My final Stand at GWL!

After three days hard work, we finally managed to finish my stand and Phil got the hub up. WOW! Everything looked amazing and actually far exceeded my wildest dreams of what it could all end up like. The WildlifeKate hub, in particular was just..... well it was just amazing. Phil has done such a fantastic job bearing in mind he built this entire building from my initial sketch! Due to the lack of storage space he had back at home in Cumbria, he has had to store this building all over in various peoples' garages and barns so the show was the first time he had had the entire building together and I was astounded at how smoothly it all went together... a credit and testament to the skill that Phil has as a carpenter.


This video shows the finished stand.....

I did not have time to upload all my photos on a daily basis, but these can all be viewed on my Flickr account HERE


The footage from when Gardeners' World came and filmed me aired on the Friday night and I was interviewed by Rachel de Thame on Wed morning, meaning there was huge interest in my stand on the Saturday and Sunday, in particular.


The Gardeners' World Footage was lovely ... showed my garden off to its best!

Monday Show Build-up

Another busy day on my stand... the time goes so quickly! Phil worked on the hub all day, with help from Martin and my dad, as there was lots of painting still to be done and the roof structure had to be finished so we could get the green roof panels up on there. 

I concentrated on getting all the feeders up and cameras set up in different places, all wired back to the TV.....

My dad painted the notice board going up in the hub and the window beadings....

My Bird Feeder Central (built out of a Forest Garden conrt planter and Nature's Feast accessories started to take shape...

The liner went on the roof, ready for the green roof panels to go up.... I was blown away... they completely transformed the building; I am so pleased with them!

G_Scapes rang to say that all my plants had arrived on site and I unloaded them and started to create some planted areas....

Meeting some lovely ladies opposite my stand, I discovered their AMAZING knitted garden...yes!... an entire garden all knitted and I fell in love with their knitted birds. They kindly loaded me this amazing knitted blue tit for one of my feeders....

The signage from Nature's Feast arrives and it looks great. I pick up all the feeders tomorrow.

We're getting there!....

Sunday Show Build up

The day started early for us as Martin and I drove a large van and my car fully loaded to the NEC to start the build up of my show stand. It was quite a scary moment when I first looked at that huge bare expanse of carpet.......

With a team of amazing friends and family, it was not long before we had unloaded the vehicles and Phil Clark and Donna had arrived all the way from Cumbria. Phil began straight away, constructing my hub, whilst Martin and I returned home to load the vehicles up again with a second set of materials and plants!

Phil had constructed the hub so it would fit together like a high tech flat pack....

On our return with load number 2, we used the planters to support the fence panels that have been very kindly donated by Forest Gardens... they look amazing!

By the afternoon, it was all starting to come together!

My dad and Phil J were there all day providing me with essential extra hands... I did let them have a brief break!!

 By the end of our first day of build up, we had constructed all the main part of the stand.....

Tomorrow, the plants arrive from G-Scapes and we have quite a lot of hub painting to do! 


It has been an amazing day... seeing all the plans from the last 6 months starting to come together and to see my WildlifeKate Hub in the flesh... all from a little sketch I drew some 6 months earlier!!


For a slideshow of all the photos from today, visit the GWL Sunday page on my website where I have uploaded them onto Flickr

Nearly Ready to Go!

Time has simply flown past and with so much to complete, I have not blogged as much as I would have liked to before the show.


This week, it has been half term, so the whole week has been dedicated to all the last minute preparations for the show next week. We have from Sunday to Tuesday to build and it is going to be a challenge!


On Thursday, I made my visit down to the G-Scapes Nursery again to choose my plants for the nectar rich flower beds. It was harder than I thought... too much choice, but I have gone for one planter in yellows and oranges and one planter in pinks and purples. The nursery have been amazing and I am very lucky to be working with them. They will deliver everything to my stand on Monday! 

G-Scapes have a show garden and a plant stand at the show, so make sure you visit them if you are coming.


Today has been a very busy day. Martin drove all the way up to Phil Clark's in Cumbria to collect my WildlifeKate Hub and bring it home. It filled the van we had hired... more so than I had anticipated, so we are going to have to make a few more journeys to the NEC tomorrow than I thought! We have spent all day getting as much loaded in 2 estate cars and the van ready for our travels. The NEC is about half an hour from here and we can start the build at 8am..... then have until 10pm on Tuesday.


I have SO much stuff.... just can't believe it! We will have a least three journeys tomorrow I reckon.

I emptied the sink pond ready for transportation!

It took us an hour to move all the green roof panels from up the garden, down to my garage area ready for loading. With all the rain we have had, they weigh a tonne!

My garage is completely full still and that's after we have loaded 3 vehicles!

It's all very exciting and I can't wait to get going. I will be tweeting and trying to blog in the evenings... we'll see how I go. Off to bed now... it's been a long day and this is only the beginning!