The Woods Awakens

Molly (my juvenile Labrador) and I take our usual circular walk most mornings. It is fascinating to see the small changes that are starting to happen each day as the temperature warms and light levels increase. One of the first wood land plants to push through is what I know as 'Lords and Ladies' (Arum maculatum). Such a luscious green leaf - some are quite spotted and attractive. Another plant to spring up is 'Dogs Mercury'. The Deschampsia is starting to show green amongst its dry brown wispy leaves, but the Dryopteris ferns are staying tightly curled up knuckles. The bluebell leaves are pushing up in sunny areas of wood, and buds on trees swell. Elder leaves, Hazel and Hawthorn are the earliest tree leaves to appear.

I manage to visit David Hockney's current exhibition, 'A Bigger Picture', at the R.A. His 'paintings' are mostly of trees in his native Yorkshire landscape. They are painted in incredibly confident bright colours, a lot are very graphic and on a huge prolific scale. I am particularly drawn to the series that show an symbolic amputated tree stump, which he calls 'Totems',  surrounded by younger trees. Here he is examining the cycle of nature. I love the ipad series that show a woods changing through the months. The colours are more subtle here and the detailed mark making is gorgeous! All very inspiring - I will have to get painting again......or maybe ipadding!

Living Wall, Sculpture and the Brief

I spent a busy few days planting up 1100 octagonal sections of 'Bod pave' having stapled capillary matting to the reverse side to help retain the soil and moisture. To do this I used 9cm plants and divided each one into 3 so that these shallow fast rooting plants can rapidly spread a mat of green to create the desired green wall effect. My local garden centre have very kindly offered me space in their large 'growing on 'green houses which is heated and checked on daily so that is a huge help. When transported to Chelsea they will be mounted onto the curved wall vertically. 

The sculpture progressed at a pace the over the last week; the blacksmith welded clever joints that slot the five sections together and hold them at the correct angle of curvature. Then we hired a platform so that we could work out and mark on the angles that all the metal thorns need to be welded on, to attach the Perspex 'leaves'. As all the protective backs are still on the Perspex it is hard to see the finished effect but I am pleased it has worked out as planned. We make some small adjustments to angles and take it down to store it until the show.

I also spend another day re writing the RHS Chelsea Flower Show Brief. A lot has changed since the first draft was written last September, when the design was not as thoroughly worked through as it is now. So I spend some time carefully thinking through the changes and how to word them to answer the six questions on the brief. I try to keep it simple and clear, and avoid prescribing feelings!

Visiting the show ground site is a strange experience as what I have come to think of as a large busy site is in fact a lot smaller when seen as a playing field! It is hard to imagine just how full and active this site is in less than two months time.