Amazingly, you can bet on who is going to win Best in Show at Chelsea. William Hill are offering odds as follows (not sure I agree with them though!)

Odds 3/1 Furzey Garden designed by Chris Beardshaw. The Bookies favourite. It doesn’t get my vote but maybe I am missing something.

Odds 7/2. The Daily Telegraph garden designed by Sarah Price. As this is a Crocus garden I am biased. It’s certainly generating a lot of interest.

Odds 4/1 Brewin Dolphin Garden by Cleve West. A serious contender. The beech hedge needs to come into leaf fully but a lovely garden.

Odds 4/1. The Laurent-Perrier Garden designed by Arne Maynard. Beautiful, stylish, elegant. Definitely in the running. A Crocus garden.

Odds 9/2. DMZ by Jihae Hwang. I really like this garden. Worth a bet.

Odds 11/2. The Homebase Garden designed by Jo Swift.It strikes me that they have a long way to go to finish this garden. Not sure.

Odds 7/1. The M&G Garden designed by Andy Sturgeon.Long odds for a designer who previously has won Best in Show.

Odds 9/1. The Ripple Effect Garden designed by Flemons Warland.

Odds 14/1. Celebration of Caravanning designed by Jo Thomson.

Odds 14/1. The Pyramid Garden designed by Diarmuid Gavin. Certainly the most contentious garden at the Show. I havn’t been inside so I can’t really comment on this one. I thought it was going to be fantastic but I’m not sure.

Odds 20/1. The Arthritis Garden designed by Tom Hoblyn. There are some really nice elements to this garden – a lot will depend on what happens tomorrow.

Odds 25/1 The Trailfinders Garden. They still have a lot to do.

The other day I said that I thought the copper beech were coming into leaf and that we can stop worrying about them. I was right about most of them but three are proving really obstinate. We have even got to the stage of trying to create a micro-climate around them to force them on. We have some spare at the nursery but it’s a major upheavel to try and replant them now. The rest of the garden is looking magnificent.

The Telegraph garden is beginning to take shape with most of the acquatic planting now in. We still have quite some way to go with the rest of the planting but hopefully we will all be done by Saturday lunchtime.

We have all been looking at the pleached copper beech and willing them to come into leaf. Clearly our powers of mental persuasion are top notch because the trees have responded magnificently. There are still three that look a bit thin but the rest have really moved on dramatically over the last few days. So with a fair wind the avenue of pleached trees will look great on the day. 5 days until the judges come round!

A typical day at Chelsea. The sun appeared, teased us into thinking it was staying and then promptly disappeared. Rumours of hail storms in Richmond sent us all into a quiver but luckily Mark Osborne’s wife had cooked some delicious apple pie so we hid from the rain and gobbled it all up. My daughter Alice finished her first year at University this weekend so arrived to help on the garden. And Sarah’s special orchids made an appearance – they were very delicately packed and arrived in perfect condition.

James visits the RHS Chelsea Flower Show to see how the build-up is going. We hear about how Joe and Cleve’s show gardens are coming together. We also learn how gardens are such tranquil places: peaceful oases to relax amidst the busy modern world.

Despite the rain, we got stuck into the planting on both gardens. The bad weather hasn’t stopped Karen and her team at Crocus from producing some wonderful plants and both Sarah and Arne seemed pleased. To help protect the roses from the rain, we employed some convenient Laurent-Perrier umbrellas. We even dug up part of the nursery to bring some top quality moss for Sarah’s garden.

The last rocks got put into position and the beds levelled out, ready for planting. The copper edging got put into position and the colour works really well against the stone. With a bit of luck, we should start filling the pool tomorrow. The plants will start coming up from the nursery tomorrow morning so the planting will start in earnest tomorrow afternoon. Looking around this evening, some gardens are on schedule but others are falling behind. Overall, I think there is quite a lot of competition this year.

It was Adam Collinson’s birthday today so the Flower Show was given a rendition of Happy Birthday by the Laurent-Perrier choir. A suitably chocolate cake was produced and devoured. Today has been a really good day on site. The weather has been kind and as a result, virtually all the hard landscaping is complete. The first wave of herbaceous planting arrived from the Crocus nursery, all looking lovely. We are a bit concerned about the sun on our roses so we have cosntructed a shelter around them to give them some protection.