I do not have pictures of the Gertrude Jekyll garden as due to the school, having certain peoples children there, you are not allowed photos at all, or much else at all!
I was working for myself In Surrey,when this happened.
Meeting a man over a pint of beer in a pub we got talking; he built and repaired garden statues, so I told him what I had been doing, he seemed very interested so agreed to meet next night.
We talked again the following evening and he told me that the very private school in his village had a Gertrude Jekyll garden in a bad state and they were willing to pay the right person to research the plants and restore it. You could have knocked me over with a feather.
So he set up a meeting with the board of Governors and I got the job.
It was amazing to see her original drawings and plans, and what it was supposed to look like , I had to visualise in my head.
The problem was a lot of the plants had gone out of commercial horticulture some hundred years ago, so it was trying to get hold of them. Luckily a lot of the Head gardeners on the local estates helped out, and after nearly a year I eventually got it finished. The Governors looked at it in November when it was done and wondered what they had paid for! The shrubs and roses were OK, but there was not much showing apart from the lavender.
The following summer the school contacted me and asked if I could do a weeks work on it as it was parents day, which is a very important event and they wanted to officially open the garden.
It had six large, square carp ponds set on a stone terrace with huge lions head over each one. The water was supposed to come out of the lions mouths to feed the carp ponds, but no one had ever seen it working. It was supposed to be have been done by Lutyens. The school has no proof of this, but it looks like his work and Jekyll worked with him a lot.
The statue man had been given the job of cleaning out the carp ponds and repairing the lions heads.
I went and worked hard for a week and got the garden pristine and it looked wonderful, so I was praying for sun the next day.
They had set a marquee up on a lawn around the corner to the garden, and all the parents were in their with their fine clothes on, and to my shock so were the Head gardeners from the local estates.
They were drinking Champagne, where I was not allowed in at the time but was brought some Champagne. Finally I was called in and introduced, and then asked after a ceremony to show everyone around the garden. It was the Head gardeners I was worried about, what were they going to think.
They had a quick ceremony and then I was asked to take the guests around to the garden, as the people turned the corner, everyone went silent.
The sun was looking lovely on it, and they were taken aback. Then a million questions started, and did not stop.
Eventually one of the Governors got everyone onto the terrace with the carp ponds, so they were looking down on the garden, then the lions heads were turned on, a wonderful moment as people turned to look at this stunning sight.
Every year the school pays for the wife and I to go back for the weekend for parents day, which is nice.
My wins at Chelsea are insignificant to that.
Regards.
Neil.
