If you follow me on twitter, you might have seen some of my tweets a few weeks back about my TV garden premiere. (Did I mention it here? I can’t remember)

Anyway, I thought I would share with you some pictures from my crazy day at the Garden of Kimm Delgizzi a lovely woman who is being treated for Breast Cancer and who, through Hope In Bloom, I was privileged to build a garden for.

Hope In Bloom is an entirely privately funded organization that relies heavily on private donations and deep discounts from nurseries, garden centers, artists, designers, contractors, and furniture and accessory distributors.

So what are the details of the garden we made….well, I designed it….the choice of plants was made based on what Kimm already had, the colors she liked, a little bit of her Italian heritage (Buxus ‘Graham blandy’ is my New England answer for anyone looking for that Tuscan landscape dotted with ‘exclamation point’ cypress trees.

Bill Knight, who I work with regularly was the pinch guy of the day who really came through. After finding out the day before filming, that the fountain that we thought would be donated was not going to be available, we had to come up with something fast….Bill pulled together this beauty overnight from materials he had around his landscaping yard. Perfect Right? Call him if you want one.

The plants came from Weston nurseries and a lot of re-organizing what Kimm already had.

We used buckwheat hull mulch — a first for me….and I loved it….it’s like pouring silk over your plants. It is so lightweight, and it goes down soooo easily. The color is really nice too…like chocolate mouse, brown with a grey overcast that gives a luxurious and interesting look. I am going to put it over my own veg garden.
Hope in Bloom has a small army of volunteers; you can see more pictures of our day at their website here.

The filming part was fun. I was nervous, but it turned out fine – they thankfully cut out the part where I couldn’t remember a single Latin name of anything I had chosen for the garden. I would definitely do TV gardens again….the satisfaction of finishing it all just in time (to meet the union deadline) so that it could be filmed was great. Without a doubt, I felt like I was on my own version of Ground Force (except that I always wear appropriate undergarments, and the fast music at the end of the day was really just playing in my head).
Wash my hands, and we all walk away happy….that is a great feeling. Take a look and let me know what you think!