Conceptual Gardens The Great Chelsea Garden Challenge

The Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show is the most

prestigious flower show on the planet.

Chelsea is the best place in the world. It's that one time

and that one place where everything coincides.

The best plants, the best designers, the best landscapers,

the best materials.

Everything is there just for that one very special week in May

that IS the Chelsea Flower Show.

Every year, the best designers spend hundreds of thousands of pounds

creating gardens in the hope of gaining global recognition.

Now, for the first time,

the RHS is offering one talented amateur designer

the chance to launch a brand-new career by building a garden

on Main Avenue.

Hundreds applied for the biggest prize in gardening.

And six passionate designers were chosen.

Now, they will have to prove they can cut it

with the best of the best.

Once you get through those Chelsea gates,

you're in with the big boys and there isn't any space for mistakes.

They'll be advised by Joe Swift,

one of the country's leading designers.

That is bad.

They're going to mark you down for that.

They'll have to master different garden styles as they design...

I just need to get it smaller, that's the main thing.

-..construct...

-You've got to be so careful in case it snaps.

..and plant...

They're just monsters,

but they're going in!

..to impress Chelsea Flower Show judge James Alexander-Sinclair

and gold medal-winning designer Ann-Marie Powell.

Every time I try and think about it, my mind just starts racing.

It's a once-in-a-lifetime challenge.

Chelsea is only a short step away now.

Welcome to the Painswick Rococo Garden,

a unique place that takes us back in time

to a flamboyant and sensuous period of English garden design,

where gardens were made like theatrical sets.

The perfect place for our four remaining designers

to create conceptual gardens.

Over the next four days, they will dig, build and plant

to the best of their ability, to try and secure a place in the final.

-THEY TALK AMONG THEMSELVES Oh, look at the sheep.

-Yeah.

-Bah!

Conceptual gardens this week are going to be exciting

but challenging. We have to tell a really strong

story, I think. There's a theme that you need to kind of portray

with your planting.

Of all the genres, this is the one I'm really looking forward to

because it gives me a chance to kind of show my...

showcase, my creativity

and I want the whole piece to just look like a piece of art.

I'm feeling a little bit nervous this week.

The pressure's on, this is the semifinal.

We have this garden to build and then...and then that's it.

I'm really surprised to be the only girl left in this

but it makes me determined

to get one over on the lads.

One way or another,

I have got to put one of them out of the competition.

This week's challenge is the hardest yet.

Sometimes dubbed The Thinking Man's Horticulture,

a conceptual garden is a work of art.

Something thought-provoking.

A successful design has a clear, strong idea to underpin it.

Anything from a political statement...

to something more personal.

In recent years, thanks to RHS flower shows

at Hampton Court and Chelsea,

conceptualism has grown in popularity

and is now well and truly mainstream.

It's a genre of garden design that judges Ann-Marie and James

are particularly excited about.

Conceptual gardens are one of my favourite categories

of garden design.

This week, I want to see our garden designers' imaginations'

really run wild.

But just because they're conceptual gardens,

that is no reason to throw away the rule book.

They still have to stick within the parameters

and I want to see a good story, great design and, of course,

it's all about the details...darlings.

They've spent the last week planning their gardens,

which have to fit within a 16 to 20 square metre plot.

Although what shape they are will depend on their design.

Oh, my God, look at the length of yours, it's like a runway.

And they each have a £1,500 budget.

How they spend it is up to them.

Oh, there was one on here.

She said she wants to knobble the boys...and so she's going to...

Sabotage, I think is the word I used, sabotage the boys.

It's quite tough. It's quite tough.

-Is it?

-Yeah.

-Don't say that.

They're allowed help with their hard landscaping

and Joe Swift is on hand to advise.

Hi, Gillian.

-Can I have a look at your plan?

-Of course you can.

Each garden has to be themed around a personal memory

and will be judged on four RHS Chelsea criteria.

Theatre, design and horticulture.

But most importantly in this challenge,

how well they meet their own brief.

We need to leave enough to have a planting area around it.

Six.

-WHISPERING:

-One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Ex-army officer Gillian's passion for gardening

has been fed by her extensive travels.

Her concept design is based on one of those trips.

So what's the idea behind it?

So the idea is, the idea of thirst, which is probably

the strongest thirst I've ever had was when I was in Namibia.

-You spent some time in the desert?

-Yeah.

I was only there on holiday but I did an awful lot of walking

both on the Skeleton Coast and in the Namib Desert.

So how's that going to work here?

So the idea being is I go out lots of sand at the front,

like a dry riverbed.

And then there's a big thicket in front of you,

which is what you get at the end... These massive thickets.

Called Thirst, Gillian's unusually shaped garden

uses forced perspective

to draw the visitor through a desert type environment,

which ends at a secret oasis, concealing a tap that doesn't work.

So what sort of plants are you using?

Are you using Namibian plants?

I'm not using Namibian plants, no.

I've got bamboos and grasses with some phormiums and some yucca.

I'll have a platform...

so a person can have access into it.

And as you get in there, you'll see brilliant, there's a tap

and there's a mug. Quench your thirst,

apart from the fact that the hose will not be connected to anything

-so there is no water.

-Argh.

-Argh.

-Hence your thirst.

-Yeah.

So we're expected to come into this garden and feel thirsty

and feel parched and feel desperate for a drink?

That's what I hope to be able to evoke,

that feeling of...of a desert landscape.

I don't know whether it's worth digging from here and going there

cos then we've got a level surface to walk on...I think.

I think we're probably best to start, like...

and work our way towards that corner.

Last week's gold medal winner, Paul,

bravely hung up his city suit to follow his dream...

and has been studying to become a garden designer.

With the city now behind me

and I've made the leap into garden design,

it's fantastic to know that every day, when I'm getting up,

I'm doing something that I'm passionate about

and I'm not doing it just because it's a job.

Winning the chance to design at Chelsea

would not only mean the world to him but could launch his career.

Show us what's happening in this garden.

It's based on my experience when I lived in Australia

-and I experienced the Black Christmas of 2000 and 2001.

-Yes.

When there was enormous bushfires around Sydney.

And, erm...and then I went and visited some of the areas

that had been devastated by these fires

and I wanted to be able to reproduce that in my concept.

Paul's ambitious design is called Burnt Out.

He's divided his plot into three

snapshots of the Australian outback

as it recovers over time following a bushfire.

