Philippa and I will freely admit that after a four month battle we were mentally prepared for defeat. The panel whose job it is to choose which designers will be allowed to show their gardens at Chelsea showed us no mercy at all as they insisted on three re-drafts and two name changes before, finally, today,  giving us the utterly delicious news that we are IN.   The original idea, of a garden built around a Victorian aviary, has remained the same throughout and we have sometimes struggled to understand the panel’s thinking as their requests  for changes made us  alter the title  from “A Bird Lover’s Garden” to “An Aviary Garden” and finally to “A Victorian Aviary Garden”, but however great the torture, the end result is worth it.  Quite why I’m using the phrase “end result” when we are actually only at the beginning is beyond me.  Will it all have been worth it when the medals are dished out in five month’s time?  I’ll be able to say on May 24th next year.