Well, it’s June 18th and the countdown has begun in earnest!
In just 25 extremely short days, Floral and Hardy will begin the build on its first ever Back-to-Back show garden at RHS Tatton. Nerves? Us? No, never! We love new experiences and challenges!
When Hugh and I decided to go for this at the back end of last year, it all seemed such a long way away and what could be easier – designing and building an attractive contemporary courtyard garden? Constructing gardens is what we do. So why stress?
I guess because as designers, we want the garden to be as good as it can be not just for the medal ranking but so the visiting public will stop for more than 20 seconds for a chat about the ideas, the plants, the look and feel and maybe offer comments, – “That’s just the sort of thing we’ve been thinking about for our little plot”.
But of course in the outside world you have the luxury of time. Time to delay for a day or two if the July weather’s so inclement, you can’t lay stone or plant up. At Tatton if it’s raining, you get wet and muddy (remember ’07?); if it’s the hottest July on record, you get sunburnt and your plants wilt (remember ’06?). And if you’re not ready on time when the judges appear, you’ve blown it. As we novices keep being told by those who have trodden this well-worn path before us, - “If it can go wrong, it will go wrong so prepare for the worst”. And yet, these same great mentors return each year. Masochists? Gluttons for punishment?
It can’t be so bad, surely ….? Ask us on July 27th!
Our ‘Urban Hideaway’ address is D/62 at the show, so make sure you pitch up and say hello.
http://www.rhs.org.uk/tatton/2008/back-to-back-gardens/urban-hideaway-garden.asp
Bye for now. We’re off plant shopping…. More news next week. Hil & Hugh.