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charlotte

@spruce_planting

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Trowel for hire.
Show Planter, Spruce head gardener and designer

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Hello! Welcome, thanks for dropping by.

I’m Charlotte and this is a new public space dedicated to my work as a Show Garden planter. It follows my journey from show fan and volunteer to leading the planting teams on Gold Medal winning show gardens. It’s a series of reflections on what I remember from years gone by.

I’ve been meaning to put this together for years and finally here it is. I hope to top it up each year with more or less live updates on what we professional planters do and sometimes, how we do it 🤫 by @spruce_planting

25

2

a year ago

The best hack I can offer someone starting out is to get a partner who will give you the space to work a show. It’s all consuming and if your close support network can take up all the slack for the weeks you’re on site life becomes very much more manageble.

I’m extra lucky because Matt doesn’t only give me the room he also feeds and waters me. Doesn’t mind if I stumble home monosyllabic and tumble into the bath or talking 19 to the dozen downloading the crisis of the day or plan for tomorrow.

Matt has his own unique relationship with RHS Chelsea having worked for @mandggarden for almost a decade but when he left M&G he became ‘the ‘prentice’ at Spruce and is now my regular assist for finishing day. His calmness and capacity to say ‘Yes’ without offering a torrent of opinions makes him an ideal companion in the final hours of making a show garden. He also bakes excellent cakes.

I really couldn’t do what I do without him and that I get to share the show experience with Matt makes it all the better. 💛 by @spruce_planting

17

2

a year ago

by @spruce_planting

38

6

2 months ago

RHS HAMPTON 2025
Carey Garden Design Studio for Audible
The Alan Partridge Sound Garden
GOLD

We were delighted with our Gold medal and truly thrilled for @mikemcmahonstudio with their clean sweep of the other awards. I had the pleasure of walking inside their beautiful brick hug and the planting was terrific, thoughtful and full of storytelling flourishes. A worthy Best in Show. Great to see my pals @bigfishlandscapes take home Best Construction.

Once again I learnt masses, not least about the importance of taking care of yourself between shows. I had wondered if this might be my last season show planting. 10 gardens seems like a nice round number. But what I actually came away with was a renewed enthusiasm for the craft of show planting. Because that is what it is, a craft. It’s the unsung skill of Show Gardening. Designers need a vision, they need to see everything, answer everything they simply don’t have time to also plant everything. Historically designers have maintained the impression that they do it all, happy to acknowledge the contractors technical skill and contribution but shy about celebrating those who execute more than half of what the public see during the show. I’m delighted to notice that this is changing with designers now celebrating their planting leads and celebrating their skilled contribution. There is more to do around making sure that that appreciation begins to be reflected in the way we are remunerated and I’m keen to be an advocating voice in that discussion. I’m a proud show planter and I will continue to negotiate the best terms and working conditions for the teams who work with me. RHS shows are changing, the funding models, the locations, the increasing notice given to finding sustainable ways to build gardens and a changing climate. I’m curious and excited to see what’s next.

What a treat to leave the judges behind and fall into a neighbours pool and reflect on the year. What a show season 2025 has been. New challenges, not least age and creakiness, a new show, new friends, new technology, but above all a reminder that it’s the old friends that make it all worthwhile. Until next year, see you in the garden. 💛 by @spruce_planting

6

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a year ago

RHS HAMPTON 2025
Carey Garden Design Studio for Audible
The Alan Partridge Sound Garden

This garden was full of challenges which needed to be negotiated daily. But despite that I never doubted that we would finish and excel. I’ve never been more confident in a team than this year. I had managed to put together a group of allstars from my show gardening history to execute this garden and I was so grateful for their capacity to dig deep for both me, the garden and Joe and Laura. @derranllewellyn @plantbased_gardens @keithgardeningangelpowers @lucy_outfrontdesigns were joined by returning champions from Chelsea @clairereinhold @neilaskewlandscape and @compassgardendesign (who arrived with first day energy just as our 6th day energy flagged and gave us a brilliant boost). We were supported by some great volunteers finding their feet at the show.

