Kent Show Garden Archives

Things are looking pretty interesting...

2014-05-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

The very interesting steel cut panels from the French company Ambellya have been with us for a week or so. Now the guys have finished off a few bits like the paving etc. they are ready to start installing these custom made decorative panels.

Ian and Russ worked pretty hard at making sure they didn't squash the new plants that Sally and Kevin had put in.

There were a few comments from the usual suspects that walk through the gardens on a daily basis about the colour of the panels, of course, most of them came from men - who referred to it as "Puce" and worse - they are not in touch with their feminine sides obviously. One was quite restrained saying" it's not what I would've chosen..."

And I can see now when Sally's planting is zinging along with it, it looks fab...

In fact this picture made me laugh when I saw it and thought of colours working together - or not. Here's Steve from maintenance captured in a rare sunny moment, you probably need some shades on for this one!

Meanwhile Tropical is coming along too.

Cue another plant delivery from Palmstead. Suatali got them here nice and early and we had a day of heavy rain forecast. I'm beginning to get some strange feelings about the "tropical stormy" nature of the weather...it's getting a bit Rain-foresty here.

Well despite the conditions we managed to get stuck in and the plants start giving the garden an interesting jungly feel.

I think that in the end Margaret, Jane and Annie were enjoying themselves!

And the sun came out again! - what a difference that makes.

Post Chelsea Flower Show report

2014-05-22T06:50:00.000-07:00

Last time on the blog, I mentioned I'd be off to chelsea before I blogged again, so I thought it would be nice to give you a little report of what I saw there.

We were delighted to be asked to supply some of our Venetian fencing and one of our lovely Retreats for RHS Chelsea flower show this year.

They are in Chris Webb’s Sculpture garden, right near one of the entrances to the Grand Pavilion, as you can see in the photo above. The garden was basking in the late evening sun when I arrived to see it.

Which was quite different from the weather leading up to the show. Liz Brewer, the garden designer responsible for the creating the planting in the Sculpture garden, sent several tweets, thanking us for supplying the Retreat with its polycarbonate roof, under which, she ‘beat a hasty retreat’ (pardon the pun!) to escape from, not only torrential rain, but hailstones as well!

Her Majesty, The Queen was just coming down Main Avenue as I turned into it, so I couldn’t resist trying to get a photo of her and her entourage as they viewed the large show gardens.

I had a really good look around and took loads of photos of the show gardens, and a few of the great and the good, wielding their obligatory champagne flutes and enjoying the wonderful sun drenched scenery.

One garden, in particular made a real impression on me - I was stunned at the loveliness of Matthew Keightley’s Help for Heroes garden, which was only yards away from the Sculpture garden.

He was very kind and allowed me to go inside the garden (which is usually not allowed) so I could get up close and personal with some of the most wonderful views of his planting. There are many more pics of this and many other gardens, in the gallery.

I caught up with some of our old friends; Matt Childs, in his Brewin Dolphin Garden and Helen Elks-Smith two our previous Jacksons Show Gardens Design competition winners, who both had show gardens at Chelsea this year.

I must say this was one of the most memorable trips to Chelsea that I have made in recent years.

It was a welcome interlude to the very busy schedule of building our own Show Gardens here at Jacksons to get them ready for our Opening on 31^st May.

We've made great progress this last week...

2014-05-16T10:04:00.002-07:00

We've moved on massively this week, you will see the paving started going in. I've so many photos that I will have to just stick a photo in with a short comment, or I will never catch up!

Here you can see we've started laying the paving block, it looks wonderful.

Ian and James have pain-stakingly levelled and then cut the blocks -I can't believe how accurate and detailed it has to be.

As you can see we're nearly there. Meanwhile Ashley from our maintenance dept. has "volunteered" to tackle the water feature in Sally's garden. He's found a novel way of making sure he doesn't get in Ian's way when he's laying the paving...

he gets in the trough!

James has taken on getting the old bench out of the Tropical garden and is now digging out the concrete that's left from its foundations..

And more movement in the Tropical garden, Russ has got the lattice trellis panels in to the pergola, I think it looks really good like that now.

It's a new day, today some of our plants arrive from Palmstead

Yes we have no bananas!

And now the plants have arrived, so have our designers to start their planting.

Smile for the camera ladies, I'm sending this one to the Garden Design Journal, for their news section in the June issue.

I'll catch with you after Monday, when I visit Chelsea Flower show, it will be great to see how things are there and here when I get back.

