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Find out what's been happening in the lead-up to The River & Rowing Museum's Ratty's Refuge Garden at Chelsea...garden designer Angela Potter reveals all in the Garden Designer's blog...
15/05/08
The garden is really starting to look like a garden now as the planting finally got started.
Ian and Linda from British Wildflower Plants spent the whole day creating the naturalistic bank complete with water vole habitat and were able to complete about eighty per cent of it. Meanwhile Sylvia and three helpers started planting up the sides. We have have recruited a number of friends from Capel Manor College who are helping to prepare the plants ready for planting. I am very sorry not to be able to take part in the planting due to my broken ankle, having planned it for so long.
Chris took the van to the Anglo Aquarium Plant Company in Enfield and picked up a large load of plants that have been very generously loaned to us for Chelsea. The journey from there to Chelsea was laborious as usual due to heavy traffic.
My son Mark had to drive down to Kent to get the grid sections re-galavanised and this took the whole day. It was pretty miserable as the sections made a terrible noise in the back of the car and he had to put up with it for five hours! It was all worth it as we can now complete the hardlandscaping in the garden.
14/05/08
The team had a frustrating morning as the Travis Perkins lorry broke down and we needed the sand to start making the bank at the back of the garden, in the end Richard and Paul had to barrow it in from another part of the site which took ages.
Ian Forster and Linda Laxton arrived from British Wildflower Plants in Norwich along with a huge delivery of their plants - which filled TWENTY FOUR danish trollies!! It was really annoying for them that they had to wait until we had finished forming the bank before they could get going. They are experts at creating naturalistic planting, and have worked on a number of previous show gardens at Chelsea. We are all looking forward to what they will create for us.
We fixed the vole image onto the wall which was a bit tricky because the render was pretty soft, but it got done, and of course the image is much safer now than it was waiting on site.
Chris, my husband and Mark, my son had a very busy day in the huge Luton van with a lift on the back that we had hired. They set out very early to go and pick up a Viburnum opulus for the garden, and Mark ended up having to travel in the back of the van clutching the shrub to keep it safe on the way to Briannnia Nurseries at Waltham Cross where Wayne was waiting with five danish trollies of ferns for River & Rowing Museum's Ratty's Refuge. Then they set off for Sylvia's house to pick up the fedge, the cobbles and loads of compost in 40litre bags which was quite a challenge for their backs. One of the fedges had an ants' nest in it! Luckily they noticed in time otherwise the van and all the ferns would have been swarming with them!! They had a slow journey to Chelsea, trying not to corner too fast and held up by countless road works and broken water mains etc, but eventually they arrived. They were bringing in the food for the team, and the team was pretty hungry by the time they arrived.
Ann said that the garden is really beginning to feel like a garden now. Michael Jacques brought the decking boards over and they were installed. We have covered them while work continues.
The grid sections still need to go to Kent to be re-galvanised and we are making arrangements for that. Sylvia and Ann didn't get home until late evening, but both agreed that by the end of the day the team had managed to get into a reasonable position to proceed with the serious matter of the planting tomorrow......
13/05/08
This was a long and difficult day with various things going wrong that were beyond our control, which held us up.
We finished painting the walls, and managed to place the frames for the deck and grids, which involved careful calculation of levels and building up under the subframe. Some people from a neighbouring stand came over to help us lift it into position because it is quite large and difficult to manoeuvre. The planters are incredibly heavy and needed fork lifting into position. It looks as though we are going to have to get the grids re-galvanised as they have some marks on them, so one of the team is going to have to take them to Kent to get the job done. We are finding our plot quite difficult to access as it is surrounded by other gardens, which all have mountains of stuff piled up in front of them.
It looks as though everyone on site suffers all these setbacks, and everyone is very supportive and willing to help people on other gardens out.
Deepdale Nurseries delivered our trees which was exciting, and they are now waiting to be put into position in the garden. The water vole image was delivered and we had to find a safe place to store it until it can be put up on the rear wall. Luckily Michael Jacques offered to let us put it on his stand which is less hectic.
