The big day

Monday 19th

Well we are finally here for the big day. We get in early, the morning is still and the light just perfect. It is at this time of day that you really appreciate Lady Arabella Lennox-Boyd's fantastic garden (above). The stillness of the water is awesome and I could stand and look at it for hours except that I have over 40 odd gardens to get around not to mention all the fantastic stuff in the Great Pavilion.

People are putting the finishing touches to everything now and the nervous tension is rising a bit. Some of the designers look as though they are about to be taken to the guillotine others are neurotic in case someone with shoes walks on their carefully cleaned paving!

As the morning wears on the celebs start turning up - I found Chris Tarrant hiding behind a bush, or so it seemed, but he has in fact come to open the Savills garden - not minus shoes - well nobody told him to take them off!

I wonder whether the hairdryer wheeze came off in the Great Pavilion and if the Irises opened. I then run into Matt James, the City Gardener, and there is a bit of banter.

Imelda Staunton and her husband Jim Carter pose for the Reckless personality page - lovely couple - and then we collide with the Skandia Team GBR who are out in force to launch the Hillier Stand. We always get fantastic chocolate on the Hillier stand, Mr McIndoe and his team know how to woo the journalists!

After a confrontation with a couple of Wombles, well I knew one was Uncle Bulgaria but the other's name escaped me and I didn't know it was Wellington - I come across the George Harrison tribute garden. Like this very much but can't say the same for the Italian jobby round the corner, all columns and hard landscaping.

Michael Portillo walks past and then I spy Mrs Bucket, sorry Boquet or should I say Patricia Routledge, a gracious lady with a lovely smile. After a bit of banter with the girls from the Liverpool City stan, who seem to have brought along a 200 year old bloke called Roscoe, we set off to discover some of the smaller gardens.

The smaller gardens include a seaside theme and a delightful croft from the Highlands. There are some excellent gardens here. (See pics below).

The standard is very high this year and it is difficult to be able to pick who will be the overall winner. Certainly in the larger gardens my money is on either Tom Stuart-Smith or Arabella Lennox-Boyd but Cleve West's garden is just something else, a warm delightful and inviting space that says, sit in me!

The highlight of the afternoon seems to be the visit of Ringo, who arrives driven by Damon Hill in a little psychedelic mini, every photographer that lives and breaths descends on the garden. Emma always uses elbows to good effect and she gets off some good shots. I am fortunately in the right place at the right time and get my own pic of Ringo. If this had been 40 years ago I probably would have died to have been so near, but your bus pass tends to change your outlook somewhat and I am completely calm.


We are all shown the door at around 3pm for the visit of the Royal Family but by then the feet are saying, save me, and the stomach is saying feed me. The visual senses have been edified, the memories will linger for another year and the hard work writing up the copy just begins.