Open country

My first thoughts as I stood in front of the newly scraped and levelled plot, site of the Homebase Room With A View show garden, were...'Mmmm, this is a big space', quickly followed by 'Have I got enough plants'! The team from Scotscape, Project Manager Sam Bothwell with Ty, Joe and Joey, are mega organised and have years of show-garden-building experience between them. Sam was a little flustered yesterday as some of the deliveries were delayed (one turning up at 8pm instead of 8am!) but when I spoke to him this morning the schedule was back on track, so he was a happy man.

The corners of the building were marked out yesterday and footings made in preparation for the steel structure which arrives today. My next visit is this Friday and things will look very different then.

Afterwards, I went down to Crocus to see how my plants are getting on. This is the first time Crocus have supplied plants for a named designer at Hampton Court show so my plants are getting the TLC treatment. We spent sometime going through what was going to make it, what could be cajoled into making in and what plants were definitely not going to be ready. Plants were later sent off for intensive treatment either in a hot glasshouse to bring them on or put under shade, to hold things back. The hydrangeas aren't as far forward as I'd like but still another 10 days before they are due on site, and just under three weeks before the show opens.