Growing gardens today – winners’ blogs
Andy Tudbury
26 May 2008
Well I have just seen the site for the garden at the NEC and the slope is pretty bad - it slopes from the back at a 1 in 10 ratio so it looks like I will have to get a digger onto site as this equates to approximately 10 tons of soil to move. Anyone got a spade??
Andy Tudbury
23 May 2008
Well the bank holiday is here, and while the rest of the UK head off for well earned breaks I will be potting up over 150 plants ready for the show opening in two weeks. It all looks so easy when you watch the Chelsea Flower Show, but there is a huge amount of work involved even producing a relatively small garden like this one. Although I must be absolutely crazy because I’m already drawing up next year’s garden, ready for when I find a sponsor.
But all this stress fades into insignificance when you hear of Monty Don’s health scare - get well Monty!
Claire Potter – doing a tip run…
20 May 2008
This weekend, we did a tip run. Not unusual, you may think – going to the local refuse centre, but our tip run was to find things, not dump things.
The queue of cars was backed up outside the gates, towards the main road. Once inside, vast amounts of waste was being pulled, heaved and scraped from vehicles of all shapes and sizes towards, and finally through the large plastic sheets into the warehouse behind.
Whilst we understand that sometimes the tip is the only option for a few items, it seems our throwaway culture has allowed us to forget that items can be fixed, amended and adapted into new things. And if it does go to the tip, it doesn’t just disappear once it’s left our hands and vanished behind the plastic curtains…
We are lucky, as our local tip has a YMCA charity tip shop, which rescues items from the front line! One person’s waste is another’s treasure, and there are truly some bits of treasure to be had!
We found a few bits for the garden in the tip shop, which if not rescued, would have been buried forever. Recycling and money to charity; what a way to spend a Saturday morning!
Andy Tudbury
20 May 2008
Thank goodness for the good old British weather! Having experienced wet, damp and red hot, we now have a touch of frost (without David Jason) and as such some of the plants have taken a real hammering. Hey Ho! Still another fruitful day spent on the build. Having seen the fantastic gardens at Chelsea I now can’t wait to get started with the on-site build!
Andy Tudbury
16 May 2008
Paperwork paperwork! Finally I have managed to deal with all the much loved paperwork for the NEC - now I can get back to preparing the actual garden.
With just over a week until we can start the on-site build, it’s down to panicking that all the final materials arrive when they should, which as I learned last year, when some major plants failed to materialise for the garden, isn’t always guaranteed. So fingers crossed and the whisky to hand to steady the nerves! One of my plants decided to curl up and die this week but thankfully I have managed to get a replacment. So the weekend will once more be spent in the greenhouse talking nicely to the rest of them just in case!
Peter Stevens
16 May 2008
Well all the painting is now finished and the veg plants are progressing well. We are just a bit concerned now with the dry weather that some of the plants will be past their best! It's hard trying to bring some plants on and at the same time trying to keep some of the plants in check.
The planters filled with veg, herbs and fruit are really coming on well. We have just acquired the security panels from the building site next door, these are now waiting to be cut and framed to form part of our boundary.
We are planning to start build up on June 5th as James is away until the 4th. Five days for build up should be plenty of time!
P.S. James' hols were booked before we knew about the show garden!
Andy Tudbury
13 May 2008
At last we have some wonderful sunshine, the veg have suddenly burst into life and you can almost stand and watch them grow! Which, as we start the on site build in a couple of weeks, isn’t before time. The whole of the bank holiday weekend was spent pricking out and potting up.
It’s amazing how much compost I am actually getting through, I’ve taken a few days 'off work' to try and get on top of things, talk about a busman’s holiday! Let’s hope the weather continues like this - it may mean we will actually be picking veg at the show!
Andy Tudbury
7 May 2008
Rain, rain, rain, and even more rain, hey ho! The only good thing is that I don’t need to water as much, but I think all my neighbours think I am going a little loopy as I can be heard, every evening, in the green houses talking to the plants to cajole them into growth. I’ll try anything once!
