The initial funding of £750, approved in April 1973, had to be spent on plant stock and labels by the end of the 1973/4 financial year.
To prepare new planting plans, each bed was cleared and measured, and base plans were drawn up to scale.
Madeleine traced Jekyll's original plans and superimposed them on the base plans. Plant names were interpreted, densities decided upon, and plant quantities calculated for each area according to a carefully framed methodology.
Once the planting plan and lists had been drawn up and costed for the Grey Walk, there was still money in the budget, so Madeleine continued preparing plans and lists for the West and East Rill terraces and the Great Plat. News that the money for 1974/5 would be greatly reduced created extra pressure to stretch the original budget as far as possible.
The Great Plat in 1975.
Roy responded rapidly to urgent requests for plant information, and offered to hold stock in nursery beds at Cannington until it was needed. By the end of February 1974 Madeleine was able to buy in plants and labels for the Grey Walk, the East Rill, most of the West Rill and also part of the Great Plat: in all, more than 2,000 plants.