Delighted to reveal the design for English Garden Joinery’s Chelsea Flower Show stand 2012

As you know, a few weeks ago, Rob Horton of English Garden Joinery asked me if I would like to design their RHS Chelsea Flower Show stand this year and it didn’t really take me very long to give them an answer…well, a couple of seconds maybe!

At last I am in a position to show you the final design and I can’t wait to see it at the show ground when it’s finished this week.

Rob has been involved with the RHS Flower Shows for the last few years.  They built the Thrive Garden, designed by Jo Thompson, at Chelsea in 2010 which won gold and Best In Show and in the same year they were also involved with the RHS Biodiversity Garden which was designed by Fisher Tomlin.

Last year they made the benches and bridge for the Laurent Perrier Garden which was designed by Luciano Giubbilei and won a gold medal, and at Hampton Court Flower Show in 2007 Rob was involved with Fiona Stephenson’s garden ‘Oak Tree Lying in State’ which, again, won a gold medal. This year they decided that it was time to showcase their own work and I am really thrilled to be involved.

Initially we got together for a couple of hours one sunday and spent some time sketching out ideas. The stand measures just 3m x 6m so it became quite clear that it was going to be challenging to show off the many different things that they can do.

One of the challenges that we’ve faced is the location of the stand which, because it’s amongst the trees, means that we are not allowed to excavate below ground level.  Our initial idea was to have a covered seat at the back of the stand as a focal point but this had to go by the wayside when we realised that it was impossible to construct it without setting the posts into the ground.

The stand being on the small side has however been in our favour because Rob has been able to build the stand in their workshop near Guildford.  This has been invaluable as we’ve been able to test ideas and look at elements in-situ to ensure that the balance is right.  I think it’s been a team effort and we’re all really proud of how it looks now that it’s finished.

On Friday Rob dismantled the stand all ready for it to go up to site this morning.  Because it’s been constructed off site, it’ll only take a couple of days to reconstruct at the showground so they expect it to be finished by Wednesday evening. I’ll be keeping you in suspense just a little bit longer to see the photographs of the finished stand – I thought I’d wait until it’s at Chelsea to do that!