The good thing is that the construction is going well. And I now have the glamorous side of entering a show garden at the NEC, mountains and mountains of forms to fill in, risk assessments, health and safety, permission to build, construction drawings, pass applications, etc etc…
Claire Potter - As busy as a bee…
7 May 2008
It has been said that the Spring bank holiday weekend is supposed to be one of the busiest for DIY enthusiasts, and this year we have joined the throng, albeit in a different way to most.
Friday saw the arrival of our natural and ecologically safe wood stains and part of Saturday was spent picking up the (empty) beehive from a local bee farm – flatpacked and ready for assembly. Materials have been collected, scrounged and hunted down from various locations – to be recycled and reused, and our plants appear to be relishing the hot weather and sunny days we have had over the weekend.
DIY - doing it yourself - is very satisfying, and by finding an ‘eco’ way of doing it, you can award yourself a double pat on the back!
Andy Tudbury – Food for Life
19 April 2008
Wow, half way through April already! Having succeeded in creating an unusual design for a vegetable garden I am now transferring the paper drawing to the world of reality.
I know my design is different but I’m sure it will look really good at the show. The whole idea is that you can actually build a veg garden in a small area without it being laid out as an allotment would be, and be good-looking all year round.
The weather is adding to the stress levels as the temperatures are anything but ideal and the veg just are not growing as quickly as I would like for the show.
All my greenhouses ,and most of my family and friends, are just about full to bursting with seed trays etc, so I’m sure the next few weeks are going to be full of the delights of trying to prick out and pot up the various seedlings!
The actual construction side of the garden is already underway in an effort to take the whole garden to Birmingham in flat pack form. The good thing is I seem to be getting together a healthy number of volunteers to help with the build at the show – let’s hope the weather is better than last year.
Claire Potter – The Garden of Three R’s
19 April 2008
“It’s not easy being green.”
The eco presenter and enthusiastic self renovator Dick Strawbridge hit it right on the head in 2006. Everyday we are told how our planet is spiralling into oblivion, with us at the helm, guiding it on its way. We are all told to ‘do our bit’, drive less, eat local and seasonal, reduce / reuse / recycle. Be responsible.
But it’s hard, and sometimes feels like an uphill struggle, especially when you really get into the nitty gritty of even the smallest of issues. Should I buy organic apples if they have been flown from New Zealand? Or should I buy the apples from my local greengrocers, which are grown two miles away, come packed in paper, but may have been sprayed with chemicals potentially disrupting the local wildlife? And that’s just for my apples…
At claire potter design we think that being green comes in many levels, and by making a few small changes at a time we can all build to our optimum and really do our bit. And it can be easy – thinking globally and acting locally - starting with our own homes and gardens.
Our garden begins to display the possibilities, and by thinking imaginatively and even having fun, we can actively do the three R’s – reduce, reuse, recycle, as well as really being responsible…
Peter Stevens – Vegout
19 April 2008
'Vegout' - chance would be a fine thing, but too busy with design projects in spite of the current poor weather!
Anyway, preparations for the show garden are now well underway, James the landscaper and I both have greenhouses full of seedlings and plants we're trying to bring on and protect to be in pristine condition for June, herb and fruit planters have also been prepared and I'm quite excited about a couple of unusual fruit bushes that James has asked the plant nursery to look after until the show.
Last week found a very good solar powered pump for the water feature which is going to be made from an old copper wash tub and the coil from a hot water cylinder, which hopefully this year will not leak!
We spent a very productive day toward the end of March preparing the raised beds for the garden with a view to bringing them to the site ready to assemble. We’re making good progress with the divider wall, father-in-laws wood work machinery is being put to good use, and planning to use the next bank holiday for more fabrication. But not told our wives yet! Now off to put a first coat of red paint on that divider wall.
