Hard to believe but it’s almost that time again.
There I was last February at my kitchen table filling out the Application Form, pressing send and thinking no more about it. Two days later the first call came; can you make yourself available for a phone interview on Friday at 3.00pm? Definitely. At 3.30 pm on Friday I deduced that everything had gone satisfactorily when I was asked if I could make myself available at 11.00am the following Wednesday for a physical interview in central Dublin. Definitely. I wasn’t sure what to think at 1.30 pm on Wednesday as I made my way to the bus stop to go home (via The Palace Bar for two lovely pints I hasten to add). The interview was comprehensive, we went through a hypothetical design that they asked me to bring, we did a screen test. But you never know. And never knowing would prove to be a recurring theme throughout the whole process; you are essentially operating in a vaccum because you just have no inkling how good the competition are or what they are up to .
Anyhow, they saw something they liked because two days later I got the call to say I had been selected and to make myself available at 10.00am that Sunday for a meeting at the producer’s offices in North Dublin. Definitely.
And so it began; the relentless TV typhoon that only allowed me to come up for air the day after the finish of the takedown at Bloom. Not that I’m complaining, on the contrary it was the most challenging, enjoyable, enriching, rewarding and ultimately exhilarating three months I have ever spent. And life hasn’t been the same since.
The process has to be completed in five weeks. This five weeks includes meeting the family, getting to grips with the site, developing and finalising the design, building , tweaking, planting, finishing and facing your judgement day. The budget is €5000.00 which we all know is very little.
The process initially is all about a test of your vision, design and creativity but quickly moves on to examine your abilities in all sorts of areas. The budget has to be carefully managed, the schedule needs to be tight and adhered to, volunteer labour needs to be begged borrowed and bartered, materials need to be blagged and deals done, deliveries need to be managed, the admin needs to be kept up with,the production team’s schedule has to be accommodated and you need to avoid your spouse filing for divorce on the grounds of desertion. There’s a lot going on.
Of course the design determines the work. I was ambitious, an ambition which was based on an appropriate response to the needs of a young, dynamic family. I gave myself a lot to do which meant five weeks of uninterrupted twelve hour days. At one point someone mentioned that it was Easter, first I heard of it. Someone mentioned a Marriage Rights referendum. If the polling station was in the middle of one of our perennial beds I might have known it was going on. As far as I was concerned if it wasn’t happening in our garden it wasn’t happening. I have never known anything to be so consuming. There is nothing like the fear of looking like an eejit before a national audience to incentivise and motivate.
Speaking of the TV, there are two distinct types of footage in a programme like this. There is, what I call, the set-piece stuff which involves being sat down in a fairly formal setting and where sound and lighting etc. is calibrated. These situations naturally tend to be quite stiff. In my experience the better and more enjoyable stuff happens when you get out to the garden and the camera is just “hovering”. The work is consuming, the camera tends to be forgotten about and everyone is more relaxed, which leads to better content.
So the five weeks comes to an end, the decision is made and you have a week to get organised for Bloom. Being based down the country, this was a week I really needed to get a handle on things for the Phoenix Park . First of all the Bloom site is less than half the size of the original garden so there was a redesign that had to be done. This was challenging; the garden needs to be scaled down but proportion needs to be retained. Viewers come to the show expecting to see a fairly accurate reproduction of what they have seen on the TV so it is imperative to retain as many of the eye catching elements as possible. I’m very happy with how I balanced these requirements in the version of the garden I rebuilt for Bloom.
The original garden spoilt us with easy access and plenty of room for staging and storage. These are luxuries you don’t have in the Show Garden site at Bloom. There are twenty five gardens being built in a tight area so each day’s work needs to be carefully orchestrated. The two and a half week build schedule is tight but achievable with plenty of long days and solid preparation. The one luxury offered by Bloom is the time of year; being six weeks further on means access to plants we couldn’t even contemplate in the source garden. I exploited this and put together planting of which I will be forever proud. A Silver Gilt in the Medium Category for my first foray into the choppy waters of Bloom. Nice.
Would I do it all again? In a heartbeat. I can’t cite one negative aspect to the whole experience; my head is full of great memories, I made a bunch of friends for life, I proved I could pull off a complex design under extreme pressure, the Bretts got a great garden with equal access for Eddie, my kids picked up a valuable life lesson, I got to bring the garden to Bloom, I won a Silver Gilt medal and I met Michael D. and Marty Whelan in the same day. What’s not to like?
Super Garden 2016 needs five designers who have not previously had a garden design recreated at Bloom. You’ve been saying for years how the world is a poorer place for not knowing you and your talent. Now is the time to put that right, to unveil yourself in a blaze of glory, to scream your arrival from the rooftops, to emblazon yourself across the design landscape via an RTE 1 prime time show and a Show Garden at Bloom In The Park. You’ve been biding your time, waiting for the right moment to reveal your greatness. The moment is now, don’t let it pass.
You’ll forget to eat, you’ll want your Mammy, you’ll whisper and scream, laugh and cry, give and receive a thousand hugs and sleep in your car at least once. You’ll find energy you never knew you had and make friends you’ll never lose. It’s challenging, enriching, exhausting, exhilarating and a little bit mental. You’ll give a deserving family the gift of a garden to cherish, launch your career and have the time of your life in the process. As a friend of mine, Ned Nike, from Ballyteague used to say; just do it.
e mail supergardenshow@gmail.com for an application or visit the RTE Super Garden Facebook page.
Leave a Reply