Simply Italian

Building is now underway for Simply Italian's ambitious 120sq.m stone garden at this year's Royal Chelsea Flower Show. We will be documenting the build process with photos and comments so you will be able to keep an eye on how the project progresses until the Show opens on 20th May!

Work started on 30th April when excavating and ground levelling began. A few days later 28 tonnes of stone was delivered to site on 2 articulated trucks from our main sponsor Testi Fratelli in Italy.

The first task is to prepare the ground to build the garden on - creating the foundations. With our garden being an aquatic display it is essential that the ground is completely flat.

Diggers on site moving the earth and levelling the ground:





Once the ground was levelled, wooden slabs were layered up to provide a solid base. The crates behind contain some of Testi Fratelli's stone waiting to be laid:



Wooden panels form the walls of the garden and the stairs to the rear will hold the elegant marble cariatide statue. All these surfaces will eventually be clad in stone:



In this photo you can see the £37,000 cariatide being unveiled from her 'coffin':


On 12th May the modular stone columns started to be assembled. Standing at 1.45m tall, each stone column weighs over a tonne. The sections of the columns are lifted using gear which is normally used for lifting grave stones. The piping you can see which travels through the centre of each column will house the water lines to transport the water from the ground level reservoir to the capita of each column:





In this photo you can see the wooden subframe which sits within a waterproof tray. This will be the 110 sq.m water reservoir that lies beneath the stone flooring. The H20 team are preparing the network of piping which will carry the water around the garden, with pumps to be installed later on:



Our beautiful lady stands tall, ready to be fixed to her base on top of the grand stair case:



The raised wooden structure you can see in this photo will form the platform for the Tuscan landscape to the rear of the garden:



The columns have now been positioned within the reservoir tray and plumbed up to the water piping. The capitas, which will function as planters, are fixed to the top of the columns:





In this photo you can see a close-up of the water piping connected to the base of the column. This is where the water will enter to be pumped up to the capita:



The team enjoy a strenuous work out whilst commencing the stone cladding process:



The staircase is started to be clad in the stone. Notice the stone is raised slightly from the stairs - this is so water can pass underneath the steps:






Once the stone columns were all in place the surrounding floor slabs started to be laid over the water reservoir tray: