Adam Frost

 Across the pond… and over the moon

This year’s Chelsea Flower Show saw four seasons in one week. We went from sun to a soaking in just six days. But nothing could wipe the smiles from our faces after discovering we’d won a gold medal for our Lands’ End Across the Pond garden. 

Knowing that our garden captured the judges’ approval has made all the months of planning and hard work worth it. It’s great news for Lands’ End as a first time sponsor and a milestone for Adam Frost Design as it completes a hat trick of gold medals at Chelsea.

We can’t go any further without some well-deserved thanks. The guys at New Ground Landscapes and the team from Barnsdale worked incredibly hard to get the garden looking perfect during the 11-day build. 

Nick Hamilton and his team at Barnsdale were also on hand during the show to answer questions from the thousands of people who wanted to know more about the garden. We lost count how many times we’d spelt out Digitalis Laevigata by the end of Saturday!

Nick also saved the day by loaning us a beautiful clump of Iris Sibirica from outside the coffee shop at Barnsdale. Our apologies to visitors there over the last week who were greeted by a large hole and a sign that said: “Gone to Chelsea, love Iris.”

David Rawlings delivered some beautifully crafted seats that have now been graced by the backsides of some of gardening’s TV greats, including no less than Mr Alan Titchmarsh himself!

Meanwhile, we expect the phone has been ringing off the hook at Polished Concrete Designs as our bespoke concrete stepping-stones turned out to be the conversation piece of the week. The aforementioned Mr T loved them, saying they were as smooth as any marble.

Honourable mentions must also go to Deepdale Trees, Stoneworld, Aggregate Industries, Travis Perkins and Sinclair Horticulture who each played a key part in our success.

Of course, I couldn’t sign off without a huge personal thank you to my wonderful (and very understanding) wife Sulina who has lived and breathed this project with me every step of the way.

Final thanks must go to all the wonderfully enthusiastic visitors we saw at the show. The nightly TV coverage we received drove thousands of people to come and see our garden and almost universally the feedback was hugely positive. So, if you came to see us there, thanks for all your lovely comments. You really made our week!