The Chelsea site in the build up is a terrific challenge but the most amazing transformation will take place in the next few days, so that when the show opens you just can't believe that the gardens have not been there forever!
11/05/08
The team sweltered under sunny skies and 30 degree temperatures today and had to take refuge under the gazebo we had bought in case the weather was very wet. However they had another very successful day on site. The brickies completed the rear blockwork wall and then helped Richard of Heritage Landscapes put up the studwork wall. By the end of the day they had fully prepared the structures for rendering which is due to happen on Monday. They even had time to look at some of the other gardens going up around the show ground.
Ann had to make sure all the health and safety rules were adhered to, and was given a reminder of how easy it is to have an accident when she turned round yesterday just in time to see a chap from another garden put a nail from a nail gun right through his hand! I hope my broken ankle is the only injury that is going to happen on Ratty's Refuge!
Capel Manor College is running a video diary of the construction of River & Rowing Ratty's Refuge on their website, so the team will have the extra concern that anything they do or say may be recorded - I am sure they will all be on their best behaviour! You can follow this at www.capel.ac.uk/chelsea.
We are still searching for a shrub for the garden and I will be glued to my laptop searching for likely sources and phoning round - we do not have much time left to find something. At least I can do something useful while I wait for my poor ankle to settle down.
10/05/08
The build up period began today at 7am, so Ann, Sylvia, Heritage Landscapes and several other helpers, arrived at Chelsea on the dot ready to sprint to our site TR/6 which is on The Triangle at the bottom of Main Avenue. They began by marking out the site and excavating the foundations for our rendered wall at the rear of River & Rowing Museum's Ratty's Refuge. Later in the day they also excavated the pond and filled the foundations for the wall with concrete.
Huge amounts of preparation had gone on the previous week so all was ready for this moment. Everyone is getting to know each other, and they met our neighbours from the other five urban gardens on The Triangle.
The site is incredibly hectic with everyone working at close quarters, there is lots of noise, traffic congestion and dust. The team had a very successful first day on site and actually knocked off by mid afternoon!! It is important to pace things so the team doesn't get too exhausted.
Travis Perkins delivered all the materials needed for Sunday when our team of brickies will be on site to build the blockwork structure. It was quite a challenge for the lorry to reach our site as it is a middle one.
Jean was in charge of site catering today and brought in a huge cool box of delicious picnic food which went down very well as the Heritage Landscapes team had left home at 4am, and everyone was very hungry.
The team left the site feeling positive about the good start that has been made.
05/05/08
This was another very busy week for us at English Eden, as we bring together all aspects of the project. Ann went to the River & Rowing Museum on Tuesday for a final meeting witn Amanda and Andrew to finalise manning during the Show and recreation of the garden there after the Show. I spent several days trying to source new willows for the garden with limited success. Sylvia has made forays to different builder's merchants to collect the assorted items we need , for example: 5 gallons of distilled water to clean the plant leaves, hard hats and high-vis vests etc etc !
On Friday, Ann and I spent a day with a reporter from The Daily Telegraph, as the paper has decided to feature the garden in one of its weekend sections. We spent part of the day in Cambourne with Cambridge Wildlife Trust's Conservation Manager, and their Water For Wildlife Officer; they explained how Cambourne was designed around the existing woodlands and watercourses in the landscape. Amazingly, water voles have migrated from a river on the edge of Cambourne to the lakes at its centre, via green corridors of woodland. In the afternoon, we showed the reporter the wildlife habitat in my home village of Hilton which inspired the concept of Ratty's Refuge.
On Saturday morning, disaster struck! I am now writing this blog from my hospital bed, as I fell and broke my ankle in 3 places ! On Tuesday, I should have an operation to repair the fractures. I am eternally grateful to English Eden's medical advisor, Anthony Robinson (Ann's husband who is a consultant surgeon). He was able to arrange excellent medical care at short notice and to recommend a surgeon for me, so I can get back on my feet as soon as possible at this important time. We never thought we would have to call upon his services so soon !
