The Hampton Court Flower Show is getting closer and I bet that those who are preperaing a show garden are starting to feel the pressure building.
Jill Foxley is creating a show garden and judging by her guest blog, tension is creeping in.
Fab weather lately, don't you think? Even though I now have the annual obligatory 'glow-in-the-dark' torso!
It's past midnight and I'm listening to the gentle rhythmical snores of Simon and Tom from their respective bedrooms. All is peace and calm apart from in my head. I've been to bed but the constant whirring and churning of cranial lists needing to be written down, got the better of me so here I am.
It is four and a half weeks until the Hampton Court Show begins but only two and a half until we start building the garden. My dining room is an obstacle course of boxes and tubes in assorted sizes and (thankfully clean) washing is heaped over the table like Widow Twanky's Laundry. (Note to self: remember to book some sort of hair cut very soon while we are on the subject of pantomime dames!)
The orderliness in the veggie garden belies the chaos in the office which has degenerated into a sea of paperwork and forms still to be returned to the RHS for approval. Carpets throughout the house have been coated in a grubby shade of moulted dog hair that Lily (canine, 14, of unpleasantly sensitive bowels from time to time!) is freely discharging in cushion-stuffing quantities. The old adage "Don't clean me, grow things" strikes me very appropriate although I'm sure as a gardener it would be better done outside.
Visitors to the house always eye me slightly sideways with a look that says "Are you really a gardener?" when they see the crop of clover overtaking the front path and the lawn edges looking like a punk hair style.
The paperwork actually isn't that bad really - it's all half done but needs finishing or checking and then I can get it faxed over to the RHS. Thankfully the reason for the tardiness of my admin is that we are, mercifully, as busy as The Perfumed Garden would hope to be and can cope with in the middle of the growing season - a season that took a while to get going but everyone seems to be thinking about their gardens at the same time.
Despite the apparent chaos however, there are now a group of 25 generous sponsors, all kindly loaning or donating items to help us stage The Healing Garden for Macmillan. Everedge are kindly supplying us with some edging to 'tidy up' the perimeter area and finally I have sourced and secured the tenaciously sought catharanthus roseus that has been an elusive dream for the last six months. Bingo!
The plants at Howard Nurseries were all starting to look the business when I went up there on Saturday. They had an Open Day in aid of Macmillan too and there were hundreds of people milling around looking at their 15 acres of irises and snaffling bargains from the gathered stall holders.
Sunday was a charge down to Chelsea Physic Garden to collect the podophyllum that they are so kindly donating. It is a great place to go and have a wander although possibly better not to visit on a hot and sticky Sunday for choice.
Antony Sturgiss is on track for me to collect the fine sculptures he is loaning us - I can't wait to see them.
It also turns out that after we were 'let down' on being loaned a trailer tent to use during the stay at Hampton, Wendy Allen, another designer who was at there with us last year has offered us somewhere to get our heads down. What a star!
This evening, with a swift vacuuming session and the 21st century joy for a working woman that is internet shopping, the cupboards that were bare are now barely able to shut and for one day, and probably one day only, the gritty hirsuit film that naturally descends over a dog-owning landscaper's carpet is no more.
Weeding the veggie garden has become a very necessary part of an everyday stress release that now has the added benefit of imminently producing some potentially fabulous fodder. Things are definitely progressing in the right direction! All is well.............................(fingers crossed!)
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