<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Tatton-stepsjul16.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-3655" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Tatton-stepsjul16-300x225.jpg" alt="Tatton-steps(jul16)" width="300" height="225" /></a>The British summer continues with another wet day. After three weeks in California with never a drop of rain it seems in Britain this year it never stops raining. No surprise then that it rained all the way to Tatton Park and for most of the afternoon. Welcome to the world of building show gardens.

Caitlin works so hard and is incredibly committed to her design but she needs to be because there is so much working against anyone building a show garden. Deliveries being late is only a minor part - plants have to be ready and in perfect condition at just the right time. They cannot be too early or too late and when the weather is so unpredictable as it has been this year it becomes a complete nightmare.

So what have I learned today? Firstly build in a significant amount of redundancy with plants, up to 30%; secondly be versatile in one's planting plans and thirdly the level of finesse and detail required in a show garden is unbelievable.