Cleve West: It's relocation, relocation for my Bupa garden

It's taken a bit of time, but the garden I designed for Bupa at last year's Chelsea Flower Show has finally been re-located to the Meadbank Care Home in Battersea. Most of it was put in place by the end of last summer but the climax to this re-location, witnessed by some nervous Bupa staff and residents, saw the giant boule being craned over the care home to its final resting place a few weeks ago.

Initially, there had been some doubt as to whether the boule would be used at all as disruption to the residents – who had to be temporarily re-located while the five-ton globe was craned in – had been a major concern. Fortunately, however, those who had seen the garden at Chelsea knew what an impact the boule had made at the show and, while anxious about the impact it would make if it slipped its hoist, eventually agreed that the garden wouldn't be the same without it.

It's rare to be able to re-locate a show garden without some compromise and, while the 23m x 10m courtyard is exactly the same size as the show garden, the six multi-stemmed amelanchiers used at Chelsea would have cast too much shade for adjacent bedrooms. Only one was used in the end, a shame really as the trees, a soupçon of sylvan substance, were an important dynamic where changes in level had been sacrificed, for health and safety. Some hedging too, that did such a good job of dividing space and teasing views, has made way for an extra access path but, on balance, the garden has retained much of its spirit and can at last be enjoyed by residents, staff and visitors.

Another change, although it's not something that many would immediately notice, concerns the furniture. Two modern metal chairs I used at Chelsea were in fact a gift to me from the boule-sculptors, Serge and Agnès Bottagisio-Decoux, and were never destined for Meadbank. Painted red, they were a welcome splash of colour in our own garden where green always holds the upper hand. I couldn't resist using them in the Bupa Garden at Chelsea where the colour not only livened up a green space at the back but also helped in terms of recognition for anyone with Alzheimer's disease. But this had presented a problem. Trying to find a bench to match the style of the chairs proved virtually impossible. The French artist, Coco, who originally made the chairs in the 1960s, couldn't help us and trying to emulate the style on a curved bench would have been difficult, let alone a potential infringement of the artist's copyright. In desperation I decided to use a more traditional metal bench (from Hyloc Engineering – hyloc.co.uk) but painted exactly the same colour as the chairs. There was much hand-wringing at the time. I wondered whether I was about to commit the biggest blunder ever seen on a show garden, but the minute the chairs and bench were seen together it was obvious that the mixture of old and new would work. Colour had saved the day.

All that remains now is to watch the new garden grow and hope that its upkeep won't prove too arduous, for it was never designed to be low-maintenance. A wide range of perennials will bring colour, form, texture and scent to the space to make the most of the "sensory" angle. These will need tweaking, dividing and filling as they jostle for pole position. Roses, too, that should have amelanchiers to scramble through, will now have to be trained up brickwork. It will be interesting to see how it develops and how much it benefits the Meadbank residents.

Back home, my Coco chairs are snuggling nicely up against a new concrete table (yes, you've guessed it, another gift from Serge and Agnès) and, at the back of the garden, a new red bench I bought recently from Hyloc has given it quite a facelift. Regular readers will know how my own garden has played second fiddle to the allotment over the last six years or so but now, with peace and harmony (in the furniture department at least), it's looking quite respectable and may never be referred to as the Lost Garden of Teddington again.