What an adventure it has been

Well the mission has been accomplished, and already feels like a memory. I'm not exactly sure why anyone does show gardens but I know there is no other ride like it .For me , it's about stepping out of the norm and being open to the challenges that will inevitably arise. Having control over a vision but ultimately having no control , there is the weather for starters , then budgets , plants, trees , working with people , creativity , faith in an outcome, faith in everything  , giving everything you have and then some , facing your limits, it's like a marathon or an iron man challenge or both  . You might think I'm exaggerating but im not,  29 long  physically demanding days working on site, up at 6am and out the door soon after , finishing at 8pm ( but waking at 5am because your mind is full of all the things you really don't need to be thinking about ) I haven't even mentioned the lead up ,the engineering,  building the elements , visiting nurseries and suppliers , endless internet detective work trying to locate the right Boulder for the right price ( haha, but true) the project  becomes an obsession there's no off switch , I become a pain in the arse to live with because I can't focus on the outside world anymore ( sorry Brian u are a hero for putting up with me ) 

I totally totally love it though! Even in  the mud and rain thank god for water proof trousers! 

And although I'm very flexible and go with the flow I know what I want to achieve and the perfectionist in me rears her pernickity head and works with my intuition to make it work .

Although the buck stops with me , there is literally an army of people that made this happen 

The sponsors 

WWT and HSBC water programme for putting their money and trust in me and also helping with the hard work and digging ! 

The RHS , including Dave green the show team  and  the ground crew

My family

My dad Owen Wheatley  who stayed for most of the pre build,  build and breakdown 

My ( long suffering) husband Brian and my kids

Mum  Pauline 

Everyone who helped to build the garden 

Sophie Antonelli, Matt , Luke , Harrison , Chris ,plantsman extraordinare Gareth and Michelle , Liz , Andi , Annalise, Andrew Goddard, Gary , Rod, Kevin deboo , David ( my bro) the wonderful HSBC volunteers (all 80 of them ) especially Cesar who came 4 days and gave up 2 weekends , and Padma who kept me smiling at one of my lowest points .

Simon rose from WWT who took on more than he bargained for I'm sure , Mike , Julian , Kevin Peberdy, the lovely  Ellie wise ,John Creddon , Adam freeman and lastly the wonderful Sue Alexander. Phew not to mention the other designers and contractors that helped when I needed something , like Andrew ,Gareth and Cherry . 

Phew it takes a lot of man hours to build a show garden and quite a few tears 

Then there's the plants and materials

Bannolds stone

Deep dale and Barchams trees

Hortus loci

British Wildflowers 

Anglo aquatics

KDS shotblasting and powdercoating 

Anglian galvanising

Joel and Mia maintenance 

Marwoods

A1 steel

B c wiles

All this came together to create a gold medal best show garden 

Thankyou all of you xx

We got Gold and then some

Wow what a week but in a nutshell we only went and got gold and best show garden !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I promise to give all the low down later today 

We're on the last leg of the show garden marathon

It's day 17 of the biggest show garden build I've done so far ( don't let me go any bigger !!)  , 150m2 of plants , water , metal , wood , trees , gravel , sweat , tears and some laughter . It's been a roller coaster , and has at times definitly felt like a slog . But it's looking beautiful where it's finished and I'm really pleased with the vistas and views from different view points . I've got two days left to finish and with a little ( lot) of help from my friends and Brian and the marvellous volunteer crew at HSBC I will get this thing done ! Thank goodness the end is in sight 

A run of good days

Yay for sunshine and HSBC volunteers and dads and friends . 

We did have yet more rain and when I say rain I mean lake makers , but then the sunshine came out and transformed our moods , energy and eased our work  slightly , the theme of the garden has seemed to be do everything 3 times arghhh , but now we move on to planting yay I'm happy now , and to add to the yayness we have had a wonderful group of HSBC volunteers to help for the last few days and they have been brilliant 

Ok more mud but things are starting to take shape

More soil moving , Swale changing , and sticky boots but I finally feel like things are taking shape and glimmers of magic are appearing , the water crumbler barrel is in and looking great it will look fab with the chains hanging down and water flowing . There are nice vistas starting to appear ( with a little imagination) I feel more positive today than I have for ages . And more help is on its way tomorrow , myself dad and Luke have worked really hard today but a team of 5 or six will be better and even 7 on Monday yay that will be brilliant . 

Digging out and filling in

It's been a good few days work at the start of the flower show build , one great big pond , one small and two swales , multiple water levels , structures , rills phew there's a lot to do , Simon and Mike from the WWT have been brilliant at making the ponds and getting the levels right between them , we have moved what feels like mountains out of the ponds then after fitting underlay , box welded liner from Stephens plastics , more underlay , we have moved mountains back in for the planting areas. Dad has been awesome working into the night with David my brother to get the fixings for the roof done in time for the Lorry journey , thank good ness for patient Lorry drivers it took a longtime to load up all the stuff , but it's all here now and soon the groundwork will be done and shiny metal will rise up from the ground . 

Blue skies , mixed emotions and silver linings

It's been hot hot hot , we have gone from what feels like winter to summer in a week , last week was layers of jumpers and coats this week , vests and suntans . Yesterday was a very long tiring day , getting things ready for the galvanise pick up , more frantic welding and grinding and linishing , the highlight was testing out the rain collecting roof water feature it flowed brilliantly down the centre of the crumbler barrel .I started cutting out a decorative panel for the wall depicting dragonfiles and pond plants . Then the galvanising company came to collect the elements . I was frazzled by the end of day so got an early night . Then today things seemed to take a downward turn , the galvanising company rang to say everything needed shotblasting ( which I and they knew ) and said the things would need to go to the shotblasters I was a bit annoyed as we could have got it sent straight to kds where I always go for shotblasting and powdercoating . And then he said the rain collecting roof wouldn't cope well with the galvanising process, rivets would melt and it could warp arrgh . So after some panicking, tears and asking for divine intervention I Rang Kevin at KDS and he said he would pick the items up , shotblast them , and zinc coat the roof and take the rest back for galvanising, I rushed about all day to get the benches, roof legs and wall panels with dad , Andy and Brian done ready to be powder coated tomorrow and set off in my truck with Andy following behind with the panels. on the way back i started to relax about all things silver and black , I took photos for inspiration from the planting at the river banks on the way home

. This started out a very stressful day but ended up ok in the end . Let's see what tomorrow brings 

Heavy metal weekend

Phew it's been a long weekend but so much is happening and getting done . I feel better each and every time something works or comes together . This is by far the biggest and most ambitious build I've undertaken and in someways the most nerve wracking  because I need to rely on other people people's expertise to bring it to fruition. The rain collecter roof is getting there now , the curves have made for some very interesting angles and fixings . Not to mention engineering skills . And with the galvanising deadline being Monday at 1pm we have been putting in the hours to get it done . Andy has been cutting and welding , dad has been doing most things  and masterminding solutions, Brian has been making the table tøp , citing metal and making benches with Andy as well as collecting much needed stuff like materials -wood , metal etc and making wonderful lunches . Luke has been assisting dad with various tasks, Rod helped with woodwork and even dads friend Tom has helped out today . You definitely get more done with more hands . I'm really excited about the benches we are constructing i had been thinking about different options and then today I came up with the solution ,I love the shape and I'm really loving the continuity of materials through the garden too

, the reclaimed bog mats have been a total triumph allbeit a very heavy one , that wood is like iron . I have linished , grinded, cut and lifted more metal in the past few day than ever before ive also not been told I have a mucky face this often before , I'm ready for a shower and a good night sleep ready for tomorrow.