Building Bloom
Years ago I read an article about Diarmuid Gavin's early career. According to that article Diarmuid turned up to build his first Chelsea Show Garden in 1995 with borrowed tools and a bunch of friends to help him complete what was to become an award winning garden.
True or not that story has stayed with me for years playing over and over in the back of my mind. The simplicity of Diarmuid Gavin’s plan, which I can only assume was driven by his ambition to succeed, appealed to me back when I read the article and appeals to me even more today.
Inspired by Diarmuid’s determination I will be turning up to build my very first show garden with tools that I’ve borrowed, time that I have stolen* and wood that I’ve begged for.**
There are two main components to the garden I’m building for Bloom in the Park 2009. The first is Stipa Tenuissima a wispy type of ornamental grass that I’ll be using en-masse. The other is good old fashioned timber. As a firm believer in the need to reduce, reuse and recycle as much as we can I set about sourcing recycled and waste wood to use in the build.
After corresponding with many businesses around Ireland I settled on two main contenders. One was a privately owned waste disposable company and the other an Agricultural Supplies business in Lusk. I visited both at the weekend and to see what, if anything, they could offer.
The first trip was out to Lusk, on the old Belfast road (R132) to visit agricultural supplies business Whites Agri. Whites Agri supply all manner of products and have a drive through depot which I think is brilliant; no more lugging heavy loads out to the car on wonky trolleys!
I met with White's Agri Director, Jer, and went through the design and details of Bloom before heading outside to see Whites Agri’s timber-seconds pile. The timber on this pile can’t be sold due to weather damage etc and so was going nowhere until I came along. I have to say I was really pleased with the timber and with the enthusiasm of Jer and Pat White (owner of Whites Agri). Although the timber is damaged there is enough of it that can be rescued and cleaned up to build with. Happy days!
After Lusk I headed over to the other side of the county to visit the waste disposal company. Kitted out with hard hats and steel toe cap boots I received a tour of the depot and a brief insight into what they do before heading over to the wood pile they had created on my behalf. The pile was huge, about the size of my house. Unfortunately though it was a case of take it all or nothing. Had it all been usable I would have gladly have found a place to store it all but as far as I could tell the majority of it was MDF and the similar waste types. The timber planks that I could see were ruined and splintered. All in all I was disappointed. Although, I am very grateful to the waste disposal company for offering what they could and for going to the trouble of putting what they had to one side for me.
So with the timber sorted now all I need is to put it all together and build a fabulous garden...lets hope I make Diarmuid proud!
For more details about White's Agri you can contact them or take a look at their website;
http://www.whitesagri.ie/
Office Phone +(00353) 01-8438521 Fax +(00353)01-8437574
Email address: info@whitesagri.com
*(from friends & family who I am very grateful to)** OK, I suppose ‘asked politely for’ would be more accurate than ‘begged’ but then the sentence doesn’t flow as well!
had this problem; one had started to move them to one corner, another had ignored them and planted anyway the other seemd to have cleared all his away, perhaps I had his too!
