Garden Blogs

Tuesday, 21 July 2009

And so we reach the end

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!

Tuesday, 14 July 2009

Rachel's Garden Parties

What a fantastic show - there are 30,000 people a day looking at our gardens! Chris and her Rachel's events team are submerged with people queing up for samples and cool bags of delicious yogurt and all the other goodies! For me, it's a strange time as I hand over my garden to others after the judging and press day razamatazz. Only they are not all strangers. My son James (21) is in charge of the maintenance of the gardens during the show period and it's great to see him and nice to know the gardens are in good safe hands. He will mostly be watering, deadheading flowers and fruit, answering questions about the plants and, of course, scaring off those pigeons! After 12 12hr days, I need to get home for a break from the Show although, of course, there is my regular garden business to catch up on so it's not exactly a holiday (but it's nice to be back in my own bed for a few days!) And, of course I get a chance to tuck into some of the contents of the Rachel's coolbag we took away with us - rice pudding - yummmy! After the awards were given out, Rachels threw a lovely little party on the stand. If anyone was disapointed not to get a Gold medal it didn't show and I got to meet Rachel herself and husband Gareth as well as Rachel's MD Neil. They were all really nice and down to earth and Neil gave a speeech, including lovely comments about the stand and gardens, and even gave me a bottle of champagne! After that we all went to a Gala night black tie dinner dance in one of the marquees and my wife Katharine and I danced the night away to the live band. At the end we all went out to see the spectacular firework finale to celebrate the start of the show. On Saturday I came back to the Show. It was really odd as it felt like weeks ago since I was here and yet really it was only 3 days! Everything looked fine - in fact the plants seemed to have grown. Bob Sweet the RHS shows director and I were taking the winners of Rachel's competition around the show as part of their prize. They seemed to have had a great day with trips on the river and a good lunch at the show. The showground is massive so I hope Bob and I didnt tire them out too much. All the winners were really enthusiastic and it was nice to have the opportunity to show them my favourtite things and, of course, show them all around the "Passion for Taste" and "Stylish by Nature" Gardens. I'm delighted to see that the fruit in Passion for Taste is still showing well and the blueberries are now blue - there is a sumptouos smell of fruit around attracting lots of comment. It's great to hear people enthusing over things that not so long ago were just ideas in my head and scribbles on a sheet of paper! The Silver medal winning "Stylish by Nature Garden" has been also attracting lots of interest - in fact one admirer has asked me to see if it can be rebuilt in their Garden - which would be great if it's possible. And now it's time to close the Garden down. A fair bit of my time away has involved me beginning to arrange for the breakdown of the exhibit. This is always complex as the RHS expect the plot to be just clean and clear by the 15th of July, so there is plenty of time pressure here and it's important that everyone turns up at the right time...

Wednesday, 8 July 2009

The big reveal

The heatwave that stayed with us from the beginning of the Garden build to the end was incredible. Every day the weather report raised the expected temperature - and everyday the sun obliged. We had to water the plants at least twice a day yet still many, in particular the fruit trees, were clearly stressed. Martin announced his phone was telling him that it was 35 degrees one day and my car said 33 degrees. We would slap on the factor 30, drink gallons of bottled water and knuckle down to creating the two gardens and the sampling area. It was such a joy because you're working alongside the best gardeners in the country at one of the premier flower shows in the world, in a stunning setting with the Palace as the backdrop.

We laid the recycled plastic interlocking grids for the public pathways quickly and dressed them with white and black gravel bands to match Rachel's colours. We were able to include the number ‘25’ within the grid's cells in recognition of Rachel's 25th Anniversary. We are proud to say we built Rachels Passion for Taste Garden with no concrete at all – even the sleeper wall was just set hard in layers of mud in its trench. When Breeze House built the thatched Gazebo last Tuesday it began to look very lived in with the specimen fruit trees already positioned. Ken Muir had delivered some superb fruit bushes on Monday prior to this and I enjoyed planting out the remainder of the Garden with radiating bands of the fruit crops. The dwarf Peach Bonanza looked impressive in full fruit and was already attracting interest.