Once again @mustardgardendesign kept us fully hydrated and our spirits lifted with cake or enthusiasm as required.
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Ben @landesignsltd gave us the impressive canvas to fill.
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Never underestimate the value of a good cheer squad and in my island neighbours I couldn’t be luckier on that score. They were excited to have me doing a show down the road and cruised down river to cheer our success once the show opened. It was such a joy to watch them walking through the garden and suddenly understand what it is we do, the scale, the detail and just plain old graft, and it was lovely to see them admire it. by @spruce_planting

9

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a year ago

RHS HAMPTON 2025
Carey Garden Design Studio for Audible
The Alan Partridge Sound Garden

This was a first for me, I was at Hampton to plant for the first time. I’d asked everyone I knew who’d been there before for advice or insider tips for working and they all said THE HEAT. And boy howdy, they were not kidding. Even the avenue of limes behind us provided little respite from the over 30 degree days on site and of course the humans weren’t the only things that needed taking care of, the plants needed shading and careful watering and protecting from scorch and wilt and all manner of other stresses to make sure we hit judging weekend in great condition.

The exposure wasn’t the only stark contrast to Chelsea. The S P A C E was also a revelation having room to store plants, sit comfortably for tidying and move around the site was a big change from being squeezed into Royal Hospital Way but, what we gained in working room we lost in camaraderie, at least for me. My greats pals @conquestspaces were just up the avenue but I barely saw them as we all got our tails up and noses down to hit the show deadlines.

Our team was ‘fresh’ from Chelsea @careygardendesignstudio and @mustardgardendesign barely had time to unpack before they were turning back to start work again. Lots of my planting team had been at Chelsea and we were grateful for the influx of new enthusiasm that came with those fresh for Hampton.

This garden had its own unusual set of challenges because we were all playing a role in the Alan Partridge podcast narrative. Joe and Laura had to tread a delicate line between creating a garden that could be signed off by Alan with all his specific character traits whilst also deliver a garden that matched their rigorous, elegant design ethic. AND they had to explain all of that in such a way that come judging time the brief would line up with the sponsors storytelling. Quite the challenge.

Late on Saturday we took a break from final tidying to judge my local fair’s ’Best Flower Arrangement’ a responsibility we undertook with great seriousness discussing Void and Balance and appropriateness of plant material, hilarious 😂 by @spruce_planting

5

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a year ago

RHS Chelsea 2025
Carey Garden Design Studio
Addleshaw Goddard: Freedom to Flourish Garden
Gold
Best Construction
Best in Show

What a thrill! @careygardendesignstudio brought their second show garden to Chelsea and took home all the prizes! Joe and Laura are an impressive team. They work in total partnership dovetailing their different skills seamlessly to design and deliver impressively layered and sophisticated designs whilst jointly maintaining family life with their two young children. I’m excited to see what they do in the future as show gardeners as they grow in experience, confidence and ideally budget.

Also, the best makers and providers of cake and coffee ever seen in the history of show gardening. Fact.

They have in @mustardgardendesign a super cheer leader, soother and background smoother of all bumps and quandaries along the way 🤩 . The three of them create a fun vibe on site and it was great to be brought into the fold. The pace was full on full time so it’s good they didn’t have to go straight into another show garden the minute this one was finished. Oh…. 🤭

The garden was brilliantly photographed by @alistergthorpe who took photos 4/5 check out his other beautiful pics of the garden. by @spruce_planting

6

0

a year ago

RHS Chelsea 2025
Carey Garden Design Studio
Addleshaw Goddard: Freedom to Flourish Garden
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When you arrive on site on your birthday having never worked with your designers before or met any of the landscape or planting team I recommend bumping into @plantbased_gardens who, prior to smashing her own garden gaining a gold and best in show, was giving me a proper pep talk and reminding me hold my head up. I love her.
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This was my first chance to work directly with @theoutdoorroom and it was every bit as delightful as I’d hoped. They really are masters of the art of show gardening I felt so supported by them and learnt a bundle from them. Mark with his years of knowledge and skill was a brilliant mentor to first time show gardener and foreman Fraser. Fraser’s attention to detail and commitment to turning out a first class show garden was unimpeachable. I never stopped being impressed with him. The whole team was calm and generous in its mode and ethic. What a bunch of bloody lovely blokes. A well deserved Best Construction for them.
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The volunteer planting team was expansive and @careygardendesignstudio pulled in a dedicated troupe of friends and nursery women who all laboured to deliver the complex planting scheme. My photo stash is woefully short of faces but I was grateful to to them all in particular @compassgardendesign @clairereinhold Anna @katiesgardenplants , Jo and @neilaskewlandscape who was my brilliant assistant. A planting assistant is so key to effective planting, someone who can anticipate what you need when you’re you’re twisted in a corner is a total godsend 👏🏼👏🏼
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Always an education and a pleasure to roll up my sleeves beside the powerhouse that is Chris @orcharddene
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And is there anything better than having @gregoryportermusic saunter onto the garden for a chat with Monty? Why yes, a singing Gregory Porter 💕 (film by @mustardgardendesign) by @spruce_planting

