Well its wednesday 15th July 2009 and its now officially (well was yesterday at about 2pm) that after a year of planning, numerous forms filled in, 14 hot days of building the garden, 7 days of handing out leaflets and answering the same question day in day out and two days to break down the garden my hampton court experience is all over. Well its certainly been an emotional experience, yes being award a silver gilt medal for my design is fantastic, though i'm rather disappointed mainly at myself that my design wasn't good enough for a gold medal but I can't please everybody. The garden itself looked fantastic and looked better then i could every imagine, the red wall which was a bold move, worked fantastic with the betula's situated in front of it bringing out the colour of its beautiful white stem. The beech helped tone down the colour of the wall and despite having to pick off all last season's leaves worked really well aswell. The planting was also a massive success so thanks to Chris and his Team who done a fantastic job. The planting really help create the tranistion between the two elements of bringing the Rural environment into a more urban asa per the brief.

When the show open it was great to hear such positive feed back from both the RHS members and the general public. It was really pleasing to hear so many people speaking to me on the garden that my garden was the one of the best show garden at the show this year. It was also pleasing for me the designer to see all genrations from the very young to the retired enjoying my garden which was a shock as i only thought that people of my age would get the feel for the garden, so that was good.

Before i go i must say that it really was good to get to meet James Wong. He's written a couple of books, had a tv series and has also designed two show gardens, one at hampton court and one at Chelsea. He was probably one of the nicest tv personalityies in the garden world i have met and was really easy to talk to in between takes. He mentioned to me that he had seen my breif about the garden and was wondering how anybody could bring two separate environments into a garden and blend them together but was shocked in a good way when he saw my garden and said that it worked really well and looked fantastic.

Anyway I would like to thank everybody who has helped me on my garden and couldn't have done it with out you from Chris and his team at Bushy Business, GHS for sponsoring the plants for the garden all the various supplyiers, my parents for putting up with me and helping with the garden and anybody else i have missed. Over the past four weeks i have met some really nice people, made some new friends and despite being the centre of jokes from the other designers i can say that i don't want to see Hampton court again for a few months, its been another great experience for me but right now i want to return back to normailty, its been great but also very tiring and all i have to do now is plant 600 odd plants, 6 gigantic trees and 14 big hedges around the school so the work isn't over yet. Till Next Time

Thanks for reading and sharing in my experience.

Ian Rochead
Silver Gilt Medalist Hampton Court Palace Flower Shows 2009- Small Garden Catergory