When Maggy needs more pebbles for the mosaic which she is building for our Chelsea garden she doesn’t just pick up the phone and order them from her supplier. She goes in person to the beach in Anglesea where she has a licence to collect them. She has just returned from two back-breaking days of hard labour individually picking out some more white limestone pebbles, of just the right shape, size and colour. Meanwhile Mark, her assistant, has been cracking on with the border, all 15 metres of it. They decided in the end to use blue-black slate to intertwine between the white pebbles because it would look crisper. A good decision- the effect is stunning. The photo above shows a section of the border and the one below shows Mark fitting the pieces together. Final casting is set for next Thursday. Phew.

This photo is of a section of the peacock’s tail, showing the wide range of pebbles which Maggy is using, including semi-precious stones such as lapis lazuli, for the mosaic which will form the path leading to the aviary in our garden for the Chelsea Flower Show. Thousands of pebbles and stones will be needed, so many in fact that Maggy announced today that she is running short and will have to make an excursion to Anglesey where she has a special licence to collect pebbles from a secret location which is owned by a titled gentleman there. I’m flabbergasted that with time running so short she has the time and energy to travel for five hours for the back-breaking task of hand-picking pebbles.
The lapis lazuli are mined in Afghanistan. Formerly, lapis lazuli was ground and processed to make the pigment ultramarine for tempera paint and, sometimes, oil paint. The ultramarine colour of the stone will be a perfect foil for the ultramarine paint on the aviary.
The picture below shows Maggy choosing the stone for the Peacock’s eye. She plumped for the one in her left hand.

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I know I’m biased, but I think this design is stunningly beautiful. This is our first glimpse of the pebble mosaic designed by Maggy Howarth, which will form the 3 metre wide and 4 metre long pathway in our Victorian Aviary Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show. All the large show gardens are on Main Avenue and we are lucky to have 15 metres of frontage to Main Avenue next door to Darmuid Gavin’s garden and looking onto the Laurent Perrier and Daily Telegraph gardens which are on the other side of the street. Maggy’s mosaic will be right alongside Main Avenue, along which 150,000 visitors will walk and no doubt look on in awe. If there were any such thing as a show stopper at Chelsea, this would be it.