretty much every day of the last year with John-William and Bill as they were building an extension on our house and I think knowing people that well really helps on a project like this. So from the computer model below:





To the gallery taking shape:

The forecast for today was supposed to be dreadful so the builders are taking a well deserved day off and I am packing up the van with the rest of the bits and pieces to take up. My husband, Charlie, is being roped in today and we need to take up the larger plants - Ligularia 'The Rocket' (below) which has shot up to over 5ft and some Gunnera manicata - brought all the way up from Cornwall in April which are huge and ridiculously heavy. I imagine this will either lead to bickering whilst we try to lug them about or exhausted hillarity!

Judgement Day

Woke up at 4.30am this morning....very annoying

Cleaned up the site and then cleared off for a much needed shower and coffee whilst the judges were on site...

Pre-shower

Earlier on in the week I received the very prestigious Golden Gnome award for wearing a short skirt on site....(and making Hi-Vis site wear look glam) I am very proud! Hope Health and Safety don't get wind of this - had had enough of steel toe caps this morning...;{

Post shower/ coffee/ make up and after receiving Silver medal from the RHS...(Gold next time....did I say there wouldn't be a next time???)

Thank you for reading this - look forward to seeing people at the show over the rest of the week, lots of Pimms and Champagne to be drunk.

Building - Day one

Today was the first morning up at the NEC. The NEC is huge and I felt pretty pleased just to find my site.

The team from Simply Green Landscapes arrived and we set to work getting the site marked out and excavated. To be honest, with 4 strapping guys on site I felt like a bit of a spare part so aside from lifting a load of turf, I spent most of the day running errands - back and forth to the builder's merchants, whom, I am sure, will get quite used to me asking for obscure things.

I'm currently searching for some handles to go on my glass cold frame doors - the type you can slide on to the glass - sort of sprung loaded with a handle bit sticking out....as you can tell I have no idea what they are called and describing them has got me nowhere so far. If anyone reading this has any idea what I'm on about -please let me know.

Today was actually the most stress free day that I've had in the last month or so. The sun was shining and although there were a few issues that cropped up, nothing was insurmountable and at least I felt useful in being the decision maker.

So far so good - and looking forward to day 2......

Filming for Gardener's World

The BBC team from Gardener's World got in touch with me a couple of weeks ago saying they were interested in covering the background and build up of my show garden.

This was pretty unexpected - I thought there may be some coverage during the show but had no idea that this kind of feature would happen. So we had a ten hour day of filming today which was fun, exciting and exhausting.

I'm fortunate to live close by to my tutor Duncan Heather who is the director at the Oxford College of Garden Design so we were able to do the majority of the filming in his stunning garden. When I initially thought of studying Garden design, I went to meet Duncan at his house, and was so inspired by what he and his wife Carol have created. They have impeccable taste and the garden is truly awe inspiring. It has been beautifully thought out and is a very relaxing space to be in. Sculpture is planted discretely amongst the trees, plants and woods, there's an exquisite formal pond, picture perfect walled kitchen garden and a wilder beech wood.

We then moved onto my rather underdeveloped (as yet) garden to film all the plants I'm growing for the show and on to my carpenter's workshop to see my bar unit. Then back to catch the evening light at Duncan's, a few more walking shots around the garden, a glass of Rose, and home again - back to reality and still lots to do with 2 days left until the build starts.

I'm looking forward to seeing the film crew again up at the show with the finished article - it's got to look good now...