Gavin's Great Pyramid of Chelsea shoots up.. but sparks row with flower show bosses who want to ban visitors ascending 80ft structure in lift
By ROB PREECE
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But it seems celebrity gardener Diarmuid Gavin's stunning pyramid garden could give organisers a headache when the show opens on Tuesday.
Royal Horticultural Society officials have ordered Mr Gavin, 48, to keep the public off his tower, arguing that it would spoil the view for others.
Colossal: Diarmuid Gavin is preparing to defy a ban and take visitors up his 80ft tall Magical Tower Garden in a lift
The Irish television presenter has other ideas, however, and is preparing to take visitors up his 'Magical Tower Garden' in a lift, eight at a time.
Mr Gavin, who has presented BBC show Gardeners' World, said: 'If people really want to come up we'll let them.
'We can take eight people up at a time.
'This garden gives people great views of the River Thames that you never normally get at Chelsea.
'My favourite bit of the garden is the top storey.
'I have an office there where I can hide away from everybody.'
Rule-breaker: Mr Gavin flouted a similar ban last year by taking visitors up the Sky Garden in a bright pink 'flying' pod containing plants suspended from a huge crane
The garden will include birch trees, bamboos, ferns, hawthorns, ivy, lavender, roses and vegetables.
It is made from black scaffolding with the lift running up its centre.
It also has antique wrought-iron staircases and slide wrapping around its outside.
Mr Gavin came up with a similarly tall creation last year - the Sky Garden - for which he won his first gold medal at Chelsea.
He flouted a ban then by taking visitors up the wing-shaped garden in a bright pink 'flying' pod, containing plants suspended from a huge crane.
He said: 'Everyone said I wouldn't be able to take people up in my pod last year too but, in fact, I did.
'I like to do the unexpected. My garden is a different experience to other gardens here.
'It's all about raising our game.
'It's very important, being from Ireland, wanting to do ambitious stuff, because we're going through a difficult time back home.
'Imagine coming to London and being allowed to do something like this.
'Chelsea is a place to express yourself. Chelsea's showbusiness, and I like to entertain.
'Perhaps sometimes I provoke, too.'
Mr Gavin's decision could put him on a collision course with show organisers.
Star attraction: The celebrity gardener and his team work on the huge project, to be displayed at Chelsea Flower Show
Show manager Alex Denman said: 'There will be no public access to Diarmuid's garden or any of the others.
'Visitors pay £55 for a ticket to Chelsea and they want to view the gardens.
'They don't want to view other people on the gardens.'
Gardening writer Matthew Appleby, one of the first to be taken to the top of the tower, said the ascent was not for the faint-hearted.
'You go up six floors by lift and then you have to climb a ladder to the seventh,' he said.
'If you were scared of heights you'd be feeling pretty nervous.
'But it is exhilarating when you reach the top and get the best view you could ever have of the whole show.
'It is a towering garden for a towering ego but Diarmuid is a great showman and anyone who gets to go up will remember his garden for a long time.
'The planting is different on each floor and it is far more striking than all the other gardens, which are on ground level with the odd pond.'
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