With me out of action, the team have rallied round, and together with Heritage Landscapes and everyone else involved, we WILL get the garden completed on time! I fully expect to be something of a special attraction in my own right at Chelsea, as I shall probably be in a wheel chair or on crutches, but who knows I could get my plaster cast signed by Alan Titchmarsh !"
28/04/08
This week brought plenty more challenges for us at English Eden with under two weeks to go until we start building Ratty's Refuge at Chelsea.
On Tuesday I was depressed to find out that one of our willows is suffering from die-back to some of the branches, and now we won't be able to use it. Meike Overbeck at Deepdale hardly knew how to tell me, as she knew how happy we were when we found the willows. Deepdale Nursery has done everything it can to help us, sending to Italy for possible replacements, which unfortunately aren't the right shape for our planters. The quest (probably as challenging as that for the Holy Grail!) for a new source of low pollarded willows has started.....
On Wednesday Sylvia and I made another epic journey to Norfolk to Howards and British Wildflower Plants. I happened to mention to Christine at Howards what had happened with the willows and she told me of another garden designer who had used similar willows in his show garden at Chelsea last year, and she offered to ring him. Amazingly, he still has them!!! He told us they were stored only 70 miles away, so Sylvia set off on an intrepid journey to an out-of-the-way farm that was so isolated that she got so lost she didn't even know where she was,and she couldn't ask for directions! In the end she found the place and was disappointed to find that the willows had been pruned and may not be much good for Chelsea. Meanwhile I continued on to British Wildflower Plants where thankfully the plants are still looking good! This visit was my last before the show, and I am now leaving our native species in the capable hands of Ian Forster and Linda Laxton. Next time we see them it will be at Chelsea when they come to help us build the bank in the garden.
Ian and I went to 3D Creations at Gorleston to see the vole hole which is almost finished. Ian Westbrook has worked hard on it and created an amazingly life-like piece. I can't wait to see it in the bank in River & Rowing Museum's Ratty's Refuge.
At the end of the day Sylvia and I were completely exhausted!
On Thursday I went on a training course in London and happened to pass the Royal Hospital where RHS Chelsea Flower Show is held. As I walked past I could see the lorries already queuing to take building materials in and my stomach lurched!! It really brought it home to me that in a short time we will be there and the whole thing will have started.
Friday saw Ann and I visiting Michael Jacques of Forge Ahead Ironworks Ltd. near Oxford, to look at the deck and grid construction that he is building for the garden. It is a great moment to see a design leap from the paper into reality. We will be going back next week to continue with the design process, so more on this soon. Things are looking good so far!
On Saturday Ann, I, Amanda Dellor from the River & Rowing Museum and Sally Howe from Three Valleys Water, had to go to Luton because we had been invited onto Gill Gauntlett's lunchtime radio programme on BBC Three Counties Radio to talk about River & Rowing Museum's Ratty's Refuge. We had a great time as Gill is really easy to talk to.
On Sunday Ann and I gave ourselves a bit of time off, but by the evening we were back at the computer hard at work. We are now searching for willows in the Netherlands where my son is at university, and all over the UK.....so if anyone out there can help us please let us know!
21/04/08
This week has proved a testing time for the team's nerves as with only three weeks left until build-up, we unexpectedly found ourselves needing to find a new source of decking material, and without construction plans for the grid steps and insert on the deck. Fortunately we were able to solve our problems very quickly, and we are delighted that Michael Jacques of Michael Jacques Forge Ahead Ironworks will now be making the structure for us. We enjoyed going to visit him to plan the project. We will now be using fabulous reclaimed oak from the River and Rowing Museum's old terrace which will be not only beautiful to look at, but environmentally friendly too.
As if all this was not enough, details of the construction of the garden continue to challenge us, with the RHS needing a schedule of the build up and break down this week. In addition, the final version of the brief that we have to submit to the judges is due, and Ann has spent hours ensuring that all the details are correct.
On Sunday we had another all-day meeting with Heritage Landscapes, when we discussed among other things, our ten metre length of rendered wall again - it now looks like we may need a team of three brickies to make sure the wall gets finished in the short time available. With so many people looking forward to seeing River and Rowing Museum's Ratty's Refuge things have got to be right!
