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November 2005
Tuesday 1st
Fordham Nurseries have managed to find me some plain green Luzula Sylvestris. One of the problems with sourcing some of our native plants is that the most marketable forms are sports and variations, often variegated or gold forms. They are genetic aberrations which have turned up in nursery stock and have then been selectively bred. Sadly this often means that their less appealing parents gradually fall out of production. Luzula Sylvestris has a form with a cream margin and so the green form is very difficult to find. I collected 200 beautiful plants today which will need potting on.
Monday 7th
Today I sent off the fees for the garden to the RHS. There is a deposit to ensure that you do complete the garden, and this is returned to you after Chelsea finishes. The rest of the money covers a fee to empty your water feature at the end of the show. Some years ago we could just pump the water from our pools down one of the main drains, but this is no longer acceptable and a large tanker is brought in to empty all the water features. I also phoned Anita Foy, the Chelsea Show Manager, who co-ordinates all the activities. I need to discuss with her the logistics of our tree delivery and planting. Having spoken to Kevin from Squires it is obvious that we are going to need several days of craneage to get the biggest trees, which weigh nearly five tons, into place. This is going to cause big problems on the site we are given, which is right on the corner of Main Avenue, at the Rock Bank end. Because our site backs on to the Great Marquee, we cannot start construction until Friday the 5th of May, to allow time for erection of the marquee. This has to be up, stable and passed by Health and Safety before they will allow us on site. This means that we have three days less than normal for construction of our garden and it also means that our crane will need to block Main Avenue for at least two days. I phoned Anita to warn her that we need to address the problems associated with this sooner rather than later. I need to speak to Caroline Tapper who will be in charge of this side of the organisation at Chelsea.
Friday 11th
Phil and Anette have arrived from Sweden. They have brought us some bracken which we will need for the acid woodland area in the garden, and some lovely moss-covered stones for the stream side.
Sunday 13th
Whilst doing Chelsea earlier this year, a whole group of us planned a fortnight’s holiday together in the Maldives. The time has now arrived! Half the planting crew, including Jane, Amanda, Anette, Philip and myself, are off for two weeks R&R, diving around the island of Velidhu - a wonderful spot which we visited last year and felt the need to return.
Tuesday 29th
Back to reality after our idyllic holiday. We have the Press Launch for our garden next week and I need to write my Powerpoint presentation and gather together some appropriate photographic material.
Wednesday 30th
The bulbs have arrived. We have 1500 Bluebells now waiting to be put into pots. I have a phone message from David Williams to say that he has found a perfect piece of limewood for the sculpture he will be making for the woodland.
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