Moving forward in leaps and bounds....

2014-05-12T09:10:00.000-07:00

The team, Ian Day, James, Russ and Duncan were ready and raring to go, by the look of them!

Ian Day worked on the show gardens 2 years ago and was primarily responsible for the build of Natural Reflections by Alison Coxhead, one of our 2012 winners. He also did a lot of the work on the other gardens and we were so impressed by his diligence, attention to detail and hard work that we are very happy to have him back and working on the build this year.

Take a look at Ian's Potager garden in our customer projects, to see some of his other recent work.

In the Mediterranean Memories garden there are a lot of raised beds around the outside, that create the perimeter of the garden. These are multiplying and growing every time I go out to take a look at the work that is going on. The Laburnum tree looks neat and tidy in its bed now...

The raised beds at the front of the garden are getting taller and the shape of the garden is beginning to be defined. Next door, the Tropical garden has looked like nothing is really happening for a week or so, now I see in the background that Duncan is eyeing up the single pergola that is to run along the side, that's a good sign.

Mean while Russ is doing a "blinding" job of laboriously freshening up the Fragrant Front garden. We've decided it looks pretty cool in white and cream, seems to make the colour of the plants leap out.

Another little change has been to scoop out the gravel that was in the centre of the Within the Weave paving and replace it with a new lawn, my that's grown quickly! Almost magic, it looks like it's been there ages. I think it gives a very different feel to the garden and I love the colours that are beginning to show more in the living walls behind.

In between putting the pergola up in the garden next door, Duncan has been moving and stacking the block paving for the Med-Mems garden. I think that looks like pretty hard, boring work, and the poor love, he keeps looking like he's lost count! I've asked him a few times if he thinks he's got the right number of blocks, will there be enough? - he's polite enough to just smile and mumble his answers...

So this is what he was up to, seems a lot of effort to make our sign stay up in the windy conditions, though that's good work Duncan!

And here's that lovely single pergola up and ready for its lattice trellis infill panels, that will create a rather nice division between the new Tropical garden and Fragrant Front garden.

And now here are the raised beds looking really good, it really gives you an idea of what the final garden will look like. Feedback from Ian Day is that he really likes using the un-grooved Jakwall timbers, he's never used them before, previously he's always gone for the more traditional landscape sleepers, but these get a thumbs up, he particularly likes the chamfered edges.

Bank Holiday Show Gardens Work

2014-05-07T09:37:00.001-07:00

It was the first May bank holiday last weekend, but work carried on some of the days. Oddly for a bank holiday it didn't pour with rain, which was very welcome to Ian and the crew. They have managed to clear out more rubble and soil, dig out footings for posts and the sides of the garden have started to take shape and be defined, as the landscape timbers are being built up. We are using Jacksons Jakwall timbers, the "ungrooved" version, as opposed to the one that looks grooved to simulate brickwork. They are that bit smaller (90 x 140mm) than our Landscape sleepers (100 x 200mm), giving the perimeter a more elegant shape, having been chamfered, the sleepers would look pretty chunky and heavy duty, in comparison I think.

The simple timber frame for the small pergola has popped up as well. This will make a pretty shadey seating area once its roof cover is put on.

Part of the plan was to leave the established Laburnum tree is the back right side corner. The team has been carefully working around it, trying not to disturb it. There will be raised beds for planting all along the rear wall of the garden - these will be made to different heights and sizes, the one surrounding the tree is being kept low, so there's not too much earth covering the base of the tree, otherwise it can distress it.

I noticed today the Laburnum is just showing flower buds on it, it will be great if it manages to still be in flower at the opening event, it looked great last year with its yellow droopy tresses of flowers, lovely bit of colour - fingers crossed.

James and Russ have been working on sprucing up the Fragrant Front garden - sanding down the flakey old paint work and giving the door, window and wall a fresh coat of paint.

It's looking much better already.

I don't know about you, but do these guys look guilty to you?

I think they think I'm checking on how many tea breaks they are having ;-)

Whilst all the attention is on the new gardens, the work to tidy up the others is really paying off now. Natural Reflections is filling out beautifully...

And the Sanctuary Garden has shot up and the Osteospermums are out, and the Valerian and Nepeta are on the brink - I think in the next week this is going to be a riot of colour, can't wait!

