Some time in April 2005, I decided to enter BBC Gardener of the Year 2005. I'd tried the year before but didn't even receive an entry form, something to do with the huge amount of spam they get..they now have a downloadable form.
Anyway duly found 6 photos of the garden, filled in the forms and sent them off. No receipt so forgot about them, didn't even know if they'd arrived, closing date 7th July.
Meanwhile had also entered Daily Mail Garden of the Year, and had been shortlisted along with 11 others (out of approx 2,000) and was busy getting garden ready for that.
7th July passed so thought obviously didn't feature at all. 9th July message from producer of GOTY, Rosemary Edwards asking me to phone back. My hands were shaking but she sounded really nice - although she was eating a mouthful of salad sandwich - so was a bit unclear. Any way quick discussion to say I had been shortlisted along with 20 others(out of many ,000's) , could they come and visit and could I just answer a few questions.....(15 minutes before 8 children come charging in from school !!)
Absolutly gobsmaked would be an understatement. 1st question - what is double digging, now I know the answer and kept fumbling on about digging etc, and I don't know if I got it right, because through every question she didn't say yes or no, so thinking I hadn't answered correctly or she needed more information I kept rabbiting on. Anyway finally got to the end, arranged a day for her and the horticultural advisor to visit and rang off.....
Opened the garden for the 1st time for NGS, had over 200 visitors on one of the hottest days of the year. Will chose cooler day next year.
Meanwhile the judges from the Daily Mail were due on 25th July so didn't get much time to relax as I was busy getting the garden ready for them. They turned out to be really nice, a guy from the paper and Prof David Stevens an emminent garden designer, 12 Chelsea golds no less.
Couple of days later Rosemary and Laura (horticultural advisor & later evil question setter) arrived with small video camera in hand. Had a look round garden, met some of children and took lots of film, took small clip of me saying " My name is....etc.etc" to check that they could actually film us talking with out us fainting I suppose. Said they'd be in touch at the beginning of August.
Meanwhile back at the ranch....
No comments:
Post a Comment