Garden museum london and gridlock Sunday

I have just spent a lovely chilled out day at the garden museum London, they hosted an artist and makers fair in the beautiful church, there were lots of different stalls and something for everyone ,it was also really good to have a look at the exhibits such as Gertrude Jekyll's desk and vintage seed packets. after the fair finished we thought we would drive into Central London and have a wonder about and grab some food before heading to Colchester to our hotel. That was probably a mistake , so many road were closed all offer Central london and it was gridlocked , it didn't seem to matter which way we went we got stuck . Eventually we parked up and and went walk about , it was really crowded and none of us were having a good time, so we called it a day and headed back to the car . Things got so much better once we got to the hotel and had the best nights sleep .

No photos to show

I've been working really hard this week getting some new pieces done for the artists and makers tumblr fair on Sunday at the garden museum in London. I'm really looking forward to the day and I'm sure there will be some amazing work to see and lots of inspiration too. I've been taking photos to show you too , but something aweful happened this evening my phone got stolen , all my "A space to connect and grow" photos are gone too ( apart from the ones on Facebook and blog) and all the usual stuff you keep on your whole life .com . So I'm sending out a little request If any of you lovely blog readers have any photos of our garden and you would be happy to share them with me I would be so appreciative I would send you a big cyber hug to say thanks ! My email is jenicairns@btinternet.com . I also have a long shot shout out , I met a lovely lady and her designer friend on the Saturday of the show and she would like me to visit her in Ealing to design her garden on Wednesday 30th July , if by any chance you see this, would you contact me as your details are now gone too . I'm sorry it's not my usual upbeat and happy blog , I promise to get back to my over enthusiastic self ASAP x

The hottest exhibition in town

Just before RHS mayhem ensued I managed to get a piece done for the Vivacity open exhibition 19th July -21st sept at Peterborough museum , drop off day was while we were at Hampton court so Brian kindly attached the sculpture to its base and dad took it into the gallery ( it was pretty heavy too) ready to be scrutinized by the judges . Well it got selected yay !!  And the private view was on the hottest day of the year so far , man it was boiling , everyone was melting . The exhibition looked great , opens are brilliant because so much talent comes out of the woodwork ,and there's a real variety of work to see, one of my particular favs was sue shields beautiful paper cut with dark grey back drop.  Our show garden accomplishments got a mention and round of applause , which was both lovely and surprising . It was great to catch up with friends too !

I came home with a little birdie thank you Anita Bruce I shall treasure her always . 

Starting inspiration Phyllis Wheatley

It Saturday afternoon and its lovely to be back home , I've never been away from home for so long and while the wonderful roller coaster of RHS show garden building is totally brilliant , I wouldn't last long if I did it all the time , one a year is plenty . Indi has her friends over and they wanted to go to the park , we hardly ever go to the park because our garden is a wild and wonderful haven of nature and peace , so we got star and set off to the park , while they played I thought I'd go and sit on Grandmas bench in the church yard and I realized that she played a big part in getting me where I am now . I grew up on a farm with my parents and brother and have always felt really connected to the land, it's seasons and nature. I never really focused on gardens but always on beauty , nature and art . As my grandparents got older I helped them with looking after there garden and totally fell in love with this magical garden  , one day while mowing the lawn I just realized this is where I want to be . I never realized it would actually happen but about 9 years later I was able to call it home and the adventure of gardening and garden design took hold of me .

Peterborough is so creative

I'm back home now and have had a couple of early nights to charge my batteries . One of the totally brilliant aspects of our garden was the interaction between the artists and the public at the show , Creative Peterborough  made It possible , they funded the artistic program for the whole week , we were hoping to have a larger program funded by the arts council but it didn't work out . But actually it was perfectly balanced the way it was. We had poets Keely Mills , Ross Sutherland , Mark Grist and Mc Mixy, singers and musicians Kerry Devine, misty Jones and Marcel and David Pleasance , and visual artists Anita Bruce and Ann Bellamy . There were so many magical moments , laughter and tears , it was brilliant . Thank you Creative Peterborough for supporting and providing the funds to pull it off. 

I also want to say a huge thank you to Earls Scaffolding in Yaxley for donating 120 boards for the build we used every single one !! And finally a great big thank you to British sugar for sponsoring us too , we couldn't have done it without you . 