Work has started on the Show Gardens

2014-05-01T10:04:00.002-07:00

Work started on the two show gardens this week. prior to this we had a team of gardeners in to lift all the plants that were in the gardens - some will be recycled and used in either these gardens, or some of the other gardens, or will be sold on the open day, with the proceeds going to charity.

I always find that one of the hardest things, as everything had started growing and looking good and I feel mean digging them all up, but it is a comfort to know we've saved most of the plants.

It's strange to see the gardens laid bare - just brown earth and emptiness - they've been here for 3 years now, so it's a big change.

The Transparent fencing was dismantled first on the old Paradise garden, which was great, as it opened the space up. Next James and Ian set about disassembling the water feature and taking apart the old wall. Looked pretty gruesome, at this stage I can't wait for them to get rid of it all!

Today was our first day of rain, let's hope it doesn't go like two years ago, when it rained day after day and we squelched around in the soaking conditions, wondering if we'd ever get the work done in time....

But here you can see despite the rain things in Paradise are looking much clearer and at last the wall has gone forever! It's all much clearer and James and Ian have really started thinking about building up, with the un-grooved Jakwall timbers that will be the perimeter of the garden. Good to think building rather than demolishing is happening now. Poor old Phormium is looking a bit lonely, let's hope they move him soon.

Meanwhile in other parts of the gardens, we cleared out most of the old plants from the living wall in Within the Weave, as the plants were looking decidedly grotty and tired, and the lavenders had yet again gone crispy! We discovered there were a nasty lot of vine weevils that had taken up residence in there, so it's just as well we had a clear out. I decided I wanted to get some colours going on, so we've replanted with a selection of Alpines and other stuff. Here's how it's looking, hopefully it will fill out and there will be a bit less black of the living wall case and more flowery stuff as time goes on.

And we had taken out the front low Box hedge, I'm pretty sure it had Box blight and I felt it was time to open this out a bit in there, so we've planted some Sedums and other low clumpy Alpines, all of them are silvery whites and grey-ey green foliage, so I think this will look great when it spreads and clumps together.

Here it is a day or so later, looks pretty good already.

And of course, one good thing you can say about having a rainy day is it's done the living wall and the Sedums good, they've appreciated the water.

The Winners...

2014-05-01T07:52:00.002-07:00

As promised we have now announced the winners of the 5th Annual Jacksons Show Gardens Design Competition, you can see full details of the winners, their designs and news about the opening event on Saturday 31st May by going to the show gardens home page.

Throughout the coming weeks we will be hoping to upload pics of the progress that is being made with the gardens build.

Show gardens and other news

2014-04-28T09:20:00.001-07:00

Hi Everyone

We are hoping to be able to reveal the winners of this years show gardens design competition tomorrow (fingers crossed)

As usual it's taken ages from the deadline to sort it all out and to email everyone that entered the competition feedback on their designs. So before that here's some newsy bits:

Now into its fifth year, this project has graced the Kent HQ of Jacksons with amazing displays of up to the minute examples of designer show gardens, aimed at providing visitors with inspiration for their own projects and bringing a little of the glamorous world of Chelsea and Hampton Court flower shows to this little corner of East Kent.

The connection with the prestigious RHS shows has taken root (pardon the pun) with two of the first years competition winners: Heather Appleton and Matthew Childs scooping gold medals at the big shows in the years after creating their first show gardens at Jacksons.

I am delighted to hear that this year at Chelsea it is rumoured there will be even more ex-Jacksons show gardens winners exhibiting their design skills, when Heather and Matthew are joined by one of the 2011 winners, Helen Elks Smith. Her garden ‘The City Of London Corporation Oak Processionary Moth Garden’ aims to raise awareness of OPM with landowners and the general public, and underline the need and importance for co-ordinated treatment, infestations of the pest have proved impossible to eradicate in some areas of West and South-West London.

It’s an interesting choice of inspiration for a show garden and having seen some of the plans it’s definitely one to look out for if you watch the TV programmes on Chelsea or if you are lucky enough to visit the show.

And, I’m happy to say there’s another connection to Jacksons at the Chelsea Flower Show this year; our Venetian panels and the lovely new Retreat shelter will be starring in Chris Webb’s Sculpture garden, designed by Liz Brewer. It will be hard to miss right near the entrance to the Grand Pavillion!

We launched our Retreat shelter last year, and it was developed from an initial idea of a garden structure in The Sanctuary by Joanne Winn, one of the winning show garden designs last year.

