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!

If you’re a regular reader of my blog then you’ll know that I carried out the planting at my Sutton project a few weeks ago.  It was a long old day as I was on site at 7.30am and didn’t finish until gone 7pm by which time it was not only too dark to take pictures, but all I wanted to do was to get home and have a hot bath. Read more

On Saturday I attended Clive Nichols’ garden photography workshop at Wakehurst Place with my good friend Rona Wheeldon.  Clive is a world renowned garden photographer so we knew we were in for a great day and I think I speak for us both when I say that it exceeded our expectations. Read more

This month, my Garden Flowers blog post, which I write with Rona Wheeldon of Flowerona features one of our favourite flowers, the peony, whose Latin name is Paeonia. Read more

Well it’s been a challenging month in the garden world with most of the water companies in the South East imposing hosepipe bans at the beginning of April but that’s another story for another time and, fortunately, because my Sutton client had a drip-feed irrigation system installed, we were still able to plant up the garden.  I didn’t finish the planting until 8.30pm so it was too dark to take photos, but I am going back later this week to take pictures and will of course share them with you then.  Ironically of course the irrigation system hasn’t really been needed yet! Read more

Last weekend I ran my second Design Your Own Garden workshop at MakeMe Workshops in the Medicine Garden in Cobham.  This time I remembered to take my camera with me so I thought I’d share the pictures with you and tell you a bit about the workshop. Read more

Last Friday I visited Cardiff Flower Show for the first time with my friend Rona Wheeldon of Flowerona. The first thing that struck us was how friendly everyone was there – it had a local show feel to it and as well as the show gardens, floral marquee and show exhibitors that you see at all the RHS shows, there was also a craft market. Read more

I met up with Andrew Wilson a few weeks ago at Savill Garden – he redesigned the Rose Garden there so it seemed the most appropriate place to meet….and the coffee and cake’s good too! Read more

I hope you’ve enjoyed following the construction of my front garden – we planted yesterday and I can now share the pictures of the finished garden.  I keep forgetting it’s done actually so every time I walk outside the front door it makes me smile!  Gardens have the power to do that you see,they really do change the way you feel about your home. Read more

The Concept Design for my project in France is now finished and I thought you’d be interested in seeing it.  I spoke to my client last Friday to walk her round the design and I am very pleased to report that she loves it. Read more