The Chelsea Show GArden from earlier this year is featured again in this month's Garden Deisgn Journal. Its not a large article and whilst it claimed to "get under the skin of Chelsea designers" it really failed to deliver. So if you were looking for some insight as to how the concrete features and design eveolved, then you wont find it here. Shame really as if the author had given me a call I would have been more than happy to supply information. However it has given me the motivation to write on technical matters and I am pleased to say that my first articles will be for the Garden Design Journal. They wont be published until spring next year and of corse rely on me actually writing them; but I am commited.

Something else that was new this last week was that I took up my role on the Society of Garden Designers Adjudication Committee. I recall the effort and heartache of preparing for my own membership and then day of the adjudication in front of a panel of three was awful. I sympathised with those we saw. It was fascinating to see other people's progress and approach and whilst I joined the panel to try to bring some presence for membership in the Society back to the North West Region of the UK, I realise that I will learn a lot and it can only make my own work better.

It has been a while since I last posted, so I need to catch up with just about everything. It has been fairly quiet, with only a few new enquiries. I think that I have a panic around this time every year. The new year seems to appear like a cliff to which we are driving. I wonder what we will do in the, what happens when the current work is completed and if the phone will ever ring again. In truth, I like to think I should be so busy that I neither know what day it is nor have time to worry about anything other than getting drawings completed and suppliers hounded. We had eight projects on last month and some will continue over and demand time for the rest of the year. It was to many and for the past few weekends it has been bliss to close the office door and stop answering the phone at 5pm on a Friday, not even looking at emails until the following Monday. There is a balance between panic and productivity and getting a few schemes finalised by the end of the year is better than chasing a dozen continually round in circles.
Our Chelsea Show garden has hit the rocks. We have a sponsor eager and waiting, however they are only able to provide half of the amount we need to put on the garden. I have lost count of the letters, calls and conversations we have made and so far, to no avail. Last year things went to the wire, having decided to withdraw from the show, I delayed contacting the RHS until after we’d had a weekend away. It was whilst in a down pour in a muddy garden in Granada in late January, that a sponsor called and the deal was done. We are optimistic.
The number of followers of this blog have recently doubled! So thank you to you both! I am hoping to start adding some more content and links to some of the resources and sites I use frequently.
WWW.shedworking.co.uk is somewhere I recently stumbled on whilst looking for inspiration for a custom shed for a client. Well worth a look if only for the effort and dedication people put into their sheds.. but somehow I think these are sheds in name only….