The Big Bloom Blog


(I wrote this at 6pm Thursday May 28th 2009 - just adding to the blog today)

It's wind down time on site at Bloom 2009 as today was the opening day and it has been long, hot and emotional..and completely worth it!

I set out on my Bloom adventure to see what I could achieve, what my strengths and weaknesses are and I certainly did, I've learnt an awful lot in a very short space of time.

I'll bring you up to date with the last few days of the build:

The final build weekend went well; Pat from MyPlant dropped in the 3000 Carex buchani and with an army of, very lovely, volunteers, the plants were placed into position along with the Stipa. This weekend was also the weekend that I realised that the wooden seating area could be a problem. Monday flew by and despite the generous help of dome fabulous volunteers, who stayed way past bedtime to lend a hand, I knew that some aspects of the design would be unachievable in the time frame we had left. By Wednesday I was overwhelmed with crushing disappointment in myself; the seating area was a shambles and I was on site at 6am trying desperately to improve it...to no avail.

Granted a medal was never my goal but I had hoped that I could at the very least impress the judges. A predicted call to my mobile confirmed that the "judges were concerned with the safety" of the seating area and suggested that the woodwork be removed and the sunken area be lined with turf. Point taken - I did as they suggested.

Needless to say there was no medal awarded to 'In Amongst the Grasses' according to the rumour mill "the garden wasn't judged at all as it wasn't finished". Such encouraging rumours to add to the already sickening embarrassment that I have.

So I'm down (a bit) but I'm not out. I've achieved what I came to achieve. The judges also told me that I "shouldn't feel discouraged" and I'm not. In fact I already know what I'm doing next year.