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.

One of the very special features of the Laurent-Perrier garden is the magnificent path that is being built. It’s quite rare to see something completely new at Chelsea but this is a genuine first. Constructed by Turkish craftsmen, the path goes nearly the length of the garden and adds a softness to the design. Sinan and his colleagues Osman and Fuhat have come over especially from Istanbul to build it and the quality of workmanship is evident to see.

Arne seemed a happy man today. Peter Beales have delivered some fantastic roses, the copper beach are coming into leaf and the stunning oak bench has arrived.  We made serious progress today and by the end of tomorrow we should be able to start planting. The days of heavy rain seem to be behind us and although the forecast is not great we made a serious leap forward today.

For the first time this Chelsea, we had a gorgeous day. The sun shone, everyone smiled and we achieved a lot – even the people directing the traffic seemed quite happy. The last of the birch got put into position and the woodland effect is really striking. The garden is beginning to look very good! Bamber Wallis and his Dad, regulars on our gardens at Chelsea, have started to install the copper edge detail. Finally, even though Graham is on his fortieth (?) Chelsea, he still gets stuck in planting the last birsh, whilst Mark Osborne watches on, leaning on his shovel.