It was certainly well received and I’m pleased to say that it now gets to kick its heels up at the RHS Chelsea flower show in May. This will be a space where visitors are warmly invited to freely touch and explore his work. The sculptures are thoughtfully positioned in a beautiful garden setting themed to complement the work. Chris will be working on the completion of a large stone carving during the show in his ‘pop-up’ workshop. Our Retreat will lend itself perfectly to a ‘sheltering’ role in the garden.

So on to this year and the Jacksons show gardens design competition, the opening is planned for the 31^st May at Jacksons HQ at Stowting and the two new winning designs will be revealed, with the other five gardens having been livened up for the new season.

The two gardens making way for new young blood are Helen Elks Smith’s Chill Out garden:

and the lovely Paradise garden by Mary Ann le May.

It will be sad to see them go, but exciting all the same to see what’s new. So to tip our hats at them, here they are on this page to enjoy for the last time. We’ll miss the wonderful colour of the Paradise’s planting and the great relaxing vibe when imagining chilling out in the hammock!

For more info on the show gardens go to:

www.jacksons-fencing.co.uk/showgardens

Judging has begun...

2013-03-26T09:56:00.001-07:00

Hi Everyone

I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who sent in designs for the Jacksons show gardens competition.

The deadline has gone by now and we are in the process of starting the very difficult task of sorting through everyone's work, and as in previous years the amount and quality of submissions is rather overwhelming.

As we have other parties involved this year, the process will take a little longer to come to the decision as to who has won, and as Easter is looming large on he horizon I think we will most probably not make an announcement until after the bank holiday, at least.

I wish you all a lovely Easter break and hope the weather improves for everyone - hard to believe last year we were in our gardens having barbies in a heatwave.

Louise

ref the Float garden

2013-03-11T07:51:00.000-07:00

ref the Float garden...

I love the fence but If it is looking tired, can we give it a face lift by painting it? White would be what I have in mind.

The Venetian fencing in the garden is approximately 3-4 years old now and I really wouldn’t consider it to be looking tired, when you consider Jacksons fences last in excess of 25 years. I would only consider staining, (not painting the fence, once you go down that route you are making a rod for your own back, and would have to consider repainting every couple of years!), and only really doing that in unusual circumstances. I think you need to think about the company’s ethos, ref quality, guarantees and timber. WE love our wood ;-) I’m not averse to cleaning with a pressure washer if it looks a bit dull.but even this I wouldn't really consider as necessary.

Having read the brief, I'm aware that you want to keep most of the structure. However, would it be possible to remove any of the decking to the left of the A 'Zone' on your computer plan?

Yes anything is worth considering, it will be very interesting to see what you and the others come up with.

types of timber used by Jacksons...

2013-03-11T06:19:00.001-07:00

and this...

Hi please can you clarify? Are there any particular wood products that you supply that are sourced in the UK? For example hazel or chestnut poles or hurdles etc?
Thanks.

WE only supply softwoods which are pressure treated and guaranteed for 25 years, some of which are native grown, but in the main they are from Europe.

Definitely no hard woods, definitely not hurdles and a tiny exception is the chestnut site fencing that is cleft chestnut in a roll.

If anyone's interest Jacksons have just published the Definitive Guide to Timber Treatment. This is in response to a lot of confusion surrounding the subject of timber treatment in some of the farming press. We decided to set the record straight, so our customers can read in full the lengths we go to to ensure our timber is treated correctly and how this allows us to offer our unique 25 year guarantee.

click for a link to news story and a downloadable pdf.

2013-03-11T06:07:00.003-07:00

Here is a query I have received recently, that may be helpful:

Just a quick question regarding the float garden plan - it would appear from the photos of the garden that there is a small area of planting (currently artificial grass) under the Sorbus in the corner at the back of the garden. However this is not apparent on the plans where it appears to be all decking?

Sorry yes there is a small area that isn't deck, that is not mentioned as being another area of artificial grass on the plan.

Please see this pic, with my scribbles on it! Just in case you can't read my scrawl, the dimensions are 178cm wide by 58cm deep.

special discount offer from Vectorworks...

2013-02-21T08:01:00.003-08:00

Hi

Well at least this isn't me wittering about design brief detail again!

Here's an offer from Vectorworks that may interest some of you:

When you sign up to Vectorworks Service Select and upgrade to Vectorworks 2013 you will automatically receive a 33% discount on your upgrade.