-This is one.

-Pre-?

-This is pre-.

-That is during?

-This is during.

It will have smoke for the judging...

-Ooh, smoke we like.

-It will actually be burning.

-You're setting it on fire?

-Yes.

-Fantastic.

-I'm not setting it on fire to...

but I will be using fire...to actually create it

and there will be burning.

-And then this section is the...is afterwards so it's all lush.

-OK.

-So, erm...

-I have one other thing which is this is...

-three gardens.

-Yes.

-Still got four days.

-Yes.

You've got quite a lot of work to do.

I've got a hell of a lot of work to do.

You need to keep an eye on the details, darling.

Yes, yes.

So important. We are now round three,

we want to see everything looking meticulous.

Sean is an occupational therapist

but he's passionate about changing careers to garden design.

Every week he has been bursting with ideas

and even won judges' gold in week one.

-Congratulations.

-Congratulations.

He should be in his element with this challenge.

I'm really looking forward to this garden,

I think it's really exciting cos I think this is going to give me

my opportunity to kind of be as creative as I can be.

Sean's garden design is inspired by a childhood memory

of his first foray into photography.

Called Lost Images,

his design leads the viewer on a journey of how he experimented

with his first camera.

So this garden's probably the most personal garden I've made so far.

-I was given a little box camera by my mother.

-Yeah.

And I used that camera to capture images of my first garden.

Industrial landscapes around me in Northumberland.

And my parents. And then none of the film came out.

Oh, so you failed?

-Yes.

-So is this your chance to put that right?

That's... Yeah, I'm stepping back to put that right...

So this, these...this collection of...

-Objects.

-..water tanks, I would say, isn't it?

So this is the industrial landscape coming through?

Yes, the use of metal and I'm going to use some scaffolding poles

and some rusted wire, netting and stuff so that's kind of

give it that industrial feeling and the planting

is all going to be black and white.

Oh, that's hard.

-Yes.

-That's very hard.

-Hmm.

Are you worried about that?

Maybe the planting won't be black and white.

That's the idea, I'm just going to use that eye

when I get to the nursery and mix and match...

like being...again, like being in a sweet shop.

-You're digging yourself a big hole here.

-Yes.

Last week we did say about not putting too many things...

I mean, we're really clear on that, you know, sometimes a garden...

-You don't want to clutter it up...

-Yeah.

What is it adding, what is it adding, what is it adding?

I mean, a strong narrative is what we're looking for, isn't it?

And we don't want too many muddling messages.

There's only two messages in this and this is about photography

-and about memories.

-Hmm, I'm very excited by this. Are you, James?

I am excited but I am a little bit worried about your planting

but we will see what happens.

Raising the stakes this week is botanist Rob.

With conceptuals it's easy to just get carried away

and to kind of create these big images in your head.

But you still need to make sure that the horticulture's there,

that the plants are right, that the details are there,

so I'm going to try and make sure that there's nothing that's out of place

in my garden this week.

Passionate about plants and the natural world,

he also has a rather unusual hobby.

About three years ago, when I started,

I had lots of decisions to make about big changes.

So I was in London and wanted to move to the countryside.

I was looking for a new job and there was all this stuff going on

that I was kind of afraid of and I was thinking,

how am I going to be able to do this?

-And I was also afraid of heights.

-HE LAUGHS

And one day, stupidly probably,

I just decided that if I could get up somewhere really high

and conquer one of those fears,

everything else might seem a bit easier.

And I heard about these trapeze lessons. I came along,

I saw how high up I had to climb. I was petrified.

But, you know, after sort of climbing a few times

and getting used to it, you realise that it's nothing to be afraid of

and it's actually quite a lot of fun.

It looks a little bit like a cross between a runway and a rugby pitch

at the moment but I promise that's not the...finished result.

-Tell us about your concept then.

-Yeah, so I'm building a trapeze.

There's going to be two ladders coming out of the towers at the end.

And then here there are two trapeze swings, which will be sort of

stuck halfway in midair.

Inspired by the memory of his first flight on a trapeze,

Rob's garden is called Just Let Go.

His elongated design aims to use height

and clever planting,

to convey the fear of falling and

how it's possible to overcome it.

Hm, there's two things that I'm slightly concerned about.

The first one is I'm nervous that the...

the concept isn't going to be strong enough to make us feel the fear.

Cos we might look at it and just think, "Oh, that looks fun."

I will, I'll be dying to get up there.

So will I feel fear or will I feel great excitement and joy?

I mean, it's a clear memory in my head of that moment of fear.

I'm hoping the height from some of the structures will add to that.

You'll have to look up and will give you a sense that

this is a scary moment and the spikes underneath will hopefully...

That's the thing, isn't it?

It's whether the planting works, actually.

I hope so. I hope so.

'The judges have already picked up on some of the things

'that I'm nervous about, so, you know,

'getting this planting combination right, the spiky.'

I really need to focus on that as well and make sure that they don't

just think it's fun and a barrel of laughs

cos this is about letting go of fear and taking on challenges. So...

hopefully they'll see that.

Here to here.

Each designer's very different approach is starting to show.

While Gillian's positioning her pallets...

It's quite neat now, isn't it?

cos you've got one lot that way and you've got one that way,

so it actually sort of works.

Sean's digging himself a big hole.

I'm trying to escape, I think. I'm digging down to Australia.

By lunchtime you probably won't be able to see me

cos I'm just going to be sat here completely secluded

in another world.

And although Rob's setting his sights high,

he's already been lumbered with extra work.

So, I ordered these ladders online and it said white ladders.

When they arrived...

-they weren't white.

-HE LAUGHS

So I'm pleased with the result, it's just taken a bit of extra time

out of my day...when we're already quite busy.

Paul's ambitious design requires him to shift nearly two tonnes

of topsoil, from one side of his plot...

Whooo!

..to the other.

Well, we've seen more and more of these conceptual gardens

at flower shows recently.

Hampton Court has a whole category dedicated to them.

Yeah, I mean, Hampton Court was very exciting

when the whole conceptual gardens category was introduced.

And I remember judging it in the first couple of years

and it was a difficult thing to work out how to judge

but always very exciting ideas.

-Of course, you did one at Chelsea, didn't you, Ann-Marie?

-Yeah, I did.

I did one for the British Heart Foundation,

which really celebrated the strength of the human heart.

So there's these great red arches that just swooped around the garden

through water and then came back again to the beginnings.

