The pavilion was constructed in Japan and two of Kengo Kuma’s staff came over to help assemble it at Chelsea. But it is always a nerve-racking moment when the time comes to put it all together. I have included lots of photos of the assembly simply because it is quite difficult to describe how it all went. At one stage even I had to get involved to help out!

There was a distinct sense of nervousness on site this morning on the Daily Telegraph garden. The columns had arrived from France yesterday and we needed to start installing them today. Like anything you have not done before, you get nervous about getting it right, especially when each column is worth several thousands of pounds and weighs over a tonne. But the team, under Tony Collinson, took it slowly and had installed two by 10.00. They look magnificent and will really define the character of the garden. Cleve was a happy bunny!

We have some important days coming up on the Laurent-Perrier garden. In order to start assembling the Kengo Kuma pavilion on Friday, we need to have installed the paving by close of play today. Each slab has been precisely drilled so that the pavilion can fit through the stone and into the structure underneath. So everything has to be accurate to a few millimetres – not easy at the best of times and certainly not in a stressful environment like Chelsea. At the same time, Andrew Ewing and his team have been installing the water feature. Each of the stones, weighing a few hundred kilos, have to be laid exactly flat so that the water flows over the edge in a consistent way. Not easy, but Andrew has done it many times before.

David has worked wonders with the dry stone walling on his first day. The first buttress is complete and he will probably finish the second one by Wednesday morning. Whilst the traditional method is to lay the stone horizontally, the edge walling is layed vertically which looks wonderful. Tomorrow, the sculptured columns arrive from France which will be a major event and should start giving the garden its real character. The central section of the garden is sunken and you already can get a feel for the sense of space.

It seems as if we have been on site for much longer than a week but it has only been 7 days. Progress has been good with the liner to the pool being installed today and the first row of Parrotia Persica trees being planted. The sculptured branches of the trees really stand out against the hornbeam hedge. Graham has been doing some finishing touches to the top of the hedge – the camera behind him looks like something from a MOD facility but it is actually a time lapse camera that Luciano has installed.

We have had a good day on the Telegraph garden. Cleve has got stuck in, helping with the watering and the stone work. The main wall is built and ready for render and we are largely on track. What is very satisfying is that our plan with the dry stone walling has worked. Last year, the dry stone walls took far too long. So we came up with a plan to build them in advance at the nursery and then lift them into place. The only work at the Show would involve just joining up the sections. The two photos show how the joins look – I don’t think you can see them in the finished version, which is a real credit to David Wilson and the team who built them.

The parrotias have been arriving at Chelsea and are looking magnificent. Back in April Luciano came to the Crocus nursery to work out exactly which tree was to go where in the garden. We even marked out the entire garden and numbered each one. So when we got to site this morning, we thought – no problem. But Luciano decided that he wanted to change the layout – so much for forward planning. Luckily it was not a big deal and we changed them around without a problem. The only thing I said is that once we have planted them, we can’t move them!

Building a Chelsea garden brings together so many different people and trades. When we finish the garden, I will add up exactly the number of people who will have worked on the Laurent-Perrier garden but I bet it will be about 50 people – maybe more. So on the same day that Mark, Gary and Terry are pouring concrete for the water rill, and Graham is planting the hornbeam hedging, Luciano is down at the Crocus nursery working with Spirry to try and determine the exact combination of plants that he wants. It’s a really good idea to spend some time on the nursery looking at the plants because it allows the designer to spend some time, not surrounded by the chaos of Chelsea, to really think about the right combinations.

Finally, Graham won’t thank me for this but Nicolle, from Luciano’s office, came to help us yesterday and I managed to catch them on camera, with Nicolle doing all the work and Graham and Mark just standing around watching!

Despite the rain we have been having over the last 24 hours, we have been making good progress on the Telegraph garden. The taxus hedge at the back of the garden is now complete and the main wall should be complete by the end of the day. All the pipe work is in place for the water spouts coming out of the wall so if the rain holds off tomorrow, we should be rendering the wall tomorrow. David has arrived from Scotland to start installing his dry stone walls so we are on track. Let’s hope it stays that way…

Many people ask us about our secret tips about how to build a garden at Chelsea. One important tip is that we always have HM The Queen on our mugs. I know it’s unlikely, but the Queen may pop in for a cuppa at some stage and it’s important that we are fully prepared.