Plus, we offer free training, free premium technical support and free access to an online knowledge portal that includes content libraries including Jacksons Fencing, Haddonstone, Shoot, Coblands and Landscape Forms.

For more information visit http://serviceselect.vectorworks.net/learn-more, email 3ddesign@unlimited.com or tel: 020 8358 6668.

worry over garden themes and names misunderstanding?

2013-02-21T07:56:00.000-08:00

Hi again

I've been having a niggling doubt about a query that has popped up a few times, each time I've answered the query individually, not thinking it warranted putting on the blog, then wondered if I should put it up here...but someone else asked the question again this morning, so I've decided that we better cover it. For speed I will paste the question and my response below.

For the Seaside garden – does the new design still need a seaside theme?

Hi ******

I am getting a bit worried that because we are referring to the seaside garden, as the seaside garden that people are presuming that we want another seaside type of garden. I thought it was clear that it was designed originally with a seaside theme, but now we want something as different as possible. On the design brief form that people need to fill in it says new garden name…

We also say in the scope:

we would like to retain the Indian sandstone paving and the Paliframe fences, but within these constraints we would

like you to design a new and innovative garden. You may recycle anything from the existing garden, but feel free to

stretch the boundaries of design.

maybe it wasn't clear enough, I don't know?

You are about the 4^th person who has asked this, so I guess I had better put something along these lines on the blog, in case others that haven’t got in touch are going down this line. Thanks for helping me decide to do this.

So I just want to make this clear, the old names of Seaside or float garden are just the names we are calling these at the moment. Please choose new names and themes. This goes for the Whitefriars challenge too, please choose a name and theme if you want.

thanks Louise

detail on paving in Seaside garden, what size and how many?

2013-02-21T04:05:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone

I've been prompted to give more detail on the paving in the Seaside garden, now we have decided it can be taken up and relaid, predictably someone wanted to know what size, type and quantity of it there was. I guess the devil is in the detail and it pays to be diligent. In the spirit of fairness I obviously want everyone that is considering designing for the replacement for seaside garden to have the same information, so here you are:

On the paving query the type that was used is Bretts sandstone, fossil mint:

http://www.brettpaving.co.uk/gardens/naturalstone/tumbledsandstone

This comes as a mixture of various approx sizes. We have:

29 x 29cm – 6 no.

60 v 30cm – 9no.

60 x 60cm – 11no.

60 x 90cn – 13no.

I have attached a pic of it, that shows the detail and colour in the stones, which I think is really rather attractive.

Hope this helps.

Louise

Seaside garden's paving query?

2013-02-14T08:45:00.001-08:00

Hi

A couple of designers have asked this sort of thing regarding the paving in the seaside garden:

...the scope for this garden states that you wish to retain the Indian sandstone paving. Would you be happy for this to be relaid or do you wish for it to stay in its current location?

and this:

I hope I haven't missed some vital piece of info in the material you have already sent. In the seaside garden - you want to retain the existing paving - as it is laid or can it be lifted and re-used in a different design? I appreciate the need for sustainability but would feel very restricted trying to incorporate the existing paving, which covers a substantial area of the garden, into a new design.

We've had a look at the very lovely paving and decided it can be taken up and relaid elsewhere in the garden, as it would be rather inhibiting to have to keep in the same place.

thanks

Louise

different versions of Vectorworks files for float & seaside

2013-02-13T02:18:00.000-08:00

Hi again

some of you have had problems opening the Vectorworks files in the brief pack, apparently because you have different versions of the package. We now have various versions available to download from drop box:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/oa3toeungi0ssiv/qZPMANA1qF/Seaside%20Various%20Versions

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/oa3toeungi0ssiv/QDgcwxX6t7/Float%20Various%20Versions

hopefully that will make things easier?

Louise

feedback from a couple of designers who have misunderstood the brief

2013-02-12T07:33:00.000-08:00

I have had two fairly similar bits of feedback see below:

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately I do not possess Vectorworks or live near Canterbury so I will have to give it a miss this year.

Please read the reply below that I sent to someone earlier on who had these same concerns and now agrees she may have got the wrong end of the stick I have re-ordered this so it’s easy to follow rather than reading from the bottom upwards – that always does me in!:

Hi Louise

Well, I don't feel I'm able to enter the competition this time. The Canterbury competition is, as you say , ideally suited to a designer who is local.

