DIARY OF A CHELSEA GARDEN
Catherine MacDonald shares the story behind her 2016 garden for Hartley Botanic
Creating a show garden from scratch is an ambitious exercise, only undertaken by those with boundless creative talent and nerves of steel. Fortunately, such an individual is Catherine MacDonald of Landform Consultants, based in Chobham, Surrey. At age 43, she’s already an experienced show garden designer and project manager who has designed seven RHS show gardens and collaborated on countless more since 2007. “Yes it’s a nerve-wracking process but I work with such talented and experienced teams that I never feel alone or unsupported,” she says. “Working with a large water feature like this one is always a bit of a risk though – quite often they’ll spring a leak overnight which could create a huge amount of damage, but if it’s only a small leak you can just keep topping it up. “This design for Hartley Botanic centred on a greenhouse on a steel frame, which seems to float on water. It acts as a kind of folly and retreat – a place to enjoy views of the surrounding The garden won Catherine a silver-gilt medal woodland. In fact my main concern was that the planting had a naturalistic feel, by using Betula pendula, foxgloves and other native species. “Days are long at Chelsea – the gates open at 7am and you’re working till about 8pm most nights. Then, once the garden is complete and you’ve finished tweaking and cleaning, you can finally start to relax. “On Press Day there’s very little you can do, as judging starts early at about 7am. Then you get a bit anxious again before the medals are given out on Members’ Day. After that it’s a mix of euphoria and relief. I was thrilled to get a silver-gilt medal for this garden. “The TV crews visit on Press Day, plus you get to meet celebrities such as David Bellamy, Mary Portas and Brendan Cole from Strictly Come Dancing. Monty Don came to visit too – he was very interested in a medlar I’d planted and we had a lovely chat about bletting. Adam Frost came to the garden too – we’ve worked together at Chelsea before, and he was very enthusiastic about the garden.”