February, Filming and Final Decisions

I love January, its a long month and offers plenty of opportunity for procrastination. It's still winter; spring, Chelsea and all the rest of it are a long way off and there seems little need to panic. Suddenly its all over and time to step up the action.

This week - GMG press day at the RHS Hall Vincent Square. London. I love this event because its a chance to meet up with lots of friends in the industry and gardening media but it also has the slightly unnerving aspect that you reveal your plans for Chelsea, wondering what anyone will actually think of it all.

We took The Secret Garden Diary Room to the show and invited growers, writers and anyone with a bit of advice to impart to take to The Throne of Knowledge and be filmed for the eb site. After a couple of shy refusals the flood gates opened and there was no stopping them - everyone loved it, and I must say the initial mock up of what it will look like on the web looks great. Relief all round!

The Throne of Knowledge is actually a Peacock chair - you know one of those cane numbers that were so popular in a certain kind of film in the 70s.. Haven't got around to painting it yet - think we will go for peacock blue - maybe with a purple fur cushion - I fancy a little divine decadence.

All the excitement this week precipitated further action on Friday - I decided on buildings, statuary, pathway and water features. A plan on paper actually started to take shape with a lot of help from Gill's autocad skills.

The Moroccan building has metamorphosed into a Venetian Palace - Tim Redwood from Redwood Stone is on the case. Organic Stone have cone up with some fabulous paving - called Divine it lives up to its name. As ever their photography and press material are superb and arrived in time for Thursday's press event.

Lots more decisions in the coming week. Main priority now has to be the plants - Ricky still waiting for a list from me - has to happen this week without fail - but then, I said that last week...