I loved it. I'd love to do another one like that.

Yeah, and it was on Main Avenue. It was a big garden on Main Avenue.

But there's also the fresh gardens, smaller gardens at Chelsea

and they're conceptual, too.

And some of those are quite amazing, I mean, they're interactive.

People are using their mobile phones and actually making them react.

And what's wonderful is that we are encouraging ideas like that

and more exciting, more edgy ideas are coming into it.

And they're being welcomed.

Tony Smith also did that brilliant one at Chelsea, as well,

which was the orchid lover's garden.

That was absolutely amazing. You had that kind of

enclosed room with all the orchids in the kitchen, didn't you?

And you just looked into the space and the orchids were just

so beautiful but out of reach.

It was extraordinary.

There are also some that just didn't work at all, aren't there?

The thing about a conceptual garden

is that as soon as you lose track of the idea,

the whole garden loses its entire meaning.

Staying true to your original concept is a challenge

and Gillian is discovering what looks good on paper doesn't

always work in reality.

I'm just slightly worried that a lot of your site now is taken up

with these palettes and to really create a thicket around it, you've

got little triangles of planting and you haven't got much space.

You've got to get a whole desert in here.

You could either reduce this somehow. It just feels very big.

Or you make the garden, I don't know if it's in the rules,

but you bring the garden back by another meter.

Anyway, do what you've got to do.

That's all I'll say.

And she's not the only one to have hit a snag.

So we're just putting the ladders in.

We're behind schedule. I wanted to get them in tonight

So the sun's going in and we're frantically packing

cement around the base of the ladder.

It's quick-drying cement so it'll only take about ten minutes to dry,

so I'm going to have to stand here holding it level

until we've got some kind of dry base

and then we're going to pack it with stones and we've got some soil

and stuff to put in as well,

so, hopefully, fingers crossed, it'll hold.

After Joe's advice, Gillian is sizing up her options.

16.8 square metres.

I'm putting an allowance of 20 metres.

So I'm trying to work out if I've got enough square meterage

left in my plot allowance to bring my plot back a bit.

So I've got 3.2 square metres left. OK.

I can go back 64 centimetres.

It doesn't sound a lot but, actually,

that's two feet further back.

You can see the desert area then.

So I'm just going to strip the turf and start again.

Go, turn it.

Right, nearing the end of the first day,

whose idea are you most excited about?

I think probably it's Sean's, actually.

Because I'm not quite sure what it is

or what's going to happen and there's a lot of stuff going on

and hopefully something wonderful will come out of that.

Oh, brilliant, man. I can sleep now.

Lots of hard landscaping done.

Deep hole dug.

The metal-lined container has taken a lot longer than I thought

to construct and I'm really trying to get the finish right.

It's going to be quite powerful, very atmospheric, but quite dour.

Yeah, this sort of monochromatic black-and-white planting scheme

is something that people have attempted in the past.

I've never, ever seen anybody pull it off

so it's going to be interesting to see whether he can.

I don't mind a bit of dour, to be quite honest.

He failed at his photography,

he's got these early childhood memories, it reminds him

of his mother and his family, so you don't have to be

feeling like, "Wow, that's amazing, it's so beautiful."

It can take you to a black,

dark place and make you think about things for yourself as well.

That's what conceptual gardens are,

to stimulate that thought, aren't they?

And he's been very impressive in the last two rounds of this,

Sean, and I would have thought

conceptual could be his bag as well.

Gillian, I totally get her concept.

It's very simple, it seems to be very straightforward.

She's got passion

and that it is such a strong thing about conceptual gardens.

You have to feel passionate about your concept and your idea.

But all of that passion needs to be teamed with good design skills

and that's where we have a slight problem.

Paul. Paul's vision, Australia.

-In effect, it's three gardens in one, isn't it?

-It's ambitious, yeah.

The judges, they're a bit concerned or they're a bit unsure

whether it will work. I have pushed the boundaries.

I have been more ambitious, but I don't think I've been overambitious.

What I am concerned about with Paul is what exactly is the concept?

It's a memory.

A memory of his time in Sydney when the fire actually happened.

But what is the concept of that memory?

Is it just a memory, is it, "I had a lovely time in Sydney

"and there was a fire"? Or is it deeper than that?

I think it's both. And I don't think there's any problem with that.

I mean, yeah, he's looking at his memory.

We wanted a memory in it and it's a concept of the natural

and celebrating just the whole power of nature.

-Fine.

-It's all on theme, isn't it?

He's not suddenly just thrown in a curveball.

There isn't, and I would quite like to see a curveball.

He wants to have smoke in there, he's going to burn

some of his plants, he's going to try and get some wilted material.

What can excite you, man?

I just think it might be a sort of tourist board idea.

-A tourist board idea?!

-Yeah!

-Have you gone nuts?

-"Come to Australia, it rejuvenates."

-I'm very excited about it.

You've gone mad.

I think he's set himself up for a lot of work in a short

space of time to do three gardens.

He set himself up, he's got to deliver, hasn't he?

I think it is exciting.

Rob is getting creative.

It's all about his trapeze, his memory of trapeze

and that moment of letting go.

Rob will, this week, I think, live or die by his planting.

The idea of a trapeze letting go, that moment,

is it a conceptual garden?

It's a memory, but is it a conceptual garden?

It's actually about overcoming fear,

it's not really about the trapeze and letting go necessarily.

It's an exciting space.

-But it's about fear, not a trapeze.

-Yeah, it is.

And that's where we're getting the narrative from the start.

-We're getting it.

-I'm just being a bit stupid here.

Because it's quite difficult, conceptual gardens, you know.

It's about a trapeze, it's about plants.

No, sorry, it's about fear, it's about a memory.

You end up going all over the place. That's what I like about Gillian's.

It's about a tap, it's about thirst. I get it.

-Yeah.

-But you can start going off all over the place.

That's because, basically, Ann-Marie and I are much more

-highbrow than you are.

-Is that what it is?

-I think that's what the problem is.

-I was wondering.

I was sort of sensing something, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

The designers have come to one of the UK's largest nurseries.

Spiky, that's what I wanted.

Yeah.

Each armed with a planting wish list.

Eucalyptus are quite key.

I certainly wanted them to be at least three metres

but with a bit of crown.

But they can only make their final choices

when they see what's available.

'Trying to find a palette of black and white.'