By this time our new friends Chris, Ag and Polly had started setting up Rachel's sampling stand. They were really friendly and we were now all together as a team labouring under the hot sun, looking after each other. Scotts built the Black and White Summerhouse on the Monday and Martin built the wall around it the next day. With the specimen weeping silver Pear and white barked Birch this garden quickly took shape. I enjoyed the planting of this garden most as it required me to be very creative about the combinations I could achieve with the good looking plants in the silver, black and white range that I had selected. I had also had to make some changes to the paths and seat. The white stone chips were a much better effect than the black I had originally designed for on the two paths. This meant the white bench didn’t work at all – so I phoned up Garden furniture maker Chris Nagle and asked if he could provide one of his hand sculpted hardwood black ebony seats. He said ok and it arrived just in time. Not only was it a perfect fit, it looked great and was lovely to sit on as well!

The big day came on Monday the 6th. The Rachel's team rolled out the red carpet and had a grand opening party. The Royal Horticultural Society judges arrived to make their decisions and we were left biting our nails until late in the day when two medals duly arrived! A Bronze for "Passion for Taste" and rather appropriately a fantastic Silver medal for our silver anniversary themed "Stylish by Nature Garden"!

Thursday, 2 July 2009

The time has come

The time has come! It's Friday 25th June, I'm back at Hampton Court again and Rachel's ambitious display is underway. Let me take you on the Hampton Court Flower Show Garden build experience! Firstly you get there at 7:30am (latest!) You will have checked the previous day that everyone is going to arrive/deliver everything that was agreed. You come into Home Park through a small gate near Kingston Bridge - and you enter another world! It’s a sudden escape from the impending rush hour traffic snarl up. There are fields, willows swaying beside ponds, acres of knee high long grass and herds of fallow deer really close up to you. You arrive at the far end of the long water and it’s a tremendous view along it to the Palace in the distance. Also you get your first sight of the giant white marquees that have grown over the last week and which will house the indoor displays of the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. At the security gate we are checked to make sure we have our passes, safety boots and yellow hi viz safety jackets, then its on to stands C/93 that will become Rachels Passion for Taste Garden and C/94 - Rachels Stylish by Nature Garden. Time will pass so quickly now and we must press on. The core team is myself (organising, taking the decisions and primarily there as plantsman and support.) My right hand man is Martin who is an incredible work machine and will construct all the non specialist elements of both gardens. Finally, Graeme who is there to support us both and generally gets all the worst jobs! We will get extra input from various specialist sub contractors as the job progresses to take the exhibit through to completion. I'm pleased to find the RHS have already erected Rachel's Sampling Stand Marquee which sits behind our gardens. So, we start by removing all the grass in our allocated 150 sqm plot (with Martin on the digger and me enjoying driving a 2 tonne dumper for a change) removing the excavations to a near by stockpile. The weather is fantastic, warm and slightly overcast and I begin to enjoy the feeling of the private world that is the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show build up. With this done we are able to lay the recycled plastic cellular grid system around the Marquee as Silverland Stone company are the first to arrive with this and bags of the black and white chips that will fill the grids to provide a non slip, wheelchair friendly and dry surface for everyone visiting Rachels stand when they are sampling the foods or viewing the Gardens. Further deliveries arrive from Tendercare Nurseries (the bigger trees need to go in early), Putney Builders Merchants (sundry building materials and timber), and Ashwell Recycled Timber Ltd (with the Jarrah sleepers for the Passion for Taste Garden.) Saturday we get cooked! Martin's phone says it's 35 degrees and my car at 4pm says its 33 degrees! But we have a great day and move forwards really well. We are joined by Phil who cuts the Jarrah sleepers to all the lengths and angles we need. I've set out the Garden shapes and Martin lays the Passion for Taste pathways. Graeme begins the arduous job of filling the grid system with the stone chips. Martin and I also get most of the big pot size trees planted in Passion for Taste. And suddenly after 2 days we have one garden coming to life!