Gardens new home

We got home at 10pm worn out but satisfied that we'd got it done in a day , we were greeted by kids and dog and kittens and my mum, I was the last one home probably due to my driving miss daisy ways .  It was time to crawl into bed . Next morning metal had extended the van hire and called out for volunteers to help with the grand unloading . I won't lie I was exhausted , my back hurting and Brian wasn't any better, then I got a text from Sophie saying she was not feeling good either! Oh dear . But we trudged down to Chauffeurs cottage and there was a mini army of enthusiastic helpers yay!!! It was easy phew. Then we stopped off at the Key theatre and picked up some more oil drums before heading home to unload the last few bits .so nice to be Back home. :-)

Take down time

At the end of the craziest week of my life so far , it was time for the curtains to close on RHS Hampton court..... arh so sad . And time to pack up the happy garden and take it to its new home Metal at Chauffeurs cottage st Peters Rd Peterborough .my mum had the best suggestion ever, after closing time on Sunday go back to the hotel , have some food chill out out and face it on Monday. We were all loving that idea so that what we did . We had a nice meal on Kingston riverside we a couple of drinks , it was so lovely to be reunited with Brian again ! 

Monday arrived and back into the hi vis and steel toe caps we got , for our last day on site. Sophie's sister Suzanne came to help, first off plants went into pots while Brian and Sophie took the oil drum feature wall down , and piece by piece and plant by plant it all got put into the van and trailer kindly lent to us yet again by my little big brother David and sister in law Sam ( I owe u some pizzas) hehe . Then dad arrived with the 7.5ton truck and we carried on filling until every last piece was on board. We were seriously flagging and my back was hurting , but we got done and signed off by the lovely smiley Gemma . Time to go home and back to reality

Show some love for our lovely sponsors

Hip hip hooray for Metal !! I'm so glad Metal came to Peterborough , Peterborough is such a brilliant City but it needed connections making and unity , everyone was doing their own brilliant things on their own  and organizations like Metal and Vivacity are making real lasting impacts for us. Last year I was lucky enough to work as a bursary artist with them on the incredible upon this rock lantern parade. This led to conversations about sponsorship and promotion opportunities for Metal at RHS Hampton court flower show . They created links with Sophie Antonelli and the greenbackyard and through working together we have been able to create something wildly ambitious (judges words ) and pull it off . Sarah Haythornthwaite and Mark Richards from metal have been so supportive and given me artistic freedom throughout to develop my ideas and methods . They have helped us immeasurably with funding applications and sponsorship requests and they have been a joy to work with . Thank you so much Metal. 

All the special people

I'm so excited today because my special people are on their way !!! Firstly Brian my wonderful husband who has worked so so hard behind the scenes on our garden "A space to connect and grow" building benches and planters , cutting metal, fetching and building and driving up and down the A1 juggling show garden building with looking after our kids and pizza shop. I know it's been really hard but look what we achieved together. You made it happen and you made it possible and today you will have some of the limelight too. Bask in it ! Secondly my brilliant dad Owen Wheatley who lets me use his wonderful farm yard finds and helps me develop my madcap ideas , he welds and cuts and helped to build the garden and got us all organized , and I know he will be invaluable in the take down and rebuild and is an absolute joy to work with. Then my lovely mum who has supported and sorted the kids and pets out , built the beautiful insect hotels and more , thank you mum xx 

Next up Sophie Antonelli we worked on ideas together and she has worked just as hard as me on site building we put in 14 hour days and have had such a brilliant time together , which has been great considering we didn't know each other before, she also organized the invaluable volunteers who have been fantastic and gave it their all. A massive thank you to Monty Don for loving our garden and declaring it on tv!! 

This post is short but totally epic

Monty, Rachel and Joe in our garden ohhh yeah !!!!

What a scorcher

Today has been hot hot hot , people relaxing under trees , taking in the sights and sounds of the largest and best summer flower show in the world . Happy people everywhere . The genius that is Ann Bellamy came to create her fantastic character sketches . I met some lovely people, some friends and family came to see us and our garden. It's been another very wonderful day on planet RHS I really don't want it to end . Oh we'll I just won't think about that bit yet. P

Sorry I've been a bit busy and 3G is useless

I'm having so much fun , we are feeling a tad tired too , but it's so great . Meeting Monty Joe and Rachel has been a big highlight and watching Monty say our garden was his favorite thing was so special it made me cry . Friends and family coming to the show has been wonderful . Another fantastic part has been the artists performing and creating in the garden . Poets Mark grist and mc mixy came on Thursday with Marks brilliant poems about his pug and girls who read made people laugh out load , while mixy's poems about love and grandparents bought tears to so many eyes. The connections this garden has created is pretty special. On Friday Tony Nero came with Tom Fox , while Tony painted , Tom serenaded with his ukelele and sang it was another brilliant day. Today the sun is beaming and Anne Bellamy is here with cartoons and hilarity I can't wait to see what she does .