With one week to go, we check in on our BrandAlley Renaissance Garden

We’re now just a week away from the opening day of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2014. The BrandAlley Renaissance Garden will finally be unveiled to the public and we cannot wait! We caught up with garden designer, Paul Hervey-Brookes once again to find out a little bit more about what’s happened so far and what we should expect from the Show.

So, there’s a week to go. How are you feeling?

I’m a combination of excited and nervous. I’ve had some really good feedback  so far during the build from my peers, which is of course great, but adds that extra element of pressure to give me that extra boost to ensure the end result is still going to ‘WOW’ people.

Since the build started a week ago, how are things taking shape?

We’ve had hit and miss weather but a really enthusiastic team, so have managed to get through quite a lot due to their dedication and support. The foundations are in, the stone base of the still pool is down, the hedging is up and the Loggia has been constructed.  We’ve even managed to get the 2-ton, stone monolith in place, which is sitting beautifully within the rendered walls. The next steps will be to complete the paving with beautiful stone from Bradstone, fill the pool with water, get all our big trees in and then add the essential details such as painting. Once that’s all done we’ll be ready to put in all of our flowers – the finishing touch.

Are you able to let us in on the trees and plants you’ll have?

We have to leave some surprises, but we’re in safe hands with our award-winning plant partner, Hillier providing these. With a Royal Warrant to HM The Queen and a Guinness World Record for the longest consecutive run of Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medals, we couldn’t wish for a better partner!

Our trees arrived early in the build process and are the best quality.  One of our biggest planting challenges is that we are using some evergreen trees.  Evergreens and Chelsea represent quite a challenge as most evergreen trees shed last year’s foliage and look awful right at the time of the Show!  With the fairly warm spring we’ve had, we are hoping to pull it off and have them looking beautiful and lush – and totally Italian!

Our hedging was also a challenge in terms of planting as each section is 2.5m long by 2m high and needed 5 people, but all-in-all, it looks fabulous and once trimmed, it should have that crisp Italian feel.

I’ll let you in on a little secret…if you fancy getting your hands on Hillier’s finest, watch out for their first ever sale with BrandAlley on 18th May.

Sounds like it’s all going to plan. Have you had any problems?

There is pollen everywhere – in my hair, in my eyes. But with a build this size, if that’s the worst of our worries then I’d say we’re doing well!

Have you seen any of the other gardens?

The fresh gardens haven’t even started to be constructed yet, so there’s a rather eerie, empty feel on site! But the other Show gardens are taking good shape so I think we’re going to be in for another really exciting Show this year. We have planned and dreamed for this moment on Main Avenue for 10 months and being here surpasses those dreams with effortless ease. I can’t wait to share our garden with you – not long now!

Finally, we have to ask about this #ChelseaSelfie!

Ah yes, well we posted a #RHSChelseaSelfie on Twitter and the idea took off – we’re hoping it’ll trend at this year’s Show, as it’s already been picked up by the likes of Horticultural Week.

As you can see, loads of people have been involved already, so it’s great that we started it all on the BrandAlley Garden! Our tagline this year is ‘#BrandAlleyInspired’, so I think we’ve done exactly that!