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We received our Gold medal for the Quilted Velvet Garden at Hampton Court Palace last Monday evening and started building the third Quilted Velvet Garden at Tatton Park at 8am the next morning! No time to bask in the glory and enjoy the garden. This was the strangest feeling of the whole campaign - never...
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The last two and a half weeks at Hampton Court have been spent erecting green oak structures and planting thousands of oak seedlings, as well as over a thousand purple heather plants. All of this and more in order to create the second Quilted Velvet garden of the summer. This garden is much easier to...
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Well, rather a lot of the former and a small glimmer of the latter. Just after posting my last blog, rashly entitled Turning the Corner, my neck and shoulder seized up; a consequence of a minor cordyline-induced injury and a considerable amount of tension. Can’t think what came over me, after all it...
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Well, as I pointed out in my last blog, I had to come down to the show again today to get some pics and coverage of the last floral arrangement and florist of the year sections. When the alarm went off at 3am it was a bit of a shock to the system - it was an even bigger shock when it went off 5 minutes...
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So, my first stint in the Press Office at Chelsea 2009 is over - I've rolled up my sleeping bag and made my way back home. This morning the web team is finishing off the live coverage working on the video and slideshow of pictures in the Great Pavilion. We're all working at half speed, just staring...
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When you're having fun. We were so rushed yesterday I didn't manage to get time to put up a blog! Exhibitors were busy too, either starting, finishing or generally tidying up their displays. Devine Nurseries did turn up and quickly got down to sorting out the display. He soon overtook some of...
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... that, as usual, before the show opens to the public it's a sea of fluorescent yellow and orange - from the hi-vis vests that health & safety demand. Once your eyes acclimatise to this shocking colour clash, you realise that it's business as usual at the world's greatest flower show...
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I've arrived. I'm well and truly encamped in the Press Tent at the showground. I've set up my computer and sleeping bag (well, not really, but it's an idea!) and I can now wander out into the heart of the show and see what delights this year's Chelsea has to offer. It all looks very...
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Today we spent the whole day wading in the pond with rolled up trousers, planting up all the marginals. At first, the water seemed quite pleasant, but as the day wore on, so the chill set in and morale started to dip amongst my wonderful volunteer planters.
Saggy trouser legs and other bits of clothing...
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Having spent the last gawd knows how many weeks creating and uploading the pre-show content for Chelsea Flower Show, it's now all in place. And even better than that - I'm off the show tomorrow. I'll be camping at the showground and in the Press Tent for the next four days - well not literally...
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The Andrew Ewing water features have now all been installed and he's just tweaking the water flow and the finish for the stone blocks. The sculpture by Nigel Hall is in place and is fantastic! The corten steel finish works so well with the colour of the Travertine, in the sunlight it casts a precise...
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I hope I don’t live to regret saying this, but it feels like we are turning a corner. As usually happens at a certain stage of a project, I start to see encouraging glimpses of the vision that until now has only existed in my head. These glimpses have given me and the Hortus infinitus team a noticeable...
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Tuesday was a very important day this week, as we had a crane in the afteroon to put in the two tonne Travetine blocks for the water features. They also craned in the five brown sandstone blocks. It took a bit of manoevering to get them into position! Also, the stone specialists were on site assisting...
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We started on Friday; marking out and then digging out, followed by setting out and on Saturday afternoon we came out of the ground. As I can’t think of any more outs, well not appropriate ones anyway, I shall now talk about the weather. The Met office told us on Thursday that it would be fine and dry...
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Well we have finally started work on the garden. The boundary hedge is in, the Carpinus Boxhead trees were delivered over the weekend and are being positioned today. The stone for the water features has arrived and work on the feature wall has started. Suddenly everything is happening! It's amazing...
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