Design Competition - Update

Last week I attended a full day workshop with the other semi-finalists.  It was a long day that started with the challenge of getting to the Malvern Show Ground in freezing fog and -7 degrees but I made it by 9.30am with a little time to spare for a mingle and a quick cup of tea!  Including myself there were 17 semi-finalists and 9 members of the sponsorship teams representing Chris Beardshaw, The Three Counties Show Ground and Bradstone.

Chris Beardshaw led most of the day talking to us about the Scholarship Programme itself, how the different sponsors were involved and their roles.  He's really relaxed and down to earth with a dry sense of humour which put us all at ease as everyone seemed quite apprehensive not knowing what to expect from the day, he seems the same on TV as he is off screen.  We also learnt the do's and don't's for designing and building a good show garden.  Just before lunch were given an exercise to prepare during lunch which we then had to present back to the rest of the group afterwards.  It was a light-hearted exercise but no doubt gave the sponsorship team information about us as individuals as everything we did was being marked that day.

After that we went out into the Show Ground to see where the finalists' gardens would be situated for the show in the Spring, it was pretty cold so we didn't hang about but had an opportunity to ask lots of questions and took a few pictures.  As you can see from the pictures there's not a lot of information there as visibility wasn't that great but it gives a rough idea of where they will be!!

The rest of the afternoon was spent with the semi-finalists presenting their design to the rest of the group and then questions were asked.  It was quite rigorous as the sponsorship team were marking us and writing notes during the presentation, even though it was a laid back day you just couldn't help being nervous.  Chris gave everyone feedback about their design, things that he liked, things he thought that we should change because of cost or that it was a show garden and the normal rules for a garden design are slightly different!  He gave me really good feedback too, so I'll be make some tweaks to the design.  We finished at 7pm, a very long and tiring day, then the drive back up to Coventry in the freezing fog, I managed to get home just before 9pm and was shattered!

What next?  Well we have to wait to hear, the sponsorship team are deliberating and we will find out if we are successful before Christmas.   The successful candidates will definitely be building a show garden next year!  I thoroughly enjoyed the day, whether I get through or not I have learnt so much - if I don't get through I'll definitely have a go at building my own show garden but will wait until my course has finished - if I do, it'll be a scary and exciting ride!!

Watch this space - I'll let you know as soon as I hear!