May 2005
Tuesday 3rd
I It seems strange arriving on site again. It doesn't seem like a year ago that we were here. It is lovely to see all the guys again. I have the same crew as last year with Kevin from Squires, Matt, my site foreman, with Jimmy, Richard, Barry and Simon who will be my main crew for the duration of the build. Amanda is here for the first time, just helping and will be staying down in London for the next week.
We take delivery of the digger, dumper and telehandler, which will be moving all the large rocks and trees this year. Thank goodness we don't need a crane! We mark out the main circular area which is to be excavated, erect the site shed, essential for tea making facilities and the web cam technicians arrive.
We dig the footings and pour the concrete for the wall.
Wednesday 4th
We finish excavation of the site and build the timber wall, which will contain the soil as we build up the terraces. The materials arrive for the construction of the wall and the guys make a start on the block work. The webcams are installed but are not behaving themselves.
Thursday 5th
A lot of the stone arrives including one which has been drilled to make a tap feature which will be used on press day by Ringo. This year Ringo has chosen the charity WaterAid to be supported by the garden publicity. He will be turning on this tap, symbolically, to show the important of clean running water. Other materials, such as ducting and pipes for the water feature, the liner, sand and gravel seems to be pouring into the site. I spend several hours with Richard marking out what will be the spirals at the end of the walls. These are quite difficult to work out. It isn't helped by the fact that I had forgotten that the site width had increased by 2 metres and in order to keep everything accurate we have to work from the central point of the garden.
Friday 6th
The block work is now finished and we dig out the pool area. It looks enormous. We make a start on the base of the waterfall. We have a problem with our oleanders and bougainvilleas. The bougainvilleas have come out purple and we need pink. The Oleanders haven't come out all! Phone calls have been flying back and forth to Italy all day while we try to locate some large shocking pink bougainvilleas which are in flower. The sponsor's wife, Heather, is helping us to search for the additional material that we need. We also need to find some hibiscus which have not turned up with the main delivery from Italy.
Saturday 7th
We need to move a lot of soil around and create areas at the back of the site where we will be able to store plants. It is amazing how much time this sort of thing takes. We are trying to keep the site much more orderly this year as, when things really start to get busy towards the end of the second week and plants are everywhere, if you don't have enough space, things start to get broken.
It's very nice on these rock bank sites because we do have far more room than all the other sites on the show ground.
Sunday 8th
The webcams finally behave themselves and start to broadcast. As the weather starts to be kind to us we roughly cut the levels of the side terraces. Most of the materials are now on site and we will be taking delivery of the trees tomorrow.
Monday 9th
We have a forty foot articulated trailer of trees arriving. The large olives that Kevin bought in Italy, Cypresses and the Palms come in first. It takes half a day to unload the trailer and put the trees safe.
Tuesday 10th
We have a second lorry load of trees with the Fig, the Pomegranate, the Pines and the Vines. Because all of these trees have to be transported upright, they take up a lot more space on the lorry than they would normally. The new growth on the trees is very fragile and they have to be handled with utmost care so as not to damage the top most branches. We spent the rest of the day putting in the large olives and the palm trees.
Wednesday 11th
Brooks Garcia arrived today from Atlanta; again it doesn't seem like a year since I last saw him. Matthew and Jim are busy working on the waterfall and we take delivery of the first of the herbs and wildflowers from Jekka.
Thursday 12th
The construction of the waterfall is almost finished and we take delivery of more rock and plants. We make a start on the terrace walls. Brooks, Richard and Phil are all working away to enable us to start planting the terraces. The walls look lovely as they start to go up and suddenly the Garden starts to take on a more Mediterranean feel. Once the Italian Cypress go in and the big scrubby rosemaries, it really starts to come to life. We have finally located all the bougainvilleas and hibiscus that we need, although now we seem to have developed a problem with our Jasmine, so Kevin has the word out for some large Jasmines. He finds some beautiful large Solanum but these won't do as, although they are very pretty, they have no perfume - and I really want the garden to be perfumed, especially at night.
Friday 13th
Today lived up to its reputation! It's been very windy all week and the site is extremely dusty. One of the guys brought his motorcycle onto site for safekeeping and it blew over in a gust of wind! Richard is justifiably miserable for the rest of the day as he thinks it is going to cost many hundreds of pounds to put right. Jim, whilst watering the pomegranate, nearly knocked himself out on one of the lower branches, and Phil, while walling under a Palm tree, was attacked by the vicious thorns and got one stuck in the top of his head! We hadn't realised that plant watering and dry stone walling were hard hat activities!