Have you got anything else white with perfume?

I've been told by the judges that it's quite a challenging look

to get right.

Each planting scheme varies enormously.

Gillian's plants need to represent a dry landscape.

That looks like desert, desert colours. That's good.

While Rob is looking for plants to convey emotions.

I want to get two kinds of planting.

I want one that's kind of spiky and fear.

So something like this yellow versions of red-hot pokers.

They've got that spiky feel to them

and the name as well is quite scary and then underneath that,

I've got these sort of grasses so I'm looking for something really

soft and light that shows you kind of a pathway through the fear.

I've got this big grand structure in the garden,

but I want that to stay high. I want you to have to look up at it and it

to be a kind of a feeling of vertigo almost when you see the structure.

So I don't want planting that is as tall as it.

I don't want big trees in the garden.

These grasses are a good height

and I've got some phormiums as well, that are kind of big, spiky plants.

So, it's a physocarpus.

As the judges suspected,

Sean is struggling to find plants in his colour scheme.

I wanted black bamboo.

Not wonderful colour but...

I'm not sure whether a true black plant actually exists

so I'm really just trying to focus on shades of purple through

to grey and then some white within that just to lift the whole design.

But I don't want them. And I don't want them. No.

But colour isn't the only thing Sean needs to keep an eye on,

as the judges pointed out last week.

I think that some of the planting does feel a little stuffed.

There are too many plans squeezed into too small a space.

I'm just kind of bombarded with all of this culture and things

and I think, where can I fit that into a garden?

They're quite... They're really bushy, aren't they?

-So they're going to cover a lot of...

-Area.

Yes. I'll have to be focused because I get carried away.

And have impulse buys.

But it's hard to curb his enthusiasm

when you're like a kid in a sweet shop.

-Wow, that's one hell of a plant, isn't it?

-Yes.

I'll have, probably, ten of those.

Yes, I'll take maybe five of these.

That's ten.

Planting for conceptual gardens, it's different, isn't it?

We're not looking for prettiness,

we're not necessarily looking for lovely flower combinations.

It's more the power of the plants and the story that they can tell,

is that right?

It doesn't necessarily have to be unattractive in a conceptual garden.

It can still have colour and flower, provided that, as you say,

-it's telling a story.

-Yeah, that's the thing.

I mean, it really has to support a narrative and it's not

necessarily the same as a floating beautiful herbaceous border.

In a conceptual garden, you could have masses of plants.

You could just have one or none!

Exactly, is it the way that the plants are used differently?

Are they used more graphically somehow?

Are you looking for different textures?

It's very difficult to say what we are expecting

because it's a conceptual garden and everyone should be individual

and a different idea. You can't say,

"You should plant this in a conceptual garden."

It doesn't work.

But they don't necessarily have to be the main event, do they?

No, but at the same time, they can be.

You'll notice here that there is a theme coming through in that

a conceptual garden can be whatever you want it to be.

While their hands aren't tied horticulturally,

which plants are available and at their best means compromise,

which is tough, especially on a budget.

Hello, Gillian. Looking a bit worried.

I am looking a bit worried, actually, yeah.

-I'm trying to create that thicket...

-That thicket theme.

-Yeah, exactly.

You know, things like this, I'm just concerned,

when you take all the dead and bent ones off, will there be enough left?

-You haven't got a lot on there.

-Do you...

-It's not quite got the...

-It hasn't got the volume.

-The volume.

-I was expecting something a bit, you know, a bit chunkier...

-Yeah.

-..round the middle.

-Have you got any money left over to spend?

-Um, I know I've got 50 quid.

-Is there something else you can use?

That's why I was looking worried.

There was... I saw some nice cordylines over there.

-Oh, did you?

-Yeah, cordylines, quite tall, spiky.

I'll go and have a look, thanks very much.

-Give you a bit of height.

-Yep.

-Bit of spikiness.

-Bit spiky!

Thank you.

I thought Rob was looking for spikiness,

but now Gillian wants spikiness.

Ah, way over budget.

Ooh.

Hmm.

Right, sticking with the phormiums.

The key to plant buying is not to lose sight of your ultimate concept.

Black, white, silver.

We have the Australian Dicksonia antarctica.

Not the tree fern example that I was hoping to have with a 30cm trunk,

but we've still got height with the foliage,

so I can probably work with that.

Um, and then the callistemon.

They're a bit like the Australian bottle brush,

which I couldn't get, so it's more about representing plants and theme.

And unwilling to concede defeat to the phormiums,

Gillian's changing tactics.

Ooh! Nearly lost the lot.

Gillian, you found some stuff.

-I found some stuff, Joe, yes.

-Yeah.

-I think this is much better.

-You kept on theme.

I've kept on theme, which is why I've taken out...

-You've take the purple phormiums out?

-Yes, yeah.

Replacing it with this.

And these, cos I think it has a better feel of that whole

-thickety thing going on.

-Thickety thing.

-Yeah.

-Discipline - good.

-Thank you.

Plant buying over, it's back to Painswick.

There's only a few hours left of the second day.

The boys need to finish their hard landscaping.

Trying to get a lot done in a very short amount of time.

We hit a few problems yesterday, so I haven't got my raised beds done yet.

Got a lot of painting to do.

Just putting the last bit of concrete in here and

we've finally got that level. A little bit nervous now.

Not much time.

While Gillian, who in previous weeks has been pushed for time,

is already busy planting her bamboo.

I need to get them all out

and then I'll have to see whether I need to cut them,

slice them, divide them.

So it's a bit of a bamboo jigsaw puzzle this afternoon.

And one of Paul's original plans has gone up in smoke.

But he's had a flash of inspiration.

I was going to actually set the garden on fire

and it was going to be a real carrier moment.

HE LAUGHS

The whole lot.

But health and safety said that I couldn't do that,

so I'm now mixing up this very messy mix of barbecue charcoal and water.

And I'm now just painting it on.

And as it dries, it then gets a kind of charred look,

cos effectively that is burnt wood.

It's really important to get the details right.

They're expecting a lot.

We've got to make sure everything looks perfect,

and it's going to take a lot of time.

My main concern tomorrow is that I've bought this fantastic colour palette

at the nursery, and I'm raring to go with that,

but I'm just thinking - will it all pull together?

I've got to make sure that the tap is clear, that they've got a good

line of sight from one position, and that's going to take time.

I'm glad I've made a start today

rather than try and do it all tomorrow.

