Tatton park flower show gold 2011 with Daniela Coray

In my previous employment we were involved in a great amount of gold winning gardens at Chelsea, Hampton court, and Tatton park. But in 2010 myself and my brother in law left our jobs to set up our own landscaping company (Anemone Landscapes) and just one year after setting up, we revived a couple of exciting emails in 2011. Daniela Coray has been selecting to participate in the young designers competition, and the RHS had put our name forward as a trusted contractor. When I first looked at Daniela’s design I was very impressed. As a first show garden, it would have been very easy to get lost in the occasion, but the design wasn’t too ambitious, very practical, it was incredibly fresh. She also never lost sight of the budget which would have been very easy to do. The design consisted of 3 open drainage channels, which were fed from the permeable paving which the two paths were built from. Permeable paving is quite common now, but it was only the 2nd time I had come across it, first being a show garden using prototype products at Hampton court in 2009. The paths crossed the drainage channels a total of 6 times with green oak bridges. The focal point of the beds were the variety of apple trees, which brought good height into the garden, underplanted with wild flower turf. Within the beds were oak benches, which nestled into the wild flowers. The garden was also framed by a hornbeam hedgerow around the perimeter.

The construction went smooth. A few little hiccups with a few plants, and an issue with some of our machinery, but that was about it. The main construction was built by myself, a good friend and colleague of mine James, more commonly known as Jim, along with Daniella, and her friend Lisa. We started with the drainage channels, a slightly embarrassing oversight of mine whilst marking out was rectified by Daniela, and we had them dug out, and all of the kerbs laid within a couple of days. Then we moved onto the paths. As this was permeable paving, the sub base needed to be clean limestone chippings and as this was a very new product, it wasn’t too easy getting hold of this aggregate at the time. As with all block paving, the whole blocks went down quickly, and the cuts took 2/3 of the overall time. The bridges took no time at all as they were basically small panels of oak decking cut to different shapes, as the paths crossed the channels at different angles. That was the construction done. So it was time to put the trees in. Holes were dug with the mini digger we had, and we also craned the trees in with this. Great care was taken at this point as they were very delicate, and we always had to make sure they looked best from the front of the garden. So a lot of “left a bit, right a bit, this way, that way” etc. Even so, all 12 trees were in, in less than a day. Next up was the wild flower turf. This was a sight I will never forget. Usually when the turf arrives it has been strimmed, and rolled up. However we needed immediate effect. So the whole lot arrived 18” tall and in flower. When we had unloaded that, it was time to go back to the camper, for a celebratory steak. 👍

Once we had laid the wild flower turf, that was pretty much about it. We had left the final touches to Daniela, lisa, and her team. I was thrilled but not surprised when Daniela called me to say she had won the young designer of the year, along with an RHS gold medal.

I brilliant experience, one that wouldn’t be duplicated for a long time. Or so I thought. At the end of the show, I had another call from Daniela. She had been contacted by Manchester council. They wanted to purchase the entire garden, and have it built within one of their parks. So the entire process was repeated. Unfortunately I lost the original pictures I took during a lot of these builds. However. The garden is still holding up incredibly well.