- Alison Leslie
- 4 Jul 08, 06:47 PM
The weather forecast is an important tool for any gardener and it is currently predicting 'light showers', 'heavy showers' and 'heavy rain' for the next few days. I may not be planning on doing any gardening, but I am planning a working week at
Hampton Court Palace Flower Show - maybe I should replace my shorts and sun cream with Wellingtons and waterproofs...
I am heading to the showground tomorrow morning and meeting up with my two engineers, Richard Hunt and John Reynolds, stalwarts of the flower show season. They are delivering two
local radio outside broadcast vehicles (OB vans), which we will be using over the next week to bring the show to life for local radio listeners. Well, they do say that the best pictures are on the radio!
Richard and John will spend most of the day rigging the vans ready for broadcasting on Sunday morning - not a pleasant job when it's pouring down with rain. Note to self: remember to pack some biscuits for their tea break.
There are 40 local radio stations across England and myself, John and a rotating team of three (more of them later) will be on site to ensure they have everything they need to broadcast - whether it's a 3 hour programme or a five minute interview with an exhibitor.
- Dave and Rob - Exhbitors
- 4 Jul 08, 04:09 PM
Another string to our bow at Hampton Court this year is the Discovery garden. We've grown and sourced all the plants for this one and are helping to plant it up along with the two designers, Gill Lomax and Steve Pearce who are teachers at the Libra school and were inspired by pictures of the Tiverton canals.
Steve says "It's stressful because we are not garden designers and we've been here since day one of the build up, we've been very hands-on with the building and planting."
This is a real achievement from a little school in Devon, it's quite unusual because it's not a charity and it's not a commercial venture either. We've worked very closely with the school and even have two students who come and do work experience at the nursery, this garden is quite special, and the kids are great.
- Louise Danks - Researcher
- 4 Jul 08, 10:43 AM
Tom and I went down to site yesterday to get our bearings, check out a few technical things and basically have a look around. The Hampton build up is well underway, as you'd expect. Through the sea of fluorescent vests there are some great planting combinations emerging and the hint of something beautiful where finished corners of the gardens are revealed.
I caught up with Nigel Boardman of Boardman Gelly and Co who are creating a show garden called Hope - The Way Forward. It's a highly symbolic garden inspired by the work of a charity called Combat Stress (The Ex-Services Mental Welfare Society). Every detail of this garden tells a story and earns its place.
Nigel said "It's coming together quite well now, it's nice to see it planted so early so that the plants have a chance to turn around and settle in. After so many years building show gardens, we try to use the last week of the build up for planting, you have more time to consider without stuffing, you get that chocolate box effect and everything is a little more polished."