My biggest competition really is Rob's garden.

It's about pushing the boundaries and doing something very different

and I think Rob's done that.

Loved Rob's last garden, so I think Rob is a contender,

but I think he's going to have to have some pretty wow planting

to kind of match up with that huge structure.

So, yeah, I'm watching that very carefully.

OK, designers, that's it, tools down.

End of the day.

You've got a day and half left. You've got no help, OK?

You're all on your own.

So get some rest, you're going to need it.

It's been a long day, but with the biggest

prize in gardening at stake, they're going to have to keep digging deep.

Tomorrow is planting day.

It's day three, and with the plants arriving,

it's given the designers a spring in their step.

Yeah, by the trapeze basically. HE LAUGHS

This is the most exciting part of the day for me

just getting all your plants and placing them

and seeing how they all look.

-Crocosmias.

-Oh, the crocosmias.

Sean may have ordered too many.

I have tried to let the plants breathe a little bit more this time

but I was really trying to cancel some of the plants this morning

and thinking, "Wow, can I just stop them coming from the nursery?"

Whilst Sean thins out his choices, Gillian might not have enough.

I'm battling these bamboos.

I'm already shattered. I'm just trying to split one

because I need them a bit thin around the back.

They make you realise why people are concerned about planting them

in their garden because of how strong their roots and root system is,

and... There we go. ..it shows you how strong they are.

If you're not careful and you get ones that travel,

you're in trouble with them.

Getting the right plants to really sell a concept

is not always easy.

Sometimes you have to have a few tricks up your sleeve.

Are you creeping up on me?

-Yeah, I am. How's it going?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, good.

-Have you been spraying that?

-Yeah, to try and give the...

..appearance of it being a bit more dry, I sprayed some gold paint on.

Talking about a sun-kissed Australian summer, aren't we, here?

We are. And to add to the, I guess to the theatre,

I got some hay and I'm going to scatter it around

and in amongst the plants so it looks like lots of bits

that have just, over time, broken off

so that the ground looks much more flammable.

I'm also going to chuck in some glass bottles

because the sun shining through glass can cause the fires.

So I'm going to just place a few of those around to add to the whole

reason why it might catch on fire.

As Rob sets out his plants,

Joe's noticed a major flaw in his design.

This...this bit here, your eyelevel, is the most important thing.

-At the moment, I can see right through.

-I know.

And you've got to create that attention here.

Maybe playing around with the soil level and undulating it with,

-you know, within the space as well.

-Absolutely.

The only thing with the soil level is I haven't bought anything

to keep the soil in the garden.

-To retain it?

-Yeah, and I'm just worried it's going to seep back over.

Yeah, but it's a conceptual garden.

So, the retaining idea is good horticulture but, you know,

if you could just mound some up there,

I mean, it might just break up the sort of flatness of it.

-Just a couple of thoughts.

-Thank you very much.

-Nice one, Rob.

-Cheers.

-See you.

-What's that about?

-It's echinacea.

-I think it's called Green Jewel.

-Green?

Did you not say black and white, Sean?

-Yes, and...

-You've got green.

Yeah, but I went straight back to the brief and I said predominately

black and white, so there will be a bit of green in there.

That's the key, isn't it? It's got to be in your brief.

You've got to be specific that the judges know

or they're going to be marking you on black-and-white plants,

-not your green ones. OK?

-Yeah.

As planting continues, the hard landscaping is coming alive

and each theme is slowly coming together.

Paul and Sean are adding bursts of colour.

Oh, that's nice. That's going to look lovely, those colours.

Got the yellow crocosmia.

They're a lovely shape.

Think this one's called whirlwind and it's just...

Yeah, it's beautiful.

And despite Joe's earlier advice of raising the bed levels,

Rob thinks he's found his own solution to the problem of height.

I've seen some dead branches and things,

so I'm going to go on a bit of a rummage later and create some

height with some spiky branches, which will give a sense of fear.

If I can find the right shapes that kind of look angry and scary,

I might get that sense with the fear.

Of all four designs, Gillian's planting is the least complex.

She was criticised in week one for her lack of finesse

and poor presentation.

The planting, there are a lot of mistakes and problems.

It's a jumble.

This garden is basically a mess.

If she wants to wow the judges this time,

her attention to detail must be spot-on.

-Hello, Gillian.

-Hello. Morning, Joe.

-I've never been to Namibia.

Is it like this?

It is a representation OF, not inspired BY Namibia.

From a memory OF Namibia, not Namibia.

Just a yes or no would have done.

SHE LAUGHS I'm just trying to emphasise a point.

OK. It's looking good, I think.

See, I've got to go back through and take off the brown leaves

and all that sort of stuff, cos I think...

That's the bit I'm still debating about.

In nature you would have dead leaves...

-Yeah, that's it.

-..on the bamboo.

If you clean them up too much, in my thinking,

then they might look a little bit too sort of "showy".

I'm definitely not cleaning up the stems in terms of cutting back

any brown bits or anything like that.

They're going to be as thick as they can to the bottom.

And my other question is your terracotta pots.

It's good for them.

It's that scenario about horticulture and that they've got good drainage

so you can lift them out in the winter in the pots.

-But I take your point.

-Gillian, this is a conceptual garden, OK?

-This is not Gardeners' World.

-Yes.

OK? This is...

It's not about, "Oh, well, in the middle of a Namibian desert,

"Joe Swift is going to come along and lift the agaves out the pot

-"and overwinter them in the greenhouse."

-OK.

You've got to forget that.

This is all about the look, the theatre, the message!

In that case, you will not see the pots.

Good, that's what I want to hear.

Um, I've fallen quite a bit behind in terms of what I wanted to get done.

I wanted to push myself, and I have, and I'm pleased that I did that,

but at the same time,

I might have bitten off a bit more than I can chew.

The last two times, my finish really wasn't as good as I wanted it,

but I'm feeling quite in control for the first time on planting day,

so it's quite good for me.

Your eucalyptus.

-Thank you.

-There you go.

Oh, fantastic.

Let me see if they fit in my hole.

I did set myself a target to finish planting by 4pm.

That was obviously very ambitious.

I think, yet again, Sean is doing well.

He has a way of finishing off his gardens that makes them look super.

I don't know who is going to win it. Every garden is really unique.

I just hope I don't go.

So, end of day three, is there anyone you are worried about?

Rob, really particularly worried about him.