The seaside garden is sponsored by Vectorworks, which I do not use - so am at an obvious disadvantage. Not only that, but true seaside gardens are not situated on heavy clay so I would feel a bit of a fraud trying to design and plant up on this type of soil.

Hi *********

I’m sorry you see this as all too difficult, perhaps you need to re-read the pack?

The Whitefriars challenge would ideally suit a local designer, but that doesn’t mean that someone who is not local, who has the best design will not win. The other show gardens are in this part of the world, not far from Canterbury and we have had winners from all over the country in previous years. Also previous years winners have never found it a problem to visit Kent (or Canterbury – where we held a meet the designers day at the Zone last year).

If you read again, the seaside garden can be produced in traditional methods or Vectorworks, but it doesn’t have to be Vectorworks see below:

If you cannot provide such a drawing, our in house designers will produce one for you working from your plans.

If you require a copy of the Vectorworks software you can do this by downloading a 30 day trial version.

Visit http://www.vectorworks.net/trial/form.

So there's no disadvantage at all.

The seaside garden is only called that because the previous designer decided to make it with a seaside theme - it is not remaining as the seaside garden, the point is to change it and for the designers entering the competition to use their imagination and creativity to conjure up some thing different, with its own new and special theme. As for the clay soil, there is a bit of this at the back of the garden, I understand, although I am not a garden designer myself, that it is helpful to point out soil types, so mistakes aren’t made when choosing plants that prefer certain types of soil. I’m sure the clay soil aspect can be incorporated successfully in the design.

Maybe having read this in the morning light, (I note you emailed at nearly 11pm last night, so you may well have been tired!) and if you have another read of the brief, you may find yourself feeling a bit different now *******.

Thanks and kind regards

Louise

Sorry Louise - I sincerely hope I didn't come across as bring rude - my sincere apologies if I did!!

Thanks for taking the time write back - most appreciated and I think I got the wrong end of the stick...I'll take a look again and NOT read up on things late at night!!

Hi Again *****

Hopefully that will make some sense ?

Thanks and regards

Louise
and the other designer also said this in reply:

To be honest I didn't read the pack just your opening email - I am glad that Nemetscheck will consider hand drafted drawings, I didn't expect them to as they are sponsoring with Vectorworks - my mistake. To be honest I have been looking forward to doing some competition work and maybe I jumped the gun thinking as the other person did, that I would be at a disadvantage before even getting started, as you are aware the design and fulfilling the brief can take some time and late nights. Thanks for your understanding and response.

2013-02-12T05:22:00.003-08:00

4th Annual Jacksons Show Gardens Competition

Hi Everyone - thanks to all of you who have registered your interest.

The 4th Annual Jacksons Show Gardens Competition is up and really running now. We emailed out the competition brief packs - well a link to download all the info from dropbox to everyone who has registered their interest yesterday evening. Interestingly this was on exactly the same date last year - 11th Feb.

Here's the link for anyone who is interested:

2013 Jacksons Competition Brief

The closing date for entries is 20th March, so a day after the closing date last year. I'm sure you will all appreciate the extra day!

This year we wanted to do something a bit different, as we'd followed pretty much the same formula for the last 3 years. So we have 3 distinctly different design challenges for those entering.

We also have some other companies involved, this is something that has happened quite naturally; we are delighted to announce that images of our timber fencing, gates and garden products have been developed in Vectorworks image library. Vectorworks as I’m sure you all know is the market leading software used by many garden designers and landscape architects. Having our images in their library is great as this enables Vectorworks users to easily import and integrate (in my humble opinion) some of the best looking fencing and garden products ready made into their designs. It seemed obvious that a way of bringing this to designers and landscape architects attention was to involve Nemetschek Vectorworks as a sponsor for one of the show gardens.

The other partner is Whitefriars. We worked very successfully together last year on a project in Canterbury, which we called the Zone. This year weve been invited to work with them again, although we've upped the ante somewhat this year.

Now that people are looking at the brief packs I have received a few emails, calling for clarification on some points that seem a little wooly to them - it's probably the way it is written, things can make perfect sense in one's own head when you read things back! so I will put some of the queries questions and answers here to hopefully other people I may have confused! But that will be a bit later on...

thanks

Louise

Matt Childs wins Gold at Hampton Court

2012-07-06T07:08:00.002-07:00

Congratulations are in order, further to the previous post about Matt's first show garden at the RHS Hampton Flower Show.

