Tim's Bloom show garden log: building the Growise garden

Wow, it's been a hectic week at Bloom!  We have put in huge efforts already and there have been significant additional difficulties and pressures to overcome due to the tight security arrangements in place for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's visit to the park.  For those of you who don't know Ireland intimately, our President's abode Áras an Uachtaráin is located right next to the Phoenix park visitor centre, where Bloom takes place.  You can imagine the situation with all the different workmen and women arriving with their kit and caboodle and having to get through the Garda (Irish police) security checks.

So, about the build...

The Bloom showgarden area pre-construction (our site is to the foreground)

When we arrive on site at Bloom we are allocated our build plot by the show organisers, which for a large show garden measure 20m long x 10m deep.  The show garden site is a beautiful field area located adjacent to the wonderful walled garden at the Phoenix park visitor centre.  The mature trees to the north and west create a fantastic backdrop for the gardens as does the high stone wall to the Victorian walled kitchen garden.   This year, we are located fairly centrally and our garden is orientated across the site with the main viewing side facing south.

Initial dig-out and forming the levels in the garden

The first step of the build involves stripping off the existing turf and establishing the levels for the various structures to be built in the garden.  At this time, we also form the intial contours for the mounds. Our landscape contractor is Plants and Planters landscape who have proivide us with a great team of  hard-working and resourceful people.  They previously worked with us in 2008 creating our gold-medal winning and Peoples' favourite "Inspiration from Mount Usher" garden.

Constrcution of the garden boundary from exterior ply, painted grey

The next step is to build the garden boundaries.  For this garden, we have three open sides to maximise visibility in to the garden and the fourth, northern side, is closed off with an exterior-ply board fence painted in a low-key grey colour.  This will have trees planted to the front of it, so its real function is to form a divide with other gardens to the rear.  More to follow...