He's been scrabbling around all day.

He's had difficulties and problems that he's trying to overcome,

but he's panicking. It's almost part of his concept.

I mean, he is feeling the fear, so might be a good thing.

We've still got three hours to go tomorrow, which is good,

but I've got an awful lot to do.

But, you know, we've seen Rob in this position before in previous

weeks and he's sort of pulled it out of the bag.

In fact, both of his gardens before,

the last day, it all came together and he got through.

And he didn't just get through, he did incredibly well.

Gillian, she seems in control.

It's looking a bit like a Namibian desert.

She does seem very comfortable.

I'm a bit worried about her planting, to be honest, to be fair.

But she's still got three hours. She's not far off and

she could turn it all around, and I'm excited to see what she creates.

In theory, I haven't left myself too much to do tomorrow,

so I should be able to finish and then polish, that's the plan.

The concept is a very strong one, a very simple one, a thirst.

Does this make me feel like I need to get to that tap to get

some water that doesn't exist?

I can't see her tap. I need to see that tap.

Now, Sean's garden, he always seems in control of everything

and his first two gardens were quite amazing.

You know, visually they were very, very strong, very graphic.

Do you think this garden is going to live up to his own standards?

Oh, I have no doubt at all we're going to see absolutely

something special from him.

I'm feeling reasonably confident that I'm going to be able to put

all of the fine details in that I still have to do,

make the sculpture, do all the little tweaks

that I need to do to make sure that it's worthy of a place in the final.

The black-and-white theme, neither of you have picked up on that.

I think it has gone out of the window,

just that black is not black.

It's gone to really deep plum tones,

it's gone to very deep reds, maroons.

But the concept is still the same, it's just the execution of it

that he's changing, so he's playing around with it.

Now, what about Paul?

You know, Paul has been spraying plants,

he's been painting plants, he is picking up on details.

He is tending to absolutely everything.

He is thinking like a Chelsea designer.

You make it sound like he's got it in the bag.

No, I don't think he has quite got it in the bag.

I mean, all of these finishing details, it's whether he gets them

right, and he hasn't been good at them so far, has he?

So it's whether that all comes together in the end.

Otherwise he will lose points.

Big day, but I've done what I can. Um, I...

I can't start again.

So, I've just got to go with what I've produced.

Any of those four might not make it to the final?

There is many a slip 'twixt cup and lip.

OK, designers, that's it for the day.

Put your tools down, leave your gardens.

You have just three hours tomorrow to secure your place in the final.

It's day four and the designers only have a few hours left

before judging.

Left to do today is details, darling. Detail.

Really tiny little details can make all the difference and I would

want it to be the highest possible quality that I could produce.

But not Rob, he's still got a lot of hard graft.

I've got a tonne of gravel to bring in.

An actual tonne of gravel to bring in.

What I'm really most worried about is we're in garden three now

and they've said all along,

"This is about details, details, details,"

and I could spend three hours finessing

and I haven't got that time now.

Last week I was far too conservative.

This isn't so conservative but it will either work or it won't.

Who knows? But if it works, then I could be in the final.

And Sean is now adding in X-ray images of his own chest.

I feel calm on the outside

but inside my head, it's kind of making lists about the things

that I still have to do, tiny little things

that you may not even notice but I notice.

Flattening it down a bit cos it's meant to look a bit withered.

OK, designers, you've got just one hour left.

This is serious business, yeah?

Some of you have got to really get a move on, yeah?

You kind of feel like you've got five hours of work left to do and

you've got to condense it and still get the detail bang on,

so, yeah, there's barely any time to stop.

I'm dying for a cup of tea but no time.

I'm not going to be able to do some of the stuff Joe recommended,

I've still got so much to do.

I'm trying to prioritise what's left,

but I just haven't got enough time.

So, keep going.

Ahead of the boys, Gillian is almost done.

I'm just trying to squash down the sand and the pebbles

as if a river had run through it.

And it wouldn't leave a bubbly finish,

it would leave a very smooth finish with the pebbles embedded in it.

And I think it's beginning to work.

OK, designers, you've got just ten minutes.

That's ten real minutes, not ten conceptual minutes.

OK? Nice and tidy, remember.

These last-minute details could make all the difference

between a place in the final or the end of their Chelsea dream.

OK, designers, that's it. Your time is up.

Please, leave your gardens to the judges.

Four days of gruelling work are finally over.

I started off with a tough, hard landscape

and thereby really taking on a bit much trying to dig that hole.

I think that I've really just given it everything I have this week.

Absolutely exhausted, I have worked really hard and I've got

mixed emotions because I know now the next step is for somebody to go.

I had a moment just at the end there when I looked at my design

and thought, "Oh, my gosh, the design that I actually put on paper

"and what I produced, they sort of match up."

I've done the best I can

and I feel as though I've really accomplished something.

I'm just glad I've finished. It was proper hard work.

There was one point this morning where I just didn't think

I was going to get the gravel down,

so you'd see loads of mud underneath, and I think it would have been

instant disqualification, but at least the gravel's there.

And I never want to see another bag of gravel again.

It's time for judging.

Each garden will be assessed on four basic criteria -

theatre...

..design...

..horticulture...

..and how successfully each garden fulfils its brief.

Rob's towering creation is called Just Let Go.

A pair of pure white ladders reaching to the sky

climax at a flying trapeze suspended in time,

hovering over a garden of spiky plants that represent danger.

Rob's using cardoon, morina and kniphofia.

While soft panicum grasses weave a path through phormiums

and their thorny neighbours, symbolising that there's

always a way through if you just let go of your fear.

So, James, do you think that Rob has achieved theatre?

I think that Rob's garden is all about theatre.

Because it's a trapeze, it's about fear, you've got to see yourself

and have the space to be able to go from one thing to another.

But he might have put some big climbers

going up the trapeze poles or something

to just kind of integrate those gardens a bit better.

There is this big, big empty space in-between the two.

What do you think are the negative points they'll pick up on?

I already know the kind of eyelevel planting.

There was a plan for that originally, but as I say,

I didn't leave enough time to correct it

when the planting didn't quite work out how I wanted it to.

So I tried to fix that.

I've tried to draw their eye back down again to the garden

with the sticks that I've put in.

I mean, he's definitely been feeling the fear with this, hasn't he?

These stick things were nowhere anywhere within the brief,

-were they?