The terraces are really shaping up now as we get the plants onto them. Matt and Kevin have finished the waterfall, but one of the ducting pipes, which we had put in at the start, has got trapped under one of the large rocks. We have to chisel a hole in the block work in order to get cables through for pumps and lighting. We also have to spend several hours clearing the area on which we had been storing our stone, as we have new neighbours coming in tomorrow. We have taken delivery of another lorry load of herbs from Jekka. I am not sure where we are going to put them all! Some will just have to stay on their trolleys.
Saturday 14th
The wall has been rendered and is looking superb! We place the large rocks in the garden and mark out the area to be paved. Phil has started painting the walls. This will make a big difference. Anette and Emma are starting to plant the herbaceous and annual material on the terraces. This is really starting to bring them alive. Brooks is continuing to plant the large shrubs and herbaceous material on the left hand side of the garden. This has had to be left until now because the soil levels weren't right. We have taken another delivery of herbs from Jekka and the Irises have arrived from Howard's Nurseries.
Sunday 15th
Anette and Emma continue with planting the wild terraces. We have run into a problem with the paint on the walls. We had selected the paint based on the colour of one of the big cretan pots, but the darkest colour we have selected is too orange and does not blend well with the rock. Fortunately Phil has the paint swatches with him but it being Sunday we can do nothing until tomorrow morning. Matt has marked out the area to be paved. Kevin and Matthew are working on the rocks at the top of the waterfall. It is beginning to look just as I had imagined it.
Monday 16th
Matthew and the guys are laying the screed for the paving and Phil manages to contact the paint supplier based in Oxford who promises to send us the paint on a same day courier so we shouldn't be held up too much.
Jane has arrived and has shown a real talent for planting the terrace walls. The wild areas are really starting to look stunning.
Tuesday 17th
We take the final herb delivery from Jekka and the large oleanders, bougainvilleas from Squires. We have a problem with the bougainvilleas, as we haven’t been able to find any bright pink ones and the ones we have bought turn out to be purple. The roses arrive and they are absolutely superb.
Wednesday 18th
We have started to put the paving down. It looks beautiful. The terraces are almost finished and now that all the heavy rocks have been put into place we can construct the final spiral of the wall. We are still waiting for the paint to come to finish the final coat of the wall. Heather Yarrow has managed to find some pink bougainvilleas. Steve picks these up from her home on his way down to Chelsea along with some beautiful hibiscus.
We have help from Kay Elger today. Friend and client, Kay has volunteered to help do anything as she is fascinated by the whole concept of the Chelsea build. Amanda returns from her trip to the Scillies. When she last saw the garden all we had was the big trees. She is absolutely amazed as the change.
Thursday 19th
We start to play with the water feature, fine-tuning the direction and force of the flow of water. It looks wonderful. The paving is finished, the paint has arrived, the spirals are finished and we can finish planting the very front of the garden. We have bought some canopies for the fig tree and the pomegranate as, unusually for May, we have had frost forecast and these two trees have been under glass all winter to bring them into full leaf. Frost is just about the last thing we need now!
Friday 20th
The terraces are completely finished and Anette, Jane and Amanda finish off putting shale on the paths. Matt, Jim, Richard and Simon are working on the rock pool and helping fill buckets of shale. Its amazing how much shale the paths take. Brooks, Emma and I, with help from Jane, start work on the main central rose bed. We have planted two thirds of it by seven o'clock at night. When the heavens open we decide to call it a day.
Saturday 21st
We make an early start as, no matter what happens, we have to finish planting tonight. It could be a late night! The weather is showery and we use the canopies we bought for the trees to cover the beds so we can carry on planting. Emma and I are planting the herbaceous material at the front of the bed while Brooks and Jane concentrate on the pots, the roses and the plants going over the walls. Anette is finishing the shale along the front edge of the garden. We just have the bog garden and small area of herbaceous plants to finish. The waterfall and lights are all in place and everything is looking perfect... especially when the sun shines!
Monday 23rd
Press Day and Gala Night. Ringo, royalty and press loved the garden. We are all on a high.
Tuesday 24th
Awards announced. Can't write any more. Words fail me.
