A Chelsea Show Garden - build week
Post categories: RHS Chelsea Flower Show
| 07:00 UK time, Friday, 13 May 2011
It's week two of Chelsea build up and I've relocated from Suffolk to the showground for the duration. It is not because I have become intolerable at home or am not wanted in my posh barn conversion office that overlooks an orchard and wildflower meadow....well, that's not strictly true. I haven't moved down here because my contractors need pushing.
Far from it; they are getting on splendidly and are bang on schedule and I would even go so far to say, they would probably prefer it if I wasn't here. No, I am here because there is nowhere else to go. As with all the designers here, I am living and breathing Chelsea and certainly, no good to man nor beast elsewhere. This is my baby, a year in the making, and I want to be here to see each stone put in place, each sheet of glass craned into position and each barrow load of soil removed.
This is my fourth year at Chelsea and one would think it possible to become a little blasé about the whole thing. Yes I am more relaxed about the build: when a chip of granite breaks off my beautiful granite pool edging, I know that we have some re-constituted granite for repairs such as this. When my amazing pavilion roof was lifted in at the weekend and found to be 25 mm out, thus skewing each of the pillars by a few millimetres, I knew that we could accommodate this discrepancy within our precision cut granite floor.
My office is now a ten foot garden shed in the middle of the Chelsea showground.
In four years we've learnt so much: expect the unexpected and always have a back up plan. We still get let down though: this year it's our glass roof company, amongst other things, they forgot to send down graphite washers to attach the roof to the ring beam and the poor chaps are having to come all the way down from Wakefield to put them in today. But at least we now know which companies to work with in the future.
We have learnt to make our site as comfortable as possible and keep morale up. Gone are they days of camping out under a cheap gazebo eating hideous, overpriced food from the burger van. Now we have a ten foot shed, decked out with shelves, electrical sockets, coat hooks, two desks, a microwave, fridge and hot water boiler. It has the best view across my plot too. I love my shed...and the garden is beginning to look pretty good too. Roll on planting week.
's debut at Chelsea in 2008 resulted in a gold medal, followed by a Silver medal in 2009 and silver Gilt in 2010. Follow the ups and downs of the creation of his most ambitious Chelsea Show Garden to date on this blog in the coming weeks.
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Comment number 1.
At 13th May 2011, MaureenN wrote:What is it about Men and Sheds!
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Comment number 2.
At 13th May 2011, DingDong wrote:The pavilion roof looks amazing Tom! Love your new office - where's the sofa and TV?
Maureen - apparently men's sheds are the equivalent to women's handbags!
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Comment number 3.
At 20th May 2011, Olly wrote:The roof looks great and not too dissimilar from the that seem to be popping up all the time! I would certainly like one in my garden!
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Comment number 4.
At 27th May 2011, peterharrison wrote:Why have we seen only gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show. Very little seen of the Trade stands or the flowers or the Floral Art .You seem obsessed with the BIG GARDENS most of which we could not aspire to. I would love to see a stand of clematis and roses. After all Chelsea is a FLOWER SHOW.
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Comment number 5.
At 27th May 2011, peterharrison wrote:I thought my comment on Chelsea was reasonable .
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