THE INSTALLATION STORY OF THE CHELSEA GARDEN MAY 2006
Sunday May 14
The hill is in; the trees are planted; the hedge is in place. Today the liner for the lake and council ring are beginning installation. It is just fabulous. We can be so pleased and proud of everyone on each side of the Atlantic.
Monday May 15
Off to the airport to get Cliff and everyon
e is REALLY happy he is coming. we are right across from Savilles Farnsworth House Garden which Mark is also doing and it is beautiful.
We are around the corner from Australia which is very elaborate and very turquoise. No doubt about it, our garden is the most unusual there. the Council Ring is the most beautiful i have ever seen, fits in perfectly and is simply sensational.
The plants come today so we will be very busy. Yesterday was mostly standing around watching Tom cut stone with no goggles and Nathan smoothing out the concrete floor of the pool spillway on his hands an knees. Fortunately our team are yooung and can handle it. They start at 7 am and leave to drive to Kent (about 1.5 hours away) at 8pm.
This week starts the real bee hive at chelsea.
Tuesday May 16
Well yesterday was a hard day at the office. Lots and lots of standing around. Catharina arrived and Cliff shortly after. Fortunately or perhaps unfortunately they agreed that there were some problems with the "bones" that needed tweaking. This wore Frank down and riled Nandita up. Tweaking is not the right word for calling for some more acers and swapping the service berries and the birches because everything you do in such a small space has large repercussions. esp when you have a sloping 3.5 meters of compacted (you hope) soil. One acer went in Very carefully. Don't know what today will bring except that as I write the glacier is being delivered and once in the whole garden becomes a china shop.
The ferns are spectacular, really, lush and plenty of them. Both Australia and New Zealand are building gardens. They have sent teams and designers and artisans and all indigenous plants. Very extravagant. And what did the USA send? LFGC of course.. I will try today to get my email photo ability working. After I get Catharina a phone. Hers drowned. watch out for those water bottles when you travel. esp the ones with the pull up drink tops.
I just don't even want to mention the invisible edge, rivulet, pond thing because I am bewildered as to how that will all work and when. Don't be alarmed. i am the only one who is in this state. Mark is working very hard back and forth from Savills to us. They really have a lot left to do. Even though it doesn't look like it.
Wednesday May 17
Well the plot is really starting to look like a garden. They fixed the pesky sumac (huge) that was leaning into the hill. New sumacs and cornus have arrived and more trees today.
Yesterday they spent almost all day working on the glacier. They didn't finish but the 
man in charge, Derek I believe, is a real can-do fellow so no one is worried. Frank was immediately worried that it is too transparent but no one else is. Frank does the worrying for all of us it seems. When there are seven panels it will be fine. Mark loves it because it is subtle. If it had been glass it would read green which would have solved the see through problem but......here's what is hot at Chelsea this year....
Lots lots lots of green glass. Lots of turquoise, Lots of water. Lots of big trees and lots of tropical stuff. We are so different. More a landscape than a garden and that should be very popular. Our site though tight for building is superb for viewing. When you come in from the London gate you see it unimpeded from afar. You should all be very proud of what we are doing. We are not getting a lot of attention but we don't have any herbaceous planted yet.
Yesterday Cliff and Grace went to Chertsey to scout out rocks for the beach. They got them after Cliff got a guy to take them out of his outdoor big display. Go Cliff. Six am today he was off to New Covent Garden w/ Catharina to get moss.
Brent came yesterday with their trucks and took away all the extra stone so we have a bit more room now. It is proving a godsend to have Brent as our partner.
Thursday May 18
Well Wednesday the dirt pile was a real anthill. Teams went to work grooming sedges and repotting, cleaning and sorting moss. Cliff aided and abetted the installation of two more major trees. Quite a breathtaking operation with a telescoping crane swinging a huge tree over the top of the Marston Glass house.
The infinity edge is a challenge because the precision required for it to work right was not achieved. More work. More concern. The job will get done though - no doubt about it. For us the main thing is to try to stay out of the way and help when needed. The hardscape should be finished today. Rocks were being placed in the rill as I left last evening. All of Chelsea is starting earlier and earlier and going later and later. These ups and downs and crises are occurring in each and every garden and will continue to do so.
