First time I’ve had time to take a breath since we finished the garden. We got a silver medal, btw. Despite the rain and the double plot size, we did think we’d managed a silver gilt, and the judges said they came back three times before making their minds up as we were so close, before deciding on silver. I don’t know whether that feels like good news or not! Still, a Silver medal is good, we know that.

Anyway, the public love it. Though intended as an office garden, (one of two at Tatton Show and the other one is scarily yellow) it’s one of the few ‘real’ gardens, one you might actually imagine wanting to sit in and this is reflected in the very positive comments we get all day. OK, it won’t win prizes for novelty, but it does work beautifully and looks good, if I say so myself.

Lovely to see Cathy Crouch who dropped in for a quick hello on Tuesday. On the left is Isabelle, my design partner. She and I shared the trials, stresses and pressure of building our garden and we’re still the best of friends – I hope!

Talking of trials, here’s a taste of what we went through to create it. Here we are on Sunday, sheltering under a nearby tent as the rain ran through our nearly completed garden (ours is behind the hazel screening, with two Prunus serrula bending alarmingly in the wind. Our garden was stickily wet, but other sites were actually flooded, so we weren’t too badly off, considering. Thanks to Hilary for the video clip.

July 23, 2009