We have six days to go and we now move from the heavy construction side of building the garden to the planting bit. Pat and her team are working hard down at the Crocus nursery preparing all the plants. Each one (and there about 20,000 of them!) need to be checked and cleaned up before being sent to the show. The team were all working throughout the weekend and will be working long hours throughout this week, especially if the designers start changing their minds!

So far I have spent all the time talking about the two gardens that Crocus are building. However, there are another 11 show gardens. Please let me know if you would like to see some of the other gardens. If so, I will try and take some photos tomorrow and post them tomorrow night. You can get a full description about each garden from the RHS website.

We have a self-imposed rule that we have to start the shrub and herbaceous planting on the Monday – this gives us about 6 days before judging. Some gardens leave it until later but it’s important that the plants have lots of time to get established. The longer they have, the more established and natural they look – leaves and flowers turn towards the sun and generally look happier. So today we spent most of the time tidying both gardens up and getting the planting beds ready. We had one last tree to plant in Ulf’s garden. It was the cornus kousa that we had been leaving down at the nursery to try and force it on but it was time to get it to the show. We had already left it fairly late which meant that we had to do the last bit by hand and as you can see from the photo, it’s not small. It took six of us to lift it and it’s moments like this that I realise that I am getting a bit old for this game! The Laurent Perrier garden will also start planting tomorrow. We have a bit more paving to do but the planting team of Vicki and Spiranella arrive tomorrow, as do the firsat wave of plants.

Luciano has arranged to have a dramatic work of art on the garden. It is designed by Nigel Hall and is made of coreten steel – a steel that is specifically designed to have a rust like finish. We spent the day trying to get it set exactly right on the travetine wall which was not that easy as it weighs about 85 kilos. It took most of the day but now looks wonderful. At the same time Andrew Ewing has been working on the three water features in the garden. Andrew has worked on many of our last gardens at Chelsea and has always produced very dramatic water features. This year will be no exception.

We are working hard on the LP garden to get as much finished as possible by Sunday so that we can start planting on Monday. It will be hard work getting it all finished but Graham finished the buxus planting today while Mark started the paving. The paving is from the same stone as the wall and will look lovely. It’s difficult to describe what it looks like but my daughter Alice visited site today and said that it looked like the inside of a crunchy bar!

All around the back of the Telegraph garden there is an ivy wall set into the boundary wall. One of the challenges is to make it look established as quickly as possible, which is not easy given that we only have a week. But we have come up with a solution that do should the trick. We have used a metal frame into which ivies have been planted last year. We have kept the ivies in one of our polytunnels over winter and they have put on lots of growth. The first photo shows the ivy wall in the process of being installed while the second photo shows the metal frame we are using.

Tony is the person responsible for building the Daily Telegraph garden and, as in previous years, his son Adam has come to help him. The malus tree that they are working on has just arrived from Sweden because our malus have flowered and are past their best. Luckily these trees had just been planted in someone’s garden in Sweden and Ulf managed to persuade them that we needed them more than him. So they were sent over by aeroplane and will go back after the show.

A very important aspect of any Chelsea garden is the Brief. It is written by the Designer and is a crucial part of the judging process. The Brief describes the concept behind the garden, what materials we are going to use and the type and style of planting. The judges will evaluate what we build against this Brief. One concern that Ulf had today is that we might be planting one of the trees in the wrong place. So after a few minutes of soul searching, we decide to change the position of one of the trees. That sounds simple enough but it is at the back of the garden and the tree weighs about a tonne and we no longer have a crane. Anyway, we will find a way – a challenge for tomorrow. We are on schedule so we can afford to spend some time getting it right. I have found over the years that the good designers, once they have an idea in their head, don’t let it go – there is something in their eyes that tells you that they badly want it. We got on to the nursery immediately and they will start preparing the trees to come up in the afternoon. We are lucky that the Crocus nursery is so close to London. I don’t think that we could do Chelsea if we wern’t so close. The photos are of Ulf explaining his thinking behind the change. Fortunately we all get on well together so we smiled and got on with it!

As you might have gathered now, the Laurent Perrier garden is all about shape and form. Graham and the team have been busy planting and you can really get a feel for the atmospheric nature of the garden. Tonight the low sun really showed the garden off to its best potential and that’s 10 days before judging!

The first photo is of Peter Harket. Pete is responsible for co-ordinating all aspects of both gardens – not an easy job. Luckily he worked out many years ago that the best way of organising anything is to write it down so he is always equipped with notepad and pen – and blackberry. He tells me that he has three batteries for his phone to keep him going throughout the day! Pete and I have worked together for many years and he realises the importance of sticking to a schedule, which is why some of our more wayward suppliers get hassled quite a lot by him! The second photo is of Simon. It’s his first year with us and he had done a great job of surveying both gardens. As I have mentioned before, it’s crucial that we accurately position everything in each garden so it’s important that he has a clear head and get’s it right.