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Tag Archives: RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Blue Water Garden – Less than 2 weeks to go!

May 09, 2012   admin   No comments

Progress so far...

What difference a week makes?

With less than two weeks to go(!) the build is coming on nicely: the dry stone roof on the Trulli Building is about half way to completion and the Monocouche rendering of the walls has begun.

Nigel Dunnett has been up to Lindum Turf in York, to have a look at the bespoke native/exotic meadows for the RBC Blue Water Garden.  These have been made up according to Nigel’s experimental perennial seed mixes, and grown for the last year as pre-vegetated perennial mats, ready to be planted on site as ready-made ornamental meadows.  It’s very exciting because the meadows are just coming into flower, and should be perfect for Chelsea!




Within Nigel’s special mix the Verbascum phoenecium ‘Purpurea’, Knautia arvensis, Linum perenne, and Dianthus carthusianorum are starting to flower. Can’t wait to see the finished planting!

 

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Blue Water Garden – Day One!

May 02, 2012   admin   No comments

Well – it’s all happening!

Yesterday (Day Zero) our Landform foremen Rich & Mark B, and Ed, from the Landscape Agency, were busy setting out.  As you can see – they were also avoiding small swamps on the plot! We are next to the Rock Bank Restaurant at the south end of Main Avenue, to help you get your bearings!

Blue Water plot under water on "Setting Out" day!

And – what difference a day makes! Day One and all the foundations for the Trulli Building and the water feature have been excavated.  The Team Tea Shed has been errected!

Day One on site at RHS Chelsea

Meanwhile – quite a coup for Nigel Dunnett and the Planting Team: we have 550 lilies being delivered.  Just need to make sure they are at peak for the judging. If we can pull it off, no one will have seen anything like this before!

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The Blue Water Garden – Final Preparations

April 25, 2012   admin   No comments

We can’t believe that the Build-up for Chelsea Flower Show starts a week today!

We’re busy completing orders of materials and carrying out general housekeeping like getting parking to the showground organised, our construction signs printed up  - even making sure our Team will have plenty of tea and coffee for their breaks – and washing up liquid to clean the cups!

Meanwhile Nigel Dunnett and Ed Payne from The Landscape Agency came to visit us this week, to go through the final preparations before we start on site. They had a productive day going through the plans and the details, but they also came to inspect the samples we have at the yard.

Here is Mark showing the dry stone roofing sample and stone for the Trulli Pavillion, and with Catherine and Ed looking at plans:

Nigel has been busy making the final tree selections at Hilliers Nursery. Among the specimens he has chosen the beautiful and impressive, but little-know, upright form of our native Field Maple – Acer campestre ‘William Caldwell’.  These will be planted in a strip along the side of the garden.

Nigel with the Acer campestre 'William Caldwell'

He also viewed the Italian cypresses (photographed here with Jim Hillier) which will punctuate the formal terraces.

 

Nigel with Jim Hillier & Italian cypresses

And also seen – a special form of Prunus serrulata, which is a stunning multi stemmed tree with glowing bark.  These will frame the Trulli Building at the top of the garden.

Prunus serrulata for framing the Trulli Pavillion

 

 

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RHS Chelsea 2011 Medals Day

May 24, 2011   admin   No comments

With over a year of preparation and only a few weeks to construct these temporary gardens, the gardens are completed.  The Queen has visited and the results are in!

Mark Gregory and Her Majesty The Queen with Nigel Dunnett at the New Wild Garden

GOLD for the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne – Australia Garden

SILVER GILT for the Royal Bank of Canada – New Wild Garden

We are really pleased with our results and hope that all the show visitors will continue to enjoy the gardens throughout the week.

Here’s a glimpse of some of the celebrities we spotted yesterday!  Hope to have some pictures of Mark Gregory meeting the Queen later on…

Mark cleaning the pools before the Queens visit!

Nigel Dunnet, Royal Bank of Canada sponsors and Matthew Wilson

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Australia Garden – Finishing Touches

May 24, 2011   admin   No comments

The final weekend before the judges come in!  It’s all hands on deck in the Australia Garden. Check out the final instalment of the Journey of Water video for more.

Jim is in his element here – tweaking and titivating!

Jim Fogarty doing some last minute tweaking with Catherine.

The RBG Melbourne Planting Team are completing the planting, trimming and laying the sand.