I went along to see his garden and catch up with the delighted designer on Tuesday.

See his full story here on Jacksons Latest News:

Here are a couple of pics of the Light at the E=end of the tunnel, there are more on the news story.

Light at the end of the tunnel...

2012-07-02T05:16:00.002-07:00

One of our Show Gardens first year winners, Matthew Childs, has come far in the short two years since having his first show garden here. The Centered Garden was displayed at Jacksons for two years and was replaced by one of the new gardens this year. this link will take you to the gallery of Matt's Centred Garden when he was interviewed by Joe Swift when he opened the 2011 Jacksons show Gardens.

Since the gardens were openened in 2010, Matt has continued to visit Jacksons on Open days and we are delighted that this year he has his first show garden at Hampton Court Flower Show and that we have been able to support him with timber for use in in "Light at the End of the Tunnel" garden.

Good luck with the garden, fingers crossed for a nice shiny medal for you Matt.
Pic below of Matt seated far left, with (left to right) Mark Smith, Mary Ann Le May, Helen Elks Smith, Joe Swift and Louise Tomlin (seat right Justine Jobson).

Show gardens in June...

2012-06-25T07:46:00.001-07:00

The official opening for the show gardens was the 19th May. Since then we've all had time to catch up with all the jobs that went a bit by the way whilst the gardens build was going full tilt.

Over the last few weeks we have had little sun and downpour after downpour, so all the plants and trees in the gardens have had a chance to flourish - so even the new gardens planting is looking pretty mature and full in the main. The rain has been a blessing really, as last year and the year before I can remember anxiously scurrying around with the hose pipe trying to ensure that the newly planted gardens didn't suffer from drying out before the plants got established. The last thing you want when you've bought wonderful plants is to see them going crispy! No chance of this here at the moment.

As the gardens have settled and bloomed I've taken quite a lot of pics, there are a couple to see here and you can view the rest by clicking though to the show gardens web site pages
and clicking the links top left to the 2012 Show Gardens Image Gallery, I hope you enjoy them.

Garden Progress...

2012-05-14T09:33:00.001-07:00

It has been the wettest April since records began, so not the sort of weather we have had the last two years when building the show gardens at Jacksons, In previous years we’ve been slapping on the sunscreen, instead we’ve been waddling in wet weather gear and wellies!, Not at all helpful when building and digging to a schedule. However progress has been made and the two new gardens are looking fantastic. Alison’s Natural Reflections is all but there and Kari’s Within the Weave is romping up behind, so as long we don’t have any disasters in this last week leading up to the opening we should (fingers crossed) be finished in time. Hope those aren’t famous last words! The gardens will open to public on Saturday 19th May and from then on they will be open during Jacksons usual opening hours. The five gardens from previous years are all having face lifts, with new planting, paving cleaned up and fresh coats of paint, so everything should be looking tip top by the end of the week. I took some pics, on a rare day when the sun actually shone, of both the gardens in the early stages of their development. They’ve moved on a lot since these were taken, but I’m not going to show you those as we need to keep some mystery…

And the winners are....

2012-03-26T09:19:00.000-07:00

Everyone that has entered this year's Jacksons Show gardens competition should have had an email from me by now, giving feedback on their design and thanking them for their entry.

I really would like to say a very big thank you to everyone again, the standard of the designs this year was outstanding, and it really made it very difficult for us to pick the two winners.

But we did, and I'm sorry for those of you that got a little impatient waiting to hear, but I really did want to let everyone know individually.

Anyway, enough waffle!

This year's winners are Alison Coxhead with her lovely "Natural Reflections" garden and Kari Beardsell - Blue Bridge Garden Design and her wonderful "Within the Weave" garden.

Well done both of you.

I'm looking forward to getting the build organised and putting images of the winning design and some of the other interesting ones we got up on line throughout the week.

Jacksons Show gardens competition news

2012-03-23T04:37:00.004-07:00

I’m happy to say we’ve managed after a lot of mulling over, lip chewing and difficult deliberating, to choose the two winning designs for this year’s show gardens.

Although I won’t be making an announcement on who the winners are just yet – last year I emailed everyone individually to let them know what was happening and give them feedback on their design. This does take quite a lot of time, as there are a lot of you, but I think it’s a much nicer way of doing this than just saying so and so has won!

So please bear with me as I start that process and hopefully by Monday I will be making the announcement, via twitter, the show gardens blog and on the web site.