Garden Blogs

Sunday 12th July arrived and it was the last day of the show. It's always sad to take a show garden apart, but I've been doing it since the late eighties and have come to terms with it over the years. What is always gratifying is the pleasure and appreciation people show when they meet you on the garden, and this was certainly the case with both Rachel's Gardens this year. It's lovely just standing back and listening to people talking about the gardens. Great to see how it gives them ideas and ambitions. Also you get a number of people who particularly pick out your garden as the one that has plants in it thst they want to bag when “sell off” comes at 4:30pm - and there is no denying them! Up to that point the RHS require you to keep a show garden in prime condition, but as the hooter goes people dive in looking for bargains! Although visitors to the show can buy plants from trade stands all day long, they get this single hour to buy plants from the show gardens before security move in and the public are moved out and big lorries roll in to begin the removal of all the exhibitors goods. As a result the “damage” is done really quickly and you suddenly look around you to find there is no longer a show garden, just a shell. The Rachel's events team were also clearing out their fridges with great bargains to be had as the electricity soon gets cut off as the show ends. The RHS give you a deadline of 4 days to leave the plot spotless, so the pressure is quickly on to get on with the breakdown. I only needed one skip for waste. Most of the materials were reusable or hired. The remaining plants that were on hire went back to their respective Nurseries. It was a shame that the gardens had nowhere to be rebuilt but, as we knew this was the case, we had planned to waste as little as possible. The removal of the black and white gravel pathways proved the most laborious job, but we managed to separate the two colours into individual 1 tonne bags with only 3 bags having to be mixed. I was really pleased to find that it was easy to remove the sleeper wall in “Passion for Taste” as we had not used concrete, but instead 'watered-in' layers of topsoil which had set the sentinels hard in the trench. I had been afraid of using this method as if they came loose during the show it would have been embarrassing – but it worked fine and I will use this method again. So all that now remains of “Passion for Taste” and “Stylish by Nature” are our memories and photographs. My thanks go out to everyone in all the various teams that made the build up smooth and such a pleasure, well done all of you!