We're half way though the build at the Chelsea Flower Show, and it's going remarkably well. There have, of course, been set-backs, but nothing that has had a major impact on the project plan.

First, the ABS system on my lovely Smart car failed, so I can't drive it until I can get it to the garage for a service. Since I'm surviving on 4 or 5 hours sleep at the moment I guess that won't be until after the show now.

The day my wonderful Acacia trees were due to be delivered, I got an email from the supplier to say that they had just been delivered from Italy and were not of Chelsea quality. Apparently they didn't like being dug up from the field and had protested by dropping half their leaves. Which is all well and good, these things happen, but to wait until the day they should have been delivered to tell me was unforgivable. I had two days to source mature, potentially gold-medal winning trees. Luckily, Premier Trees came to the rescue with some beautiful Ginkgo biloba trees.

The next morning I ran a bath and the pump for my shower blew up. The flat was filled with smoke, the smoke alarm was blaring, and there was water everywhere. It was quite scary, and of course impossible to get a plumber around at 5am, so I was bailing out for 3 hours until my mum came to rescue me. I had to leave her holding the fort so I could get up to site.

We got on to the Chelsea site on 5 May and the garden must be complete by 20th. After setting out, the wall we had constructed in Milton Keynes was craned in, and the work on the curving stone paths began (see picture above). It's great after working on the project for so long to see it finally coming to life. The water wall and pond are being worked on at the moment, and the trees have been planted. It's all a bit hectic in a very small space. The weather's not been on our side either. The constant rain showers has meant that the render and paint took much longer to dry than planned.

My plants began to arrive yesterday, and 4 of us began the unenviable task of 'cleaning' the grasses, which means painstakingly pulling or cutting off any brown or damaged leaves. We'll have to continue that today, and I will start the setting out. As with many Chelsea exhibitors this year, we've had real problems with our flowering perennials. The hottest April on record seems to have affected the rooting of young plants and they simply refuse to flower. I have lots of lovely grasses and Libertia though, so the garden will still look great.

I'm beginning to think we might have created something beyond my expectations. Fingers crossed!...

Linda Bush is a garden designer based in Kent.
www.lindabush.co.uk/chelsea.html