We look way behind which is sort of fun because when it all comes together it will be such a surprise. We are across from the Savills Farnsworth House garden, but we are also kitty corner from the show sponsors (SAGA insurance) garden by Cleve West who is a veritable rock star of gardening. His crew helped us thread the needle with those big trees yesterday.
There is a general mood of camaraderie and fellowship laced with panic that pervades Chelsea. Each day seems to have a new and unique rhythm. I think we will start planting herbaceous today. Cliff's stones arrived and they are great.
Friday May 19
It is really getting to be a garden now!! What a tale there is to tell about yesterday. 
Work continued to proceed slowly on hardscape. The glacier was unveiled. (Glassier is what Max calls it) yes it is very transparent but that subtlety is quite good we all decided. After all it is meant to be a "Ghost of a glassier" Any way it is really cool and will be lit from below with LEDs and we can put blue ones which should make it quite interesting.
A group were hard at work passing plants up the hill like a bucket brigade and Cliff was in overdrive laying out the plants they were all putting in. The mood was fantastic. Tremendous energy and camaraderie and activity while the Scenic Blue Fellows looked on in amazement as they tidied up for the day. Our presence suddenly was vital to the effort. It was all very gratifying.
Today they are flushing the pool. Keep your fingers crossed. This infinity edge is such a precise thing. It can't possibly work on the first go around. Let's just think positive thoughts that they get it up and going by Monday!!!!!!
Saturday May 20
Every garden at Chelsea has its ups and downs. That is the nature of the beast. Ours 
of course is no exception. Neither worse nor better than any other in terms of crises and interruptions in rhythm. This morning apparently was a major disruption. Happy to report though, things are back on track and forward progress continues.
Evey member of the team - from CMS, to Scenic Blue, to Cliff Miller and LFGC feels that they were instrumental in saving the day - and isn't that what makes strong solutions to tricky problems. Don't forget this is a very small space (11 x 14 meters) sloping sharply uphill (the bluff as they call it) at 45-60 degrees so there is much to do, at least 20 people trying to do it and not much room to do it in.
The plan is that tomorrow Scenic blue will use the entire day to tweak the mechanics. (Good news- the infinity edge pool appears to work!!!!) and Cliff, Grace, Frank and Martin (an intern from Sweden who has been truly truly awesome from day one) will tweak the planting. Together they will clean up and detail the entire thing.
Monday May 22
Wow!!! It is finally here. Press Day at the Garden and Chelsea is abuzz with excitement. The Lady from The Times of London was really excited about our garden and spent quite a bit of time there. She said it was her "favourite." A reporter from the Irish Times was also very complimentary. The big news at Chelsea is 
New Zealand, which will undoubtedly take Best in Show. It is spectacular. All glass and black and brutal with exotic and eccentric indigenous plants in rich abundance. And government backing I might add.
The judges have been to our garden and paused in the "glassier" where they chatted animatedly and took some sort of vote. Keep your fingers crossed. Tuesday at 7 a.m. London time we will know the results. No matter what happens we should exult in the fact that we realized a unique, creative, original and impossible dream. Not only is our garden so very different from anything else ever seen at Chelsea, it was conceived and brought about in a fraction of the time and at substantially less cost than the other big showy gardens. We should be very proud. Our partnership and hands on experience as exhibitors also distinguish us from the usual Chelsea show garden. All of this in 11 months without a play book!!!
Well done team!! We owe a huge thanks to CMS, to Catharina and Frank and their 
volunteers, Nandita, Mary, Martin. A huge thanks to Mark and Scenic Blue for their hard work and patience in the rough spots. A huge thanks to Grace who is so aptly named. A huge thanks to Cliff Miller who threw himself into the project with energy and sensitivity and helped enormously and in so many ways. And a huge thanks to our volunteers who joined the work with a spirit of cooperation, flexibility and partnership A huge thanks to all the people in London and at Chelsea - old friends, new friends, acquaintances and strangers who have welcomed us aboard and been so gracious to us.
Tuesday May 23
Lake Forest Garden Club is awarded a silver gilt medal (just below a gold) at the show. We are all very excited and proud of our club!
