Hazel’s blog: the eve of the Show

It’s raining. We are filthy, wet and exhausted. But nothing can dampen our spirits on the eve of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. 

It’s taken three years to get here. There were many days (and long, anxious nights) when it felt as if we’d never get here. But now, the Psalm 23 Garden is complete and ready for the world to see it. Surely, Psalm 23 with its message of God being with us in every experience of life, is even more prescient now than it would have been 18 months ago. It feels as if it’s really found its moment: a psalm for our times.

Tomorrow, the Show ground will be full of celebrities and later, members of the Royal Family. The list of media who want to interview designer Sarah Eberle grows by the minute. 

For now, Sarah and I stand in the rain and drink in the detail: the fabulous spiny rose, the lovely heathers, the scarlet berries on the virbunum, the weathered sweep of the Scot’s pine tree. We could go on and on, and we do. 

She loves it. I love it. And so, it would seem, does the neighbourhood robin, who comes in every day at about 11am for a long bath in the pool at the top of the waterfall. We are ridiculously pleased about the robin, as well as the bees, butterflies, and the pair of orange-red dragonflies that are seen on the garden, when it’s not raining. 

We hope you love it too. We hope everyone at the Show does. And, we’ve had wonderful comments so far, as well as interesting questions, and the gates have not yet been flung wide. If you do love it, please vote for us in the BBC’s People’s Choice Awards.

The forecast for tomorrow is dry. We will not be sodden. We’ll smile, stand back and see what everyone makes of the exquisitely lovely Psalm 23 Garden.