-And the whole idea of fear, I see no fear here.

All I see is I see some quite soft and fluffy stuff down here,

I see some sticks and then...and a trapeze on some scaffolding.

Where is the fear?

Yeah, he promised us spiky, scary plants, didn't he?

And quite honestly, I'd be quite happy to fall on all of that.

The gravel's the scariest thing in the planting, isn't it?

And he can see he's put these stick things,

-cos that's what they are, I'm not frightened.

-I'm not.

I mean, there's some nice plants in here. There's some nice kniphofias

and the morina is quite an unusual plant.

-You don't often see that one there, that pink one.

-Yeah.

If you look at the hard landscape and the construction values,

that's all there, that's good.

It's his set dressing,

it's his softening details, they just don't work.

Construction details, yes.

The way that he's indented his timbers,

very nice bit of detail there.

I just think that Rob is much better than this garden.

It's sort of slightly inaccessible, isn't it?

It's just a little bit away...

What he's basically got, he's got two gardens -

one on the top, one on the bottom.

The one at the top is very theatrical, if a little dull,

the one on the bottom is very flowery, if a little muddled.

Gillian's desert-inspired garden is called Thirst.

From an arid start,

a dry river bed leads through succulent yucca and agave,

suggesting water just out of reach,

eventually culminating in a lush oasis of bamboo

where the visitor is tempted to drink from a tap...

that doesn't work.

So, Gillian's garden. Can you feel the thirst?

Not enough, I don't think, is my honest opinion.

When she explained it to us, "The desert and then the oasis

"and then you just get through there and then there's the dry tap..."

And I'm sort of slightly disappointed.

I know. Is the desert deserty enough?

Is this, you know, is it really an oasis enough?

It's just not enough for me at the moment, at all.

A bucket of sand does not a desert make

-is basically what the problem is.

-No.

And there's the dry river bed with the rocks.

What about the plants? The plants, I have a real problem with these plants

in that they're the right plants

and they're the sort of thing, an indication of what you might find.

I want to hoick that agave up a bit.

Well, exactly. It's detail, darling. Detail.

Look at that, there's sand on top of the agave.

And don't we want to clutch some of these sempervivum together

so you've got kind of drifts rather than

one, two, three, four, five, six, very, very kind of orderly?

-I'm going to go in because I feel that...

-Yeah, you go in.

I'm going to see if I can see it.

He's sitting down, which is what I wanted him to do.

It's quite calm in there.

You are surrounded by the bamboo

and it changes the atmosphere once you sit down.

Do you feel like you are actually in an oasis?

Yes, I do, actually, to a certain extent.

It's a nice place to sit.

Um, we're surrounded by green, but I tell you what it's like is that...

Ooh.

..instead of being like, you know, a refuge in the desert,

it's really like sitting on a suburban patio surrounded by bamboo.

-You created a garden of two halves.

-Yeah.

Do you think that's going to be a problem?

I know that's the intention, but it's quite a small space.

It is and it's like everything else, it's a risk.

We've got this path that leads to the oasis,

but you can't get in there, so you have to get in from the side,

so the design is a little bit awkward.

Then you've got these very disparate gardens, I think.

She's trying to...to just sort of filter the planting.

There's a bit of grass in there and then a bit of grass here,

so it sort of comes around to here.

But it all runs out too fast.

-It's an awkward transition.

-How's it going to go?

-Would have liked the rocks to have been bigger.

-Me too.

And I'd like to see more detail.

I mean, there's really huge expanses of space, which

I know you find in the desert, but it just doesn't convince me.

I don't feel thirsty. I feel thirsty for more detail.

Paul has designed a three-in-one garden called Burnt Out.

It's a journey of nature as it regenerates following a fire.

His planting and details in each

section reflect the same space

at different times.

Using carex grasses and callistemon

to represent the parched pre-fire outback,

he uses creative techniques to replicate its smouldering remains

through to a blaze of colourful new growth with kniphofia,

crocosmia and rudbeckia.

This is Paul's most ambitious garden to date, but has he pulled it off?

So, Australia?

The outback.

We start off with an outback that is dry.

It's had a hot summer and it's just ready for a spark.

-CRICKETS CHIRP

-You can hear crickets.

It's fantastic.

-Ah, the sound effects.

-The crickets.

-You can hear it from here.

-Yeah, it's good.

It's very atmospheric. So this is this moment,

and then the sun is going to hit one of those bottles

and the whole thing is going to burst into flames.

Oh, my goodness, now I feel sad.

I really do!

I wanted it to be smoking a bit more so that they can appreciate,

you know, what I was trying to achieve.

-There's still a bit of smoke going on there.

-There's still a bit, yeah.

The attention to detail here is phenomenal, actually.

-It's really, really good detail.

-Look at that.

This is a man who's been listening.

And then we come into regeneration.

-Oh, wow.

-All the way through here.

I love it. And you're looking back along the storyline as well.

Is this a concept or is it just a story?

I think it's a concept about the power of nature.

You know, that it's able to regenerate itself

-no matter what.

-Yes.

It's hope. It makes me feel hopeful.

So you think this is the best garden he's done?

-Oh, without question.

-Except.

-Except what?

The idea being that that is a stylised snatch of outback

over there, through fire and then it turns into a, you know,

this could be a suburb of Melbourne.

It's lost that bit of wild Australia as soon as you get to this point

that it sums up so beautifully over there.

It's conceptual, not literal, James, is actually the thing.

Precisely, and this is a literal interpretation.

No, hang on, listen to me now, we've got

all of these stakes in the centre, these charred trees which is

kind of just going through every single one of the spaces.

You've got your eucalyptus, you've got your mimosa there,

there, there.

It's a wonderful space. All the attention to detail is there.

I'm not disputing that. I agree with you, I think that this is fantastic.

And I think that this is amazing.

But then, "Oh, hello, do come in and have a cup of tea."

-Oh, I would love tea.

-But that's not what it's supposed to be.

-It's supposed to be...

-It's about the power of nature.

You don't want the two gardens to be the same.

I know, but the power of nature regenerates on its own.

It doesn't regenerate with somebody leaning around in a nice hat with a trowel.

It's quite a heated debate down there, whatever it is.

You've... I think you might have divided opinion there.

I mean, as judges, they have to be unanimous ultimately,

but it's obviously something.

The finish is where he weakness is.

I'm not disputing that it's a really, really lovely idea and

it's beautifully done and everything is fantastic,

but that is the weak bit.

