30 Jun My First Show Garden Experience. A Sneak Peek at RHS Hampton Court 2012

Instead of jumping into my van on Friday morning and driving to my latest project, I got the bus to Colchester train station to start my journey to the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.

I had contemplated building a show garden for a few years now but I have no idea what was involved so I jumped at a chance when a landscaper asked me to help out for the day. Once I got off the train and found my way into the show area, I was amazed at the amount of activity going on. The landscapers, garden designers and exhibitors were working very hard as tomorrow was the deadline.

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I found the garden I was to be helping out with, Richard and his team at Twigs had completed the construction and the plants had been set out ready for planting, my job for the day was to help with the planting and keeping the site tidy and looking good.

A few hours later we had finished the planting and I was free to roam and talk to landscapers about building a show garden. The show garden was working on was one of four Association of Professional Landscapers (APL) competition winners. This gave me a perfect opportunity to ask the questions I had about building a show garden. The impression I get from speaking to the landscapers is that organisation is key, if you are well organised then it will make building your garden much more efficient. The build is relatively simple, none or very little sub bases are laid as the garden is to only last a week and has to be taken down once the show has finished. I think without knowing this I would have allowed time for the correct footings and sub bases which would have consumed a lot of very precious time.

Once I had spoken to some landscapers I walked around the site and took some photos of the show gardens. I hope you enjoy the first look at these gardens just before they are completed.

Helping out for the day has inspired me hugely and I would love to build a show garden next year. Look out for us in the near future at RHS shows, who knows one day we might show at RHS Chelsea.

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