BrandAlley

On Monday afternoon, I donned steel toe capped boots and a bright pink fluorescent vest to go behind the scenes of the Chelsea Flower Show for first glimpses of The BrandAlley Garden.

One of The BrandAlley Garden builders met me at the showground gate with a special pass, allowing me in. As soon as I stepped on to the site, I could see why I needed the steel toe caps and bright vest! It was absolutely chaotic, with vans and large lorries everywhere, delivering everything from soil and grit to building supplies, sculptures and huge trees. Adding to the traffic jam were trollies lining the roadsides, overflowing with lush, green plants and flowers still in bud, so they’d be in perfect bloom for Judging Day on Monday 20^th May.

The noise levels were incredible too, with a cacophony of lorries beeping, horns blasting, mechanical pneumatic drills drilling, concrete mixers mixing, as well as hundreds of workers in fluorescent yellow vests hammering, sawing, using nail guns and digging wherever you looked.

I was really excited by the time I finally reached The BrandAlley Garden. Although it was early days, I could still recognise lots of features from Paul Hervey-Brookes’ illustrations. As soon as I arrived, Paul came over and gave me a guided tour while we had a catch up…

Jo: “How’s it all going?”

Paul: “Pretty hectic! The site is nearly three times larger than the old urban gardens I’ve designed before at Chelsea. We’ve all realised there is a huge amount of building work to do in a small time scale. But we’re well on the way now.”

Jo: “What’s the plan for this afternoon?”

Paul: “Well, we’re planning on planting the three cubed hornbeams, which arrived about half an hour ago. Once the trees are in position, we can get on with bringing in the remaining granite monoliths. We’ve done two so far and there are three more sections to go.”

Jo: “The road alongside the Garden is basically a traffic jam! How will you get the hornbeams from the far side of the road over to this side?”

Paul: “Everything is very time-consuming, because there’s very limited space with all the site traffic around us. Even planting the hornbeam is laborious. We dig a hole, wait for a break in the site traffic, walk the tree to the crane, move it on to the garden, give it a final trim with secateurs, then ease it into position and finally plant it.”

Jo: “So, this is a critical moment!”

Paul: “Absolutely, because the trees are very vulnerable. If you accidentally hit one of these hornbeams with a hammer, it would be dead!  Another reason that It’s pretty critical is because we only have three hornbeams. We can’t go back to the nursery to get another one. We chose them specifically for this garden and the nursery only had three of the size we wanted. So, we’ve got one shot, three times!”

Jo: “Why are these trees so important to the Garden?”

Paul: “The trees are really important because they provide vertical height, add green structure to the Garden and help to create balance.”

I caught up with Paul again early this morning for an update…

So, did the rest of the hard-landscaping part of the build go to plan?

Paul: “Yes, it was quite smooth. Looking back, the two biggest problems we encountered were constructing the walls and then rendering them all.”

“The curved wall was also a very time-consuming element to build. Each ashlar block points outwards. So, rather than having a smooth, curved wall, we have a curved wall with each block in it at 90 degrees from its neighbour – very delicate work!”

“The path looks deceptively simple too. This simplicity relies on a 2mm mortar joint running over 10 metres across the Garden, using two different materials. And the laying process was extremely painstaking.”

“Lastly, the hand-textured granite monoliths proved pretty difficult. Putting them in took three people two days from 7am until 8.30pm! That’s because, incredibly, the smallest one needed two strong men to lift in it into position. And the largest one required four!”

Jo: “Highlights so far?”

Paul: “Getting the hornbeams into the ground safely. That was a huge relief! As a plantsman, it’s always an exciting moment when we turn from concrete and hard landscaping and something with the promise of green arrives. All we need now is five good, warm days and they should put on a good burst of foliage. Fingers crossed!”

Watch this space…

As you can imagine, with only days to go before Judging Day – the day before the official opening – things are hotting up at The BrandAlley Garden build.  We’ll bring you all the exclusive, behind-the-scenes action right here on our blog as Paul Hervey-Brookes finishes the build in the Royal Hospital grounds.  Plus, there’ll be news during Show Week itself (21^st-25th May) both on our blog and on our Facebook page to keep you in touch with all the gossip.  So, there’s plenty to look forward to!

Jo x

Next time: Garden update – all the latest from the build, focusing on the plants, the sculptures, the water textile installation and more.

Picture credits: Images of hornbeam and cubed wall, plus monoliths and side wall – ©Paul Hervey-Brookes Associates; All other images © BrandAlley.co.uk.