Have you ever wondered what it’s like to plant a gold medal winning, main avenue garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show?

The short answer: it’s an unmissable, 7am to 7pm, 7 day a week experience. A challenge that sharpened my senses and secateurs. A supportive team like the best I’ve ever been privileged to be a part of. A physical marathon. And a magical garden that I fell in love with and taught me so much.

So often we concentrate on flowers to light up our gardens with colour, forgetting a display of mellow fruitfulness prolongs a garden’s interest and provides the bonus of essential food for birds and wildlife.

Hurry, hurry, as some of the most fashionable tulip varieties are selling out fast. Make it your September resolution to order your tulips before the early birds catch the worms, so to speak and children return to school.