My Garden

Last week we had a meeting at Crocus with Mark Fane and with the rest of the Crocus construction team including Graham Hoyle who will be building the Laurent-Perrier Garden. Its getting to close to Chelsea now and the meeting went over a lot of the more intricate details such as the travertine clad feature wall onto which the Nigel Hall corten steel sculpture is to be fixed. This has been surprisingly challenging as I want the water of the reflecting pool beside it to disappear beneath the wall and therefore a cantilever is required. Also the travertine cladding pieces are not that small!

Whilst at Crocus we went out in the nursery to look at the trees and hedges as well as the perennial plants. Graham set up an example of the tiered hedges so I could look at the different heights - they are going to brilliant and a testament to all the hard work that has gone into the Laurent-Perrier Garden.

This week I've also been filming with the BBC, both at the Tate modern and at Ham House - I chose these places as they are inspiring in different ways but you'll have to watch the preview show to find out why!"
 

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I visited Verona with Andrew Ewing & Catherine on Friday. We arrived at the stone supplier's yard and there was two large solid travertine blocks - waiting for us, what a sight. The natural pits and holes in the surface were amazing and the blocks were like art features themselves. We chose the front faces for the outlets to be cut into. Once inside the workshop we saw all the travertine setts precisely cut and then carefully packed in crates ready to be shipped to the UK.

 

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Next week I will be travelling back to Verona. The Travertine blocks, for the water features, have been cut and I will be choosing their best face into which the bronze outlets will be cut. Also the brown sandstone pieces for the interior of the water features are currently in production so I will get my first look at these. Water feature specialist, Andrew Ewing, who is producing the water features, will be travelling with me and Catherine so we can check on the stone together. We are making it a day trip only and Andrew as said that as compensate for the very early start I will have to buy him a good Italian lunch!

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