The Wasteland 2013, Leo Baistow

Kate Gould Gardens Ltd The Garden Design Studio, 26 Aldenham Road, Radle;, Her=ordshire, WD7 8AX t. w. e.

01923 839 733 kategouldgardens.com enquiries@kategouldgardens.com

The Wasteland Going for Gold at RHS Chelsea 2013

“The ability to visualise, interpret and successfully bring to life a living breathing garden from a 3D drawing, is a skill that requires an extensive understanding of hard and so? landscaping combined with skilful plan@ng and care”

Serene and calm now, this was not how things looked during the previous sixteen days.

The Wasteland was imagined as an abandoned water pumping works fallen into disrepair. The objecTve is to regenerate this derelict space and turn it into a haven for local residents and wildlife.

The leU over structures are incorporated into a new garden space with the old ‘Headwall’ at the centre renovated to create a contemporary water feature.

A simple design on paper with interlocking angles looks like a simple task, but nothing is simple at Chelsea and as we found out nothing is simple with pre-­‐cast concrete.

Day one, 7am -­‐ the guys may be smiling but without even a machine on site yet and boundaries sTll to define the sixteen day build seems like an epic task (at least the sun is shining though).

Measuring and re-­‐measuring is a key part of the process especially when the weights involved are up to 750kg.

A soon as the structures start to go in and the boundaries go up the garden begins to take shape. The blue plasTc is used to protect the showground from cement and crushed base build ups.

A small canopy is created from a perceived old structure at one of the entrances to the garden and wire mesh boundary screens created from old shopping trolleys and ma;ress springs are erected to create a light-­‐weight feeling of enclosure to the garden.

This was parTcularly and deliberately distressed, as was all the concrete to add character to an ‘old’ structure.

Re-­‐bar and steel mesh were applied over a steel box frame secTon for rigidity and strength.

A feat of engineering for a show that only lasts five days!

Even with good progress there were setbacks.

A millimetre perfect steel sub frame was used to shu;er the concrete panels. These were made ‘lightweight’ with the inclusion of foam panels in the base.

The foam panels helped greatly but what did not help was the inaccuracy of the concrete.

SomeTmes out by 50-­‐75mm and someTmes completely missing.

Although trips had been made to view the main elements of the scheme the finer detail was not double and triple checked which caused problems.

The pencil line here shows how far out of square this piece of concrete actually was.

It is always worrying when calculaTons have to be made on the back of a plan for pre-­‐fabricated items already delivered.

The whole top riser of this step was missing which resulted in many worried faces and the joints between were unacceptable.

Along with restricted working hours from 7am-­‐8pm only meant that we were pushed for Tme and at this point there were thoughts in our heads (although they were never spoken) that we might not make it.

Definitely not a pre;y sight.

This is the inside of the large concrete pla=orms.

The concrete here should have had more mesh through it but our supplier had taken shortcuts and we had to move these huge 4m secTons of concrete VERY, VERY carefully.

Just when you think its safe to take a break the plants arrive. At Chelsea we plant the trees in conjuncTon with the hardscape and since it was so cold this year many of the trees arrived with hardly any leaves. We all hoped for a warmer end to build up to make them put on some growth.

Betual nigra waiTng to be moved to site

Enkianthus campanulatus in place (this was the star of the show).

Carnage sTll conTnues and but the garden is beginning to take shape with the addiTon of supermarket trolley screens, Glulam benches and reclaimed items.

By this point the problems with the concrete were almost behind us and we could begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

This man in the middle of the picture may look like a wizard (an indeed he probably is one) but without his help and skill we would not have achieved the finish we did. Along with fabricaTng items at short noTce he also drove nearly 1500 miles over five days to make it all happen.

Chelsea is ulTmately about teamwork and being thankful for the people you have around you.

The garden showcased reclaimed items and these having had a pre-­‐life and so were not 100% true, consequently some items did not sit together as new materials would.

Old metal walkways from ships, old steam valves, reclaimed crazy paving and old ma;resses made into delicate filigree screening and not forget half an old roll top bath.

Bearing all of these things in mind when building is important but so is the ability to troubleshoot and think outside of the box when problems arise.

One of the simplest items to construct on the showground was the water feature made from old washing machine drums.

It arrived pre-­‐made and was simply liUed into place without a single problem.

The frame for it was another ma;er, requiring the help of a 14m telescopic forkliU which had to sit outside of the plot and extend 10m, four men were needed to guide it in to place and all of this at 7.50pm with only ten minutes to go before we would be asked to leave site. We work best under pressure!

Once all of the problems with the construcTon were over, the machines were off site and the generators at Chelsea turned off in favour of mains power the site becomes very quiet.

This is when the planTng takes place.

The large trees are already in but now the smaller plants are added, moss between the paving stones and the green walls Tdied.

It is at this point you know if you have done well or not. It is a gut reacTon combined with an ability to criTcally judge your work. We knew the garden was good but we did not dare to hope that it was good enough for a gold medal in case we tempted fate.

The sTcks holding up the Paeonia, Allium and Iris are sTll on this photo. They would only be removed just seconds before judging.

You can never make enough luck so our reclaimed concrete water feature became a ‘wishing well’ and family and friends threw in coins to wish us luck.

Top steps complete, no more gaps here, the steel sheet you can see in the background covered a planter that arrived too short and the moss around the edge of the water feature that the judges loved was actually because the concrete was 100mm too small all the way round.

We could have sat down and given up when all of these problems occurred but we worked through them, no one gave up, no one shouted and a9er sixteen gruelling days we made it.

Exhausted, relieved but ulTmately VERY proud.

LeU to right: Kyro, Nas, Yuli, Jonathan and Kras.

A HUGE THANK YOU TO THEM ALL.