The Landform Team are making the final touches to all the detail and cleaning everything up just in time for the cameras to come in.

Andy Sturgeon was the first to film on the garden with the BBC and he said that we are making show history by using entirely native/indigenous plants.

Andy Sturgeon filming for the BBC

Joe Swift and Mark Gregory filming for the BBC

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New Wild Garden – Finishing Touches

May 24, 2011   admin   No comments

The final weekend before the judging is  when hopefully everything comes together!  Everyone works hard to clip, clean, tweak, trim and tidy!

Just in case you can’t remember how it all started – have a look at this time-lapse video made by Jane Sebire.

We’ve done all we can to make the garden the best it can be.  Just have to see what the judges say!

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New Wild Garden – 3 days until judging!

May 20, 2011   admin   No comments

The heat is on!  3 days to go until judging and things are starting to fall into place on the New Wild Garden.

Nigel Dunnett is on site planting and finalising the last few details.  Nigel is pleased with how the garden has progressed and says that it has exceeded his expectations.

Nigel Dunnett on site planting.

The Habitat Walls are completed and planted – so things are really starting to take shape.  Just got to fill the pools now…so more worry as we wait to complete the water features!

Peaceful in amongst the Silver Birch trees...

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Australia Garden – Day 15

May 18, 2011   admin   No comments

Progress on the garden is coming on in leaps and bounds now with less than a week to go until judging.

Progress on Day 15.

Dry Riverbed Paths

The Team have been working on the Dry Riverbed Paths in the garden and it’s a time consuming job, since it involves impregnating pebbles of various sizes into mortar.  First of all they place the larger stones and then position the smaller stones around them to make the pattern.  The pebbles are then covered in a slurry mix and rubbed off.  When the path is finished, Paul will acid wash and seal the entire surface – so the race is on to get this done, so that the planting can begin in earnest and the garden can be finished off.  Even Catherine came down on Saturday and Sunday and got stuck in to help!  It’s all hands on deck!

Sand Dunes Wall Sculpture

For the Sand Dunes Wall Sculpture, fibreglass wall panels are painted with a sand textured finish.  Rav is working on concealing the joints between the panels, by throwing red sand into the joints.

Tree Planting

The main construction work has to be completed before the planting can really begin.  In the meantime however, the team can get the trees main structural trees into position.  For more on the RBG Melbourne Planting Team and updates from designer Jim Fogarty – have a look at these films on You Tube: RBG Melbourne Film – The Journey of Water

 

The Team planting a Livistonia.

The Team planting a Livistonia.

 

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New Wild Garden – Habitat Walls and Decking

May 16, 2011   admin   No comments

Progress on the New Wild Garden is coming on – but there’s still lots to do!

Day 13 and the plants have arrived!

 

 

Work has begun on the construction of the infill for the Habitat Walls.  It’s quite a painstaking job: the metal frames for the walls are filled with materials by hand in random patterns to create a stunning yet practical home for garden wildlife.  The materials include recycled wooden palettes, logs, old books and even some fruit!

The Habitat Walls are finished on the tops and sides with paddlestone walling.  The stone is cut by hand on site.  Bearing in mind there are five walls – you can see there’s a lot to do and there’s only seven days left until judging!

Mike working on the dry stone walling for the Habitat Walls

Meanwhile, the team are assembling the decking for the seating area and in front of the office.  Again the deck is made from reclaimed boards, so the wood has a lot of character.  The boards are cut to shape and finished off by mild steel surround.

Rich using a soft mallet to tap the surround into place.

 

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Australia Garden – Build-Up Day 5

May 09, 2011   admin   No comments

Things are now progressing well on site!

We had some delays as we are using a Chelsea plot that hasn’t been excavated for some years, so we had to dig very carefully around the roots of the London Planes that tower over the Show Gardens – most of it by hand too!

The Outdoor Fireplace for the entertaining area is taking place. Ross is working on cladding the blockwork structure.

Ross cladding the Outdoor Fireplace

Interior cladding for Outdoor Fireplace

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Gorge Metalwork structure will be assembled next. All the metalwork is now on site.  The blockwork for the Boomerang water feature will start shortly too.

Foreground: Gorge metalwork

 

Good to see that there are still a few smiles at the end of the day (Jim on site with Mark, the foreman, and Chris).

 

Designer Jim Fogarty, Mark & Chris on site.

 

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