Day 5, 6, and 7 Chelsea Build

I'm having to write these three days together because it has all been rather busy and the days are all blurring together. The team attach the rest of the Panache tiles to the wall using rapid set adhesive which does exactly what it says on the tin and sets so rapidly that I feel I am being chased as I mark up the rest of the wall with the tile locations.

The green wall sections arrive and fix into place quickly and easily to my great relief. I am hoping that their rapid growth habit will blend the sections together into a more uniform surface. The front of the seat is completed using the chocolate Panache only too many colours here could look a bit busy.

A shallow planting pocket is created into the top of the wall to take the Fragaria plants. We use a 'long bendy thing' to mark out the curve of the wall top on both sides and the line of the path which narrows as it approaches the seat. Although this was marked out precisely from the plan using calculations the final cut is decided by eye as what is on plan isn't always best on site. Then the line of the curved wall is taken through the paving and this is cut too to receive the Fragaria plants.

 

I am joined by my Garden Designer friend Pippa Purnel who calms me and works her usual caring magic, feeding me chocolate and cups of tea! Now is crossover between build and planting. All the rest of my plants arrive from Crocus which is very exciting. I spend a while bringing different combinations of plants together as I had envisaged them to check their heights, textures and colours together. A photographer from Bradstone takes photographs of the plants and team working with the hard landscaping. It looks a lot of plants but experience has taught me that a show garden 'eats' huge quantities.

On Wednesday the contractors have finished and the planting team arrive. Today I have Pippa, Caz, Gill, Franzi and myself. We plant the Fragaria along the top of the wall and then concentrate on planting the damp area around the inner curve of the wall with mostly green damp loving plants, such as Ferns and Luzula. I try to contrast the green tone and textures and plant in loose bands of uneven numbers. After a lot of mounding up of soil we then start on the other two corners of planting with greens and touches of white to lift it. Thank you for all your help today!

I am incredibly pleased with the way my garden sits with my neighbours garden as the trees are the perfect back drop to mine and hopefully vice versa.  Anyway, I've run out of room and have another busy planting day tomorrow so had better stop and dream about plants now.