We achieved a lot yesterday on the garden. Graham and the team finished planting the first hedge and you can get a feel for the size of the plants by the photo of Terry being dwarfed by one of the plants. We also managed to get quite a lot of the paving done. Finally, the skeleton of the building was put in place by Mike Smith and his team.

The sun came out this evening as we finished planting the first buxus hedge. The garden is coming along well and will be transformed tomorrow as the building is put in place. It will take two days to install and should be finished just in time for Tom to start planting on Monday.

At the centre of the Laurent-Perrier garden is a wonderful bronze building, designed by Jamie Fobert. If you want to watch a 3D walkthrough video of the garden on Tom’s website, click on the link below:

Click here to see Tom Stuart Smith’s 3D video walkthrough of the garden

As part of the overall design, Tom has designed two bronze chairs and a table to go with the building. Each chair weighs about 100kg and is made of thick brass with a leaf pattern cut into it. Here they are in the workshop ready for transport.

One of the problems of building a garden with Tom is that the press are very keen to interview him – all the time! Usually this only happens during the final weekend but it has already started this year. Today it was the turn of Joe Swift, Cleve West and James Sinclair. the first interview of many. If it happens too much when we are planting, we create an ‘exclusion zone’ around him so that the press can’t get to him! That way, we can crack on with the planting.

Roger’s team have done a great job in completing the walls and pool on time. The stonework looks magnificent and will contrast really will with the fresh green look of the buxus hedge. We start planting the trees and the first buxus this afternoon and the building arrives on Friday. So the garden will be transformed over the next few days.

The wall surrounding two sides of the Laurent Perrier garden are nearly complete. It’s a slow process but Roger Walker’s team have been working long hours and should have it finished on schedule. The forecast is for rain tomorrow which will slow things down but so far so good.

After going to the Show Ground this morning, I thought that I would drop in to see how Mike Smith and his team were getting on with the Laurent-Perrier pavilion. The structure is now complete and the timber cladding is on. However, the really difficult part has now to be done. The entire structure needs to be clad in brass and then worked on to achieve a pattinated finish. Not easy at the best of times but especially not when he only has a few days to do it all. The structure needs to be on site next Wednesday so there are not many days left.