Our plants are still suffering from the cold weather and I had an email from Meike Overbeck at Deepdale Nursery to tell me that the willows are not coming into leaf fast enough, so they are going to be taken to Kent to be put in a glasshouse!
On Friday Sylvia and I went to Anglo Aquarium Plant Company to choose the aquatic plants that they are kindly lending us. Luckily many of their plants are grown under glass and some with heat, so we should be able to get what we need from them even if the weather stays cold.
Ian Forster from British Wildflower Plant Nursery sent me some photos of the water vole burrow that 3D Creations is making so we can create a realistic water vole habitat on the bank in River and Rowing Museum's Ratty's Refuge, it looks very impressive.
The chair that we have been anxiously waiting for has arrived from Italy. It was exciting to open the enormous box and imagine what the chair will look like on the oak deck. We couldn't help thinking how good it would be to have time to sit down and relax...no chance of that for a few more weeks!
14/04/08
Now we have just twenty five days to go until the build starts on River and Rowing Museum's Ratty's Refuge, we at English Eden are putting all our project management skills to the test. The week has seen Ann and I in two all-day meetings which have produced enough actions to fill up the rest of the week. It is a challenge fitting in our other clients as this is the growing season, and a busy time for making gardens!
Ann and I are lucky to have such terrific support from Sylvia and Jean. Yesterday Sylvia told us how she has washed all the stones and cobbles which will be used in the garden, and dried each one individually! This is the sort of thing we need to do in advance as there would not be time once we get to the showground. Jean continues to keep tight control over the finances, and does a great job going through the RHS manuals and pointing out deadlines.
We have been told that the chair which we hope to feature on the garden should arrive from Italy by the end of next week, and this will enable us to choose the extra items such as cushions etc that are all important to the final look of the garden. We can't relax until the chair finally arrives, or we will have to make a last minute trip to the shops to find an alternative!
As the date for RHS Chelsea Flower Show approaches anticipation is rising amongst keen gardeners everywhere, and River and Rowing Museum's Ratty's Refuge has had its first mention in The English Garden magazine. It is hard to convey the excitement I felt when the magazine landed on my door mat and I opened it to find our garden in the Chelsea preview!
On the plant front the weather is still not co-operating. Plants are slowly coming to life but whether our Iris sibirica are going to flower in time remains a worry.
Christine Howard from Howard Nursery at Diss, rang me to say our hostas are looking fanstastic, but that now slugs are enemy number one. She has surrounded the plants with slug pellets - which fills me with horror as I garden organically, but well, I suppose this is an emergency, and at least the plants are under cover so the birds can't get at them. Once we get to Chelsea of course we can't use this method, but if the garden does well perhaps we can fill our slug traps with champagne!
07/04/08
The week began with a meeting at the River & Rowing Museum where Ann and I were updated on all the latest news about the information leaflet for the garden and the arrangements we are making for manning the garden at Chelsea.
Sylvia and I have been preparing a planting plan for the BBC gardening website and we had to meet the deadline for submission this week. After another long night in front of the computer it was done at last.
Ian Forster from British Wildflower Plants in Norwich sent us some fabulous pictures of the native plants they are growing for us, but we were concerned to see that the marsh marigold appears to be doing too well!! When I spoke to Ian he reassured me that the offending flower is going to be removed this afternoon, and any plants getting ahead of themselves will be put in a cool store to hold them back.
On Thursday I went to visit Deepdale Nursery where our willows and Viburnum opulus are being carefully looked after. The higher temperatures over the last few days have finally encouraged some leaves to grow. What a pity about the snow! I feel very protective of the willows, as it took us literally MONTHS of searching right across Europe, to find pollarded willows of just the right height for River & Rowing Museum's Ratty's Refuge. When I did find the right ones, Meike Overbeck from Deepdale Nursery warned me that they only had three. I jumped in the car immediately and went to see them. I had to choose just the two we need because our budget did not stretch to three in order to have a spare. Imagine my shock yesterday when she told me that the other one had died!! If I had chosen the other one what a predicament we would have been in now....
