Friday 19 June 2009

Sleepless In Cambridgeshire



We started Build-up on Monday 16th June for the Sadolin Nature To Nurture Garden at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. Marc Patrick and the guys from Garden Care Contracting are steaming ahead with the construction. We have three weeks to get the garden created but this relatively simple design has a tight schedule. Which keeps me awake at night. And when I do sleep, I'm not sure if I've been dreaming or just randomly thinking about things when I awake, several times, in the night with thoughts of building construction and plants fresh in mind. It all blurs into one haze of excitement mingled with mild panic...

But it's great to be building this garden, at last. Having lived with this design in my head and on various bits of paper for the last nine months, it's a relief to see the garden emerge from the scenic parkland in the shadow of Henry VII's palace at Hampton Court. Driving down into the show site on Tuesday this week, my first visit, it hardly felt like 12 months since I was last doing this. The usual rush of panic lept up and grabbed me as I stood in front of the garden plot: it's huge, the flower beds are bigger than I thought and have I got enough plants? Crocus are supplying plants again and visiting them later that day, my initial fears about plant numbers were soon put to rest . The warm weather, I thought, might have caused a lot of my planting list to go over but only a mere handful needed swopsies, easily found as Mark from Crocus and I walked around the nursery in the afternoon, clipboards in hand, scibbling alternatives. Must say, all the carefuly nourished plants I've ordered there are looking soooo fab! Well done guys.

Another site visit on Thursday to the show and the building is taking shape. It looks really tall, but still lots of other elements to build into the equation yet! The sedum plants for the roof arrive next Monday, trees on Tuesday whilst wildflowers, sculpture and meadow turf trickle into the remainder of the week.

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