Designing and building a garden at Chelsea is all about the planning.I currently have a Plan A, B, C and maybe even a Plan D. As Alan Titchmarsh wrote in this weeks gardening section in The Daily Telegraph, you have to plan for the worst case scenario,

‘ The risk factor is a big part of Chelsea’s allure – success is not a fait accompli for anyone’

Thanks for that Mr T!

OUR plan A is that the various elements of the garden will all be brought together on site , much like a massive jigsaw puzzle, after a dry run in Micks barn! The sandstone paving is currently on a  slow boat from India, with the slate en-route from China.

Once the slate arrives from England, it will be engraved with the chosen quotation by Diss based company, Perfitts. The honeycomb planters are being constructed by Lavenham Joinery. Tubes of Douglas fir will be formed into hexagons, some over 2 metres in height; these are then sandblasted to expose the grain of the wood. Then its off to Mick’s barn, where , in a cost cutting exercise, myself, Paul Hammond , my co-designer and anyone else we can rope in will apply a pale woodstain to further enhance the surface texture of the planters. Oz at the joinery company is also making our zigzagging bench, which appears to hover above the paving with no visible form of support.

The copper edging, an addition to our initial plan after we found the garden would have to raised above ground level, is being created by Tom Hitchcock at local Blacksmiths, Gedding Mill Forge. Rather than retain the basic hues of the copper, we have chosen to patinate the metal creating an altogether different finish,  a process which will be undertaken by yet another specialist company.

Tom is also creating the copper bowl which will form part of the hexagonal pool, once set into the hexagonal stone structure also on its way from India.

So, the various pieces are all either under construction, or in transit somewhere in the world. That’s the hard landscaping taken care of, now all I’ve got to worry about is the plants……

Oh, and how to get everything in one piece up to London.