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a year ago

RHS Chelsea 2025
Carey Garden Design Studio
Addleshaw Goddard: Freedom to Flourish Garden

Have I ever not walked on to site for my first day (usually about day 10 of build) and thought ‘holy heck, how are we ever going to turn THIS into a show garden’? No, I don’t think I have. It always seems like a totally insurmountable task. And always we just begin at the beginning, get the first plants in the ground and just keep planting until it’s done. It’s as simple and as hard as that.

This garden had a complicated matrix of soil conditions outlined in the brief and we had to be rigorous in our attention to that detail. Hot days were made hotter by the beautiful monster that was our piling walls radiating heat and making the heart of the garden about 1000 degrees hotter than everywhere else.

@waterartisans supplied the highly technical water effect that allowed the garden ‘tide’ to ebb and flow in 12minute cycles. by @spruce_planting

6

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a year ago

RHS Chelsea 2024
Tom Massey for Wateraid
Gold
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Our long association with @wateraid led to the perfect planting-free rehab Chelsea.
We were asked to be ambassadors for the Wateraid garden funded by @project.giving.back
This gave us the opportunity to visit @hortus_loci with @tommasseyuk and reunite with the delight that is @plantyjane before the show and get a full run down on the project.
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@conquestspaces took pity on my show addiction and arranged for me to visit site before the public arrived - and show off their garden that was about to go on and win Best in Show 😉
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During show week we braved storms to speak to visitors about the vital work @wateraid do. We’ve come to understand if you can get water right so many other things don’t go so wrong. If there is accessible potable water children go to school, girls get better educated, health and nutritional outcomes improve exponentially, women often have more economic advocacy and communities stabilise as they don’t need to search for water. Every pound spent providing water saves money elsewhere in the NGO network of provision.
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Tom’s design showcased rainwater capture in an absolute showstopper of a garden, far and away the most memorable along main avenue. With the privilege of access inside the garden we saw Jane and her team’s exquisite planting. A really masterful garden on every level.
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We loved the walkways so much we were inspired to commission a similar project from @surreyironcraft for our watery patch.
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We even treated ourselves to a nearby stay with a view of the show ground (only to help with my stamina post op you understand 😊) the pool was an unexpected bonus, honest! Being able to pull on a swimsuit 8 weeks after major surgery felt like a major milestone and cause for celebration 🧜🏼‍♀️ by @spruce_planting

5

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a year ago

2024 - half century, still in
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Five weeks after my hysterectomy I turned 50 and I surrounded myself with excellent people in a beautiful place and tried not to notice everyone else was busily building gardens in SW3 by @spruce_planting

7

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a year ago

2024 - a breath and a pause
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As soon as I wrapped RHS Chelsea 2023 the moving vans arrived and we left our well loved Victorian house in Brixton and headed to the river. Just 1h20 away but a million miles. No more busy cut through at the end of the front garden, now the Thames, and at our back a creek that rises and falls with the rain. All the garden waste, in fact anything bigger than a rucksack has to come off or on our carless island by wheelbarrow. The neighbours are very friendly and can came to visit as soon as we arrived.

Our first summer was glorious, our first winter brought the highest floods in 10 years and were an adventure as much as anything, being mercifully short they did little damage and trained us in emergency protocols.

In the background I was having tests and scans which ultimately led to a decision for me to have a hysterectomy. No planting for me this year.
But works on the new garden went ahead with a quick project got underway with the always excellent @whiteedgegardens before heading to hospital. by @spruce_planting

4

0

a year ago