The highs and lows of Chelsea
Post categories: RHS Chelsea Flower Show
| 09:54 UK time, Friday, 27 May 2011
Building a garden at Chelsea is madness. Noise, filth and traffic surround your plot at all hours of the day, whilst you endeavour to keep a clear head and a sound grasp on realising the vision that you've nurtured in your head for almost a year.
Ann-Marie Powell's British Heart Foundation Garden
The food is terrible, which is perhaps a blessing in disguise because you never have time to eat it anyway. You forget to drink a thing until you're rasping for breath and your lips are so dry they are beyond chap-sticking.
But from the moment I drove through the gates on day one of the build, I knew I was done for; the sea of vehicles were stamped with the logos of much admired garden trades, all of those at the top of their game.
For once you don't mind being stuck in traffic - every day you can see gardens taking shape in every corner - almost all show gardens are created in little over two weeks. And that's just as you've got over your machine-envy; ''I want a massive telehandler,'' "their digger is bigger than mine," "wish I had a crane" - yes it's that sad.
By day twelve, people's plants start to arrive and you lose any sense of sanity. Almost delirious after days spent out in all weather working 15 hour days, you can see folk all over Main Avenue becoming wide-eyed and cartoony as they practically salivate over the most pampered, pristine, beautiful plants known to man. It seems that they all belong to the next garden along.
After gardens are planted, the camaraderie and friendships forged allow everyone to be free and easy in offering or asking for any plant you've had your eyes on for a while.
Spent dazed and broken, your garden is finished and the judges come round before you know it. The day of reckoning is here and you wonder why you started all this torture in the first place.
Here's why. The privilege of being immersed in a place where you talk, discuss and agonise with your peers about gardens, plants and build values. You swap anecdotes of the catastrophes and triumphs of previous years. You still find the energy to go for a pint in 'the outside world' simply because the site has closed and you still want more garden chat that outweighs the pain (and believe me; by day four, the pain is definitely physical).
Becoming a cog in the giant wheel that is the Chelsea Flower Show, where everyone's as passionate about their art and role in creating what is the greatest flower show on earth is an experience you never forget. Would I do it again? Who knows, maybe? But please ask me after I've had some sleep.....!
has taken inspiration directly from the British Heart Foundation's 50th anniversary, celebrated this year. In particular Ann-Marie was inspired by a pop art image by the Patron of the BHF to celebrate the Mending Broken Hearts Appeal and an image of Heart Strings by Dr Patrick Hales. Her garden was awarded Silver Flora.
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