September 2004
Monday 13th
Back in at the deep end. I am feeling much more energetic after the break. While I was away I sent all the final drawings off to the RHS as the final meeting to decide on the gardens was at the beginning of September. We should have final confirmation of our site very soon and will know where our Garden has been placed. I spend the day on the phone. Robert Mattock has agreed once again to grow the roses I need for the Garden. Co-incidentally, 2005 will be the Year of the Rose and will be celebrated by several of the rose societies. I arrange to visit Robert on the 27th of this month. I also phone Simon at Lillies Water Gardens. Simon has grown my aquatic and marginal plants for Chelsea for the last 2 years. The quality of his plants is absolutely superb, but of course Lillies have won many Gold Medals of their own at Hampton Court for their wonderful displays of aquatics.
Wednesday 15th
Meeting with Steve to discuss the IT needs for the coming year. Our sponsor, Michael, has decided that he would like to do a website again which will be presented in the form of a monthly diary as the garden develops. We are also going to have webcams again as these were so popular last year. On the busiest day of the show we had over 18,000 hits on the webcams. Steve suggested that we might like one of the new web cams that will enable viewers to manipulate it through their own PC and point it around the site to actually look at what they want to see. I know Michael will love this idea as he can keep a closer eye on us during the build!
Monday 20th
My last supplier to be contacted is Jacques Armand. John has been growing bulbs for my Chelsea exhibits since 1998. He has agreed to grow the lilies, wild gladioli and a few other specialities for the Garden. Bulb growing for Chelsea is particularly tricky and John has won many gold medals for his bulb exhibits in the great Marquee.
Tuesday 21st
I have a meeting with our sponsor and his wife at their home. Kevin from Squires also attends. We run through various construction requirements for the Garden and discuss in some detail the way the Garden will be put together.
Wednesday 22nd
Phil, Kevin and I fly up to the Quarries at Lockerbie. When we were there last year we noticed a vein of pink rock which runs right through the site. We had also been sent a sample of paving, a dusky pink in colour with a golden sheen. This paving is imported from India and the quarry at Lockerbie act as agents. Now that we have a clear idea of our requirements we can go and talk to Stuart and Robbie about the exact quantities and type of rock we will be needing. We will need some larger boulders for the water feature and Garden and several tons of walling stone. This is going to be more difficult for the guys at Grange Quarry to extract as they will have to drill this seam rather than blast it as the pink rock fractures more easily than the surrounding rock, more characteristic of the quarry.
Thursday 23rd
Still at Lockerbie. Kevin reckons that we will need about 40 tons of rock and 30 square metres of the paving. It's a lot less than last year when 150 tons of rock went into the construction of the 4head Merlin Garden, but it's still a lot of rock!
Monday 27th
I spend the afternoon with Robert Mattock in his nursery just north of Abingdon in Oxfordshire. This is my first visit to Mattocks Nurseries and it is fascinating to see how Robert grows these large specimen roses in relatively small containers. He tells me it is down to a secret recipe in the growing medium that was developed by his father. We look through a number of roses which will give me the structure I need within the colour palette I have selected which is slate through cerise pink, into pale pink to white.
