Brett Chelsea Garden Diary 2008
A message from Geoff Whiten
"Even after 32 years of designing gardens for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show I never fail to be really excited about the build up to making the garden a reality at the show.
The planning for this year's garden started before the Chelsea Flower Show in 2007! The collaboration with Brett Landscaping and Building Products to create The Relationships Garden at Chelsea 2007 worked incredibly well and even before the show was over, we had already felt inspired to team up again for 2008. Brett has proved to be an extremely supportive and enthusiastic sponsor and I am enjoying building on that excellant relationship.
June 2 2008
“Well I’ve only just about recovered from the marvellous week we had
at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show
– what a busy week.
The sun shone and the crowds came, which is just about as good as it can get!
The visitors to the show loved the garden, which I’m particularly pleased about
as it was designed to be a garden that anyone could recreate at home.
I was thrilled when we made the
final four in the BBC’s Peoples’ Award,
add to that another medal from the
RHS Judges and I think we had a very good show.
The weather all week meant the plants shot up and by the end of the week the garden looked like it had been there for ten years, it was super.
Now all we have to do is do it all again at the RHS Tatton Park Garden Show at the end of July!’
May 17 2008
Well this morning is the press day for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and the last few days has been a bit of a rush but we made it.
A sudden burst of rain on Saturday made the going a bit tough but we were able to do all those finishing touches on Sunday and we're very pleased with the end result.
The garden looks lovely as you can see.
Today at the Chelsea Flower Show sees the press going round each of the gardens and exhibits on show and culminates in the judging for medals this evening. I'll keep you posted.
May 12 2008
Everything starts to accelerate as we are now on site. We have just 2 weeks to build the garden from nothing. If this was a clients home we would take 4-6 weeks.
Philip received initial deliveries from Brett and Scotts and has got off to a great start thanks to the weather with much of the structural work already completed.
The sudden heatwave has meant many of the plants and flowers have taken off too, and we will have to be careful not to let them burn and flower too early.
I have been to check them again to make plans in case the weather keeps up. The sun is better than the monsoon experienced during last years buildup but we have to be just as
cautious to ensure the best presentation possible.
We have now started laying out the paved areas, which will be installed over the next couple of days. Its exciting as everything is starting to take shape.
May 7 2008
Visiting Scotts of Thrapston is always a treat. James Scott is the third generation of Scotts to run the business and like Brett, the company is based on solid values of quality and service.
Scotts are providing us with ‘The Writer’s Retreat’, a
summer house based on the one used by George Bernard Shaw at his Hertfordshire home. Each piece of timber (sourced from sustainable forests naturally) is lovingly machined in-house and then gradually put together by extremely skilled craftsmen. The joints and all the woodwork is really very good.
While we were there we saw the range of colours available for the summer houses and even
watched the Scotts team use their sophisticated spray booths to provide the finishing touches.
It’s great to see the building that will sit in our garden and how it’s been made.
April 30 2008
The most important and, in many ways the most unpredictable part of the garden are, of course, the flowers. And so the trip to the nursery of Philip Garlick, who is growing and supplying all the plants for the Chelsea garden, was always going to be a critical stage in our planning.
Philip’s place is a typical landscapers yard and there is evidence all around of years of supplying superb specimens for display and shows. I love visiting the
nursery as this is where you get a real sense of marvel about the things growing.
However, all is not well and I have some real concerns
Philip and I discussed putting heaters in to the poly tunnels to bring the plants on, but the risk of them then being less hardy and burning up if it’s sunny over the Chelsea week is just too great.
We’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed for mild and both wet and then sunny weather to really bring them on. I’m trying not to overly worry.
April 24 2008
Filming with the BBC at Wisley
That's the thing with exhibiting at Chelsea - once you make your commitment to design and produce a garden - the 'show must go on' no matter how much rain or snow you have to deal with. Luckily for me, when we sat down with the BBC a few days ago to film a short piece about the
Chelsea Flower Show and my garden for Brett, the clouds broke, the sun peaked through and the result looks like a gloriously sunny day!
Let's hope it's a good sign.
The filming took place at the Royal Horticultural Society's Wisley Gardens and as you can see from the pictures here, it looked beatiful.
April 17 2008
Well I did say I wanted typically British weather and so I shouldn’t have been surprised that it was raining the other week when I set off with the Brett team to their factory in Barrow-upon-Soar….
Planning for the RHS show at Chelsea has started in earnest now and today was all about checking progress and making some important choices as to the materials you will see in the final garden. I have to say I find this really interesting and exciting as I love the textures and colours of the hard landscaping.
Our first stop was to see how the paving slabs we are
going to use in the show garden are made and to make some selections.
The last time I went to a paving factory was years
and years ago and so I
was really impressed
with, the investment in equipment and the machinery used by Brett – things have really moved on!
After watching slabs coming off the lines and being arranged on pallets, we went out into the yard to
see the finished products and check out the display areas.
I was also keen to select the loose aggregate for the garden.
I like using aggregate as it adds colour and texture to hard landscaping and can really
set off the flowers.
March 31 2008
There is a lot of activity happening behind the scenes at the moment. Various elements of the garden are currently being sourced and the plants are growing away in pots in UK nurseries. We are constantly monitoring them as it is critical to bring them on at just the right time for the show week.
As always though, one of the biggest challenges for Chelsea is the British weather. We all pray for the perfect weather but we are usually disappointed! It affects every aspect of the work that goes into creating a garden at Chelsea. Constructing the garden can be very difficult if the soil is too wet as you can see from this picture from last year. Equally, if we get too little rain, the soil becomes extremely hard which can also be a problem.
The weather affects plant growing conditions too.
For example, a really hot spring, such as we experienced in 2007, can encourage some plants to bloom too early. Sizzling sunshine can also scorch plants so you then need to consider using protective coverings. We have even been known to have a snow shower!
So please join me in wishing for a mild, typically wet and dry great British springtime!".