In the evening after the trip to Deepdale I had a long meeting with Richard Delahaye our landscape contractor. It is going to be quite a feat to get this garden built on time, we can see some very long hard days up ahead.
The best bit of advice I have had this week is to 'make sure you remember to take a big box to Chelsea with everything in it that you don't know you are going to need......' I know this is going to bother me for weeks!
31/03/08
This week we continued with detailed planning for River and Rowing Museum's Ratty's Refuge and tackled more of the construction details. We have now charted the build of the garden like a military operation and continue to work our way through the mountain of RHS forms that have deadlines looming. With only six weeks to go until the build starts, the project is starting to feel more 'real' as the bills are starting to come in, and we realise there's no going back now!
Luckily the cold weather seems to have released its grip and our plants have put on good growth this week, as confirmed by an email from Ian Forster from British Wildflower Plants. Work on the information leaflet that will be handed out at Chelsea continues, and we are looking forward to seeing the proof soon.
On Sunday Ann and I were invited onto BBC Radio Cambridgshire's Sunday gardening programme with Sue Dougan. Last year we were invited on because we were involved with another Chelsea garden, so we knew what to expect. We enjoyed talking about the project with Sue and Richard Gant who is Head Gardener at Madingley Hall, Cambridge. We were able to answer listeners questions as to how to deal with gardens near to ponds and streams to create a possible habitat for water voles. Ratty certainly seems to have captured the imagination of the people of Cambridgeshire. Sue said she would like to keep in touch with the progress of the garden and as they are going to be at Chelsea, they will interview us again there.
25/03/08
With only six weeks to go until we start building River and Rowing Museum's Ratty's Refuge at Chelsea, we are hard at work on the schedule that we will need to meet to get everything finished on time, and last weekend we had an all-day meeting with Heritage Landscapes. The garden has a ten metre length of rendered wall which is going to take six tradesmen four days to complete! As we can't start to plant the garden until the wall is finished, we can see the pressure is going to be on already. On Monday we had an appointment with the Capel Manor College photographer to take the team photo we will need for the brochure to be handed out at Chelsea and also for the college website. The problem here was the arctic temperatures - it's difficult trying not to look cold when your teeth are chattering!
Sylvia and I continued our travels round the nurseries with a visit to see our ferns. At first glance when we saw three benches covered with our plants we thought 'will we really need all these?' But then we saw the next greenhouse. Another Chelsea garden has ordered 700 of the same variety of fern to make sure they have enough! We stuck with our order. As Ratty's Refuge is being translated to the grounds of the River and Rowing Museum, at least we know all the ferns are going to find a good home, even if they don't make it to Chelsea.
Sylvia and I are also hard at work on the planting design for Ratty's Refuge and also for a border design for the BBC Gardening website based on the theme of our garden. The cold weather remains a worry as one nursery has already emailed to say they are not sure if they are going to be able to grow our plants to the size we asked for. As the snow fell at Easter, I looked out of the window and thought of our pollarded willows not far away at Deepdale nursery - all those new leaves in bud...We are watching the weather forcasts daily and hoping for some warmth!
18/03/08
It has been another busy week planning the Chelsea garden. Sylvia and I drove to the nurseries on Thursday to see if our plants have started growing! It was a 200 mile round trip and the weather was freezing. We went to see our native species at British Wildflower Plants, including all of the grasses that will be used to form the bank at the back of the garden. Staff at the nursery are spending one afternoon a week 'grooming' the plants to make sure they are in perfect condition - and they certainly looked fantastic on Thursday.
Ian Forster from British Wildflower Plants took us to visit 3D Creations at Gorleston near Great Yarmouth. This fascinating company makes film and theatre sets among other things. Ian Westbrook is going to make us a water vole hole out of fibreglass for the garden. More on this soon!
Other progress this week - John Heron from Maine Deck is starting the structural drawings for the deck and grid elements for the garden. Ann and I have finally chosen the image of a water vole from a stunning selection sent to us by Andrew Parkinson. The image will be enlarged to become a focal point in the garden.
Angela Potter
English Eden Garden Design