Collecting sponsorship cheque

Today I met Ashley Drake from our sponsor The Co-operative Cymru Wales, to pick up their cheque for plants. He also brought lots of packs of Co-op wildflower seeds for the Cow and Snuffers garden.

We have a volunteer event this Saturday 28th April 1-3pm. The plan is to dig manure into the new border and put in some plants. However, with all this rain, the ground might be too wet to work.

Breakdown day 2

I struggled to wake up this morning, so stayed in bed until the luxurious time of 7.30am!
Onsite, the marquees etc were still being taken down and another three council staff and John and Colin arrived to start the breakdown while the weather was dry. However, frustratingly they were diverted to other tasks, but I did help put the pavers onto pallets, which are being stored at the nursery before going to Broxron and Moruzzi's yard in Caerphilly. The rest of the breakdown will be fitted around their other tasks, so who knows when it will be finished. Therefore today was my last day on site. I managed to hold it together though.


I received a phone call from my union regional officer reminding me I had two union meetings today (I'm on leave,but what the hell...!), so I ended up going to Swansea in the afternoon for a meeting. A 2 hour meeting was more tiring than doing the show garden and after the recent 'highs', was a rather unwelcome reintroduction back to my day job and all the c**p going on in the NHS!

Before I left though, I called in to see head of the Bute park nursery, Nigel, to give him and his team a thank you card and a box of chocs. I felt a tear well up and once I started, I couldn't stop!

I intend going to Wedal Rd to see Rob when he's free and give him a copy of the RHS medal card, and doubt I'll be able to hold it together then too!

My camera has packed up, so no photos of me blubbing. which is just as well I think!

Breakdown: day 1

No, I haven't had one - I mean the breakdown of the garden!

The weather was awful today, so we didn't go on site, though the other exhibitors did. The weather is supposed to be better tomorrow.

I spent the morning with Alex and Ben washing labels and pots before taking them back to Pugh's who, to my relief, accepted them all back for resale, saving me forking out potentially £1200! We'll be back there soon buying the real pants for the garden using our £450 sponsorship money form The Co-operative Cymru Wales.

We made the Echo today and there are some great photos of the garden on the RHS website!

Show: final day

Well, the show is over!

Angela Tebboth, Co-operative Cymru Wales representative (sponsor)

The weather was the worst today and quite wet. Crowds were a bit slow to start with, but picked up later on. Again, we had great feedback and lots of people from Llandaff North came to see the garden. I forgot to mention we've had a few enquiries about other community projects in Cyncoed, Rhiwbina, Canton and Grangetown. Hopefully we've managed to inspire other groups to do something similar, which is what the show garden was partly about, and I've offered my services for free.


More friends, colleagues, and Julie Morgan AM came along today, and my niece who had helped me prime the hoarding panels.
I also managed to get to the other gardens and find out the judges feedback, which was enlightening.

Paul Moruzzi from Broxton and Moruzzi are coming to the Llandaff North site during the week for a site visit to arrange the garden being installed there. They have offered to do it for free, and I can't thank them enough! They've been so helpful during the whole show. I'll keep this blog active and chart the installation.

As soon as the show finished at 4.30pm, Ben, Alex and I removed all the plants to the Bute park nursery for safekeeping. It only took 2 hours to do that, but took nearly 2 days to plant up! I didn't cry - I tried to be philosophical about it, though I'm sure I will at some point. The breakdown continues tomorrow.

I've got eye bags like you wouldn't believe, and I'm sure I've gone greyer! It's all been worth it though - the best few weeks of my life!