Berryfields, Berkshire and busman's holidays
| 16:08 UK time, Thursday, 22 May 2008
Last week was my first week filming back at Berryfields in my role as producer of Gardeners' World since last year. I must admit, even though I know the garden so well, it changes so rapidly from one week to the next. Especially when plants seem to grow a foot a week, when your back is turned at this time of year. I love to grab a cup of tea at the beginning of the day and have a wander around while the cameras are setting up. I enjoy the comparison of the pace of growth between plants that I grow in my own small garden in Berkshire and those that are grown a hundred miles away in Warwickshire. Over my many years on Gardeners' World being based in Birmingham and gardening at home in Reading, I have worked out that, at the beginning of the year, there is about two weeks difference and eventually it all catches up towards the end of June.
After a very busy week familiarising myself with and planning the next two programmes and insert films with the Gardeners' World team, I hot footed it down the M40 on Friday to home, where I off-loaded my overnight bag, grabbed a glass of wine and wandered round my own garden to see the week's progress. It's really difficult, as a passionate gardener, leaving your garden to the elements for the week and not being able to get out there on a daily basis but it seems to survive despite neglect from me, frequent visits by at least a dozen of various neighbours cats and a couple of visits a week by my two granddaughters and my daughter's Japanese Akita. (a very large dog who has twice chewed to bits my Cercis Forest Pansy - it's still living - just!) Despite my garden having a life without me, I have roses in flower in mid May. My climbing 'Ena Harkness' has at least two blooms fully open. The Alchemist is just about to pop along with my favourite rose for toughness and health - 'Buff Beauty'. I have at least 100 Alliums in flower, Iris sibirica is looking dreamy, the hardy geraniums are just beginning to flower, Cirsium rivulare and Knautia macedonica are in bud but (horror of horrors) the blasted slugs have eaten my lettuce seedlings again. I'm afraid, like Rosemary Edwards, I'll be boiling up the garlic and using the Una Dunnett method to see if that works.
Saturday morning I was on the 5.30am train to London to meet Rachel de Thame to help her plant up her Chelsea garden. The Urban gardens have to really build and plant quickly and it was a bit of a frantic dash to make the deadline which involved an overnight stay on Rachel's sofa on the Saturday night. I also phoned a friend, Phil McCann, (fellow show-garden planter of Gardeners' World Live fame, Gardeners' World team member and horticulturalist extraordinaire) to help on the Sunday. We made it - just - by flood-light on the Sunday night! Then it was home again by midnight and then up again early on the Monday morning for a hair wash (brilliant for getting the mud from under the finger nails) and into some respectable clothes for the Chelsea press day. Rachel was looking ever so stylish in a white linen dress and coat number until she revealed her hands which were totally ingrained with dirt that she was just unable to scrub off! We were all so delighted for her that she won a Silver Medal on the world-class gardening stage but I'm not sure I can take many 16 hour days as my whole body aches, my fingers are sore and I have cuts on my arms I don't remember getting!
Back in my own garden I managed to prick out some seedlings, potted on a few plants, sowed more lettuce and concocted the garlic mixture leaving my husband with strict instructions on how to water with it before slinging my bag in the back of the car and coming up the M40 again to Birmingham. We're not filming this week so it gives us all a bit of planning time for future programmes but I'm looking forward to our next programme on Gardening in a Changing Climate as we've got some really good films to show, including one from Matthew Wilson, as well as some excellent gardening items from Carol, Joe and Alys at Berryfields.
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