Thursday May 25
Thursday was a beautiful day in the garden. Following a night of steady and heavy rain the garden looked fresh and beautiful. Last night also was the McLaren reception for 
the RHS and LFGC. It was really wonderful. Mrs. McLaren is a delight. Crissy spoke for the GCA as did Sir Kenneth Carlisle from RHS who is taking over administration of the scholarship exchange. It was held at the English Speaking Union.
Afternoon at the garden found the sun shining and the lady slippers in show stopping bloom and attracting a lot of attention. On a hot sunny afternoon the Ravine Garden provided a popular place to pause at Chelsea. People sat on the wall and touched the infinity edge. Some children took off their shoes and socks and put their feet in the water. People from Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Japan and of course, the USA commented that it reminded them of home. Everyone seemed drawn to the ravine and one person was heard to say that it looked like it had always been there. We were very proud to be part of it as it now seems to have a special life of its own.
Friday May 26
it is oh so quiet as Chelsea winds down and all of London seems to be away for the Bank Holiday Weekend. Saturday, Mark will come in and make it all go away. Not away actually. It will go to Brent but not all actually. Yesterday the Showy Lady Slipper orchids really came into their own. They are so exotic and beautiful. (Too bad they followed their own schedule and not ours but that is nature.)
A gentleman from the RHS came by and was blown away by the orchids. He contacted Frank and asked if RHS might have some for an orchid research project that they have going on with some students. The project doesn't even have this genus at the moment. Naturally we said yes. So these expensive beauties will have a good home where they may do some good for generations to come.
Alan Titschmarsh the super star gardening reporter of the BBC opened and closed his 9pm show from the Ravine. There was an unbelievable hubub when he was there. People were crowding around trying to get a glimpse of him and to take his picture while he was in the garden. It was really exciting. The producer said that our garden had the best water feature she had ever seen at Chelsea!!
We did not win our heat to qualify for the BBC Viewer's Choice Award. That award is one of those things that if you win it you boast about endlessly and if you don't win it you toss it off as nothing more than a recognition of the group that was best organized in getting out the computer vote. We did not organize at all to get out the vote so there is no way we were going to win that award even though we hear over and over that ours is the favorite garden at Chelsea. It is certainly the most accessible and inviting. If the stewards leave their posts for a moment people wander right up the steps or path into the garden. Not just because they can but because it seems to draw them in. Tomorrow the garden heads for Brent where it will live on providing private space for reflection and a platform for teaching in the one area of London that most needs it.
Saturday May 27
Saturday brought a really soggy end to the Chelsea Flower show. The highlight of the last day was the donation of half of the orchids (many of which were in truly glorious 
bloom) to the Writhlington School Orchid Project. Writhlington is a city school in Somerset where they have a project to grow orchids from seed. They then sell some of the seedlings to fund their major project to protect and reintroduce orchids in the wild around the world. Currently they are working on a project in Sikkim to get farmers and gardeners to plant an orchid species that was down to 30 plants. They don't have any cyprepediums at all in their lab so when the student who is in charge of the lab, whom i guess to be about 14 or 15 years old, came to dig the orchids he was so excited he got teary. They want to set up a connection with us as they have with many other countries to get some of the orchids they will propagate back in the wild. The heart of their project is the notion that international outreach is a great conservation tool!!!! You can go to their website to learn more about them at www.writhlingtonorchidproject.org.uk What a great send off for our beautiful lady slippers.
The end of the Chelsea Flower Show is a truly amazing experience even when it is raining hard. The intrepid hardcore visitors - some sporting newly purchased plastic buckets as headgear against the rain (!)- many armed with shopping carts, file boxes on wheels or luggage wheelies - wait for a whistle to blow at 4 when everything goes on sale or is given away. There is a mad dash and the whole place again becomes an anthill of activity. You see people walking out with their arms full of cut peonies or pots of delphinia or digitalis that are 6 feet tall and in glorious bloom. Some are so encumbered with their booty that you don't see a person at all - just a moving mound of flora. Serious ground clearing begins today and security had to be hired last night to make sure nothing was taken from the garden overnight. At five on the dot Catharina wedged herself between the tsuga and the pavillion and reached her wet hand in to the electric box to switch off the pump and sadly the bubbling rill that so many had come to love gradually grew quiet and stopped.