It loses just the edge off its concept.

And if you look at that and edit out the purple cirsium, for example,

or maybe a little bit of that crocosmia,

then it will be fine.

But I think that what's happened is that he's panicked slightly

and he's over gardened it.

Sean has created a garden called Lost Images,

which represents his early memories of experimenting with photography.

To symbolise those black-and-white photos, he's used a limited

colour palette, the dark foliage from dahlias,

heuchera and lobelia contrast

against the white flowers of cimicifuga

and Japanese anemones.

Hanging on industrial-looking screens,

X-rays of Sean's chest represent his internal search

to capture images lost.

-I get a very strong feeling of memory from this garden, don't you?

-Yeah.

I mean, I think that Sean is really very good at getting

the personal kind of atmosphere of a space.

And I think that's really important in a conceptual garden that

you really get the essence of the person who's made it,

and I'm feeling him here all over it, I have to say.

When he first talked about planting to us, he said,

"Yes, I'll do it all monochromatic,

"it'll be black and white,"

and both of us looked at each other and went,

-"No, you're not, mate."

-Yes.

He has compromised in the way we thought he would

and you've got this sort of purple and white that comes together.

But that said, his plant combinations

and the way that he's put the colours together

-are actually quite good.

-Yes.

You've got music as well.

Yes, I've got music, which is very personal.

It's kind of about how you feel when you lose both of your parents,

which, you know, we all have to face eventually.

But... And that feeling that you have when you look at old photographs.

JAMES: At the beginning, your first impression of it is that

-this is a theatre set, this is a set, isn't it?

-Yes.

It's something you can walk around and you can feel

and you can absorb and you can understand it.

For sure. I mean, we've got the music,

we've got, actually, that box camera

that he actually, you know, was experimenting with as a boy.

When you're down in that space,

you actually feel like you're kind of in a little hideout just

kind of really thinking about how he's going to take the camera,

-he's thinking about his family.

-Absolutely.

Also, industrial landscapes he wanted to represent here,

so it's not a warm place necessarily,

he's bringing it back to being a boy,

you know, and his memory is feeding his imagination.

Look at that quotation,

which I think is a perfect quote

for the space, I really do. Very strong.

So, as a design, this area here works very well.

The back area I don't think is quite so good because I think it's

rather weak and I don't think it has that much connection to the front.

-We've got a huge amount of space here.

-Look at this,

-great big empty...nothing here.

-Yes.

Do you think he's actually delivered on his brief?

I think that the problem with his brief is that his brief is

rather confused and there's just lots of it.

I mean, is it about memory, is it about photography, is it about...?

You know, you see these medical X-rays.

It's a step too far, quite honestly. Not required.

I would have preferred to see the landscapes that he didn't

-capture on his first attempt.

-Hmm.

I mean, I think that's something that he's had through

all his gardens and we've told him about it.

You said, "Just stand back, just pare something back.

"The best ideas are the simplest ideas. You've put too much in."

Scrutiny of the gardens complete,

the judges now have to decide who is winning gold and whose

dream of designing at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is finally over.

Somebody is going today and it's going to be very upsetting,

of course it's going to be.

And if it's me, I'm going to be very sad about it. I don't want to go.

I'd love to create the next garden, of course.

If I didn't end up going to the final after three gardens,

then I would be really disappointed because this garden is finished.

I'm saying bye to it,

so my mind is already starting to think about the next garden,

the final show garden.

I just love it, I really love it.

And I'm really proud of the fact that I've actually achieved three

gardens in one.

I really like that and I think it's quite unique.

I don't think I've created a garden that I could have created.

I was up last night thinking about it,

trying to think, "Can I pull it together?

"Can I make this garden work how I wanted it to work?"

And we had three hours left today

and I kind of knew last night that I didn't have enough time.

Designers, it's been a great four days.

We've seen scaffold poles, lots of sand, smoke, fire and X-rays.

Now, a conceptual garden is never easy but you've all worked so hard.

The judges gold for conceptual gardens goes to...

..Paul.

-(Yes.)

-Congratulations.

-Well done.

-Thank you.

-Congratulations.

Packed full of theatre, the judges thought Paul's detail

and planting created a wonderful atmosphere.

And they were taken on a clear journey of regeneration.

They thought he delivered an exceptionally strong

and ambitious conceptual garden.

Whoo-hoo!

'How exciting to be through to the final

'and to be through with the gold.'

I mean, oh, this is, you know, two golds out of three.

Well done.

Got the final to go and then the winner goes to Chelsea,

and I really hope that's me.

You know. Oh, I can't wait, really excited.

But the judges thought there were two weak gardens here.

And those gardens...

were Rob's...

..and Gillian's.

But the person who is not going to go to Chelsea...

..I'm very sad to say...

..is Gillian.

That's OK.

Although the judges thought Gillian had a strong concept,

her attention to detail and finesse were lacking.

They thought her desert wasn't convincing enough

and entering the oasis from the side

and not from the front meant that

her design wasn't coherent.

But ultimately, they weren't left feeling thirsty.

I'm so sad to see Gilly go. She's kind of been the mum.

She's been such a love. She's just... She's a smashing person.

She's such a trooper and she's just a bubbly kind of uplifting

sort of person and, yeah, I'll miss her.

So sad to leave.

I've made some really great friends during the competition.

I think it's been a really good-humoured group of people.

I think that's what's been great. I've learnt...

I learnt an awful lot.

I've made definitely the right career choice in terms of changing

and leaving my old life behind.

I'm over 50, you can make that career choice and change.

So, from that perspective, it's like a big tick box affirmation that I've

made the right decision and you cannot get better than that.

THEY LAUGH AND CHATTER

That was by the skin of my teeth, like, seriously.

I, honestly...I thought that was it today. I...

LAUGHING: I'm in the final, I can't quite believe it.

Um, yeah, just unbelievable.

Unbelievable.

Next time, it's the final.

The pressure piles up.

I'm just panicking.

As do all the finishing details.

-Have you got box loads of more stuff?

-Oh, yeah.

Just leave it in the box.

While, for one designer, it's back to the drawing board.

-I'm not an engineer or a builder.

-No, but you're a designer,

and a designer has to be able to design stuff that can be built.

Yeah, I'm feeling a little bit emotional at the moment.

And the winner is crowned.

The designer who is going to Chelsea is...