When friends invite you to come and work for a week in Nice, with accomodation on a yacht in the harbour, there’s only one answer to be given – a big “Yes please!”.

And so we flew out to Nice in March to work on James and Helen Basson’s show garden ‘Mounta cala’ for the inaugral Cote d’Azur garden festival in March 2017.

We hired bikes and pedalled to work along the Cote D’Azur every day to the Municipal gardens where, with a team of lovely garden folk, we planted a beautiful show garden. Blue sails and maritime planting glowed beneath a cloudless sky and warm sunshine.

The show garden won The Professional Prize at the civic reception in the gardens of Villa de Rothschild, and we all celebrated and said our goodbyes at a local seafood restaurant. A wonderful week working with friends and with the bonus of a few dips in a very chilly mediterranean sea!