Snail Blazers

What is the standard modus operandi of GoodGymers at Walpole Park? Sneak into the Rickyard tool store when it's dark, take some wheelbarrows, rakes or shovels, then make a gardening transformation while shrouded by night. When our amateurishness in the gardening craft comes out, at least no one can see it until the morning! Today's session was nothing like that.

GoodGym Ealing had already a busy schedule of evening group runs in the spring. But how could we turn down Ranger Jon's offer to do planting by the Walled Garden - especially knowing that three episodes of Antiques Roadshow would be filmed around Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery in May? We decided to take a challenge and perform in front of the audience on Saturday morning as gardeners.

"Excuse me, can you tell me if those flowers that you are planting need a lot of maintenance?" - asked a passerby seeing our exploits.

We must have been making a good impression out there, in the open, if we were asked for gardening advice! Unfortunately, we didn't know the answer and that's where acting experts ended.

"What are those marks?", enquired another lady looking at the markings on the ground below us, "I thought there were large snails. They leave trails."

Until now, we were sure that the clear markings with boundaries between planting sections, plant codes and the expected quantity of plants were left for us a couple of days before by Ranger Jon. Now creeping thoughts have entered our minds: snails as garden designers! Did those crafty creatures dictate to us which plants to put nearer to the wall and which closer to the path so that they would get easy access to their favourite leaves to munch on? Or maybe Antiques Roadshow tried to cut on budget by hiring snails?

Whoever had put those intricate trails on the ground, we followed them. With four people on the team, we managed to plant:

• 10 x iris foetidissima
• 13 x tiarella wherryi
• 13 x bergenia cordifolia

We will have a chance to finish the job at the 7th May group run, so go ahead and save the date!

We are hoping that the garden designer snails and the GoodGym volunteers will be getting a mention in the Antiques Roadshow credits!