The competition starts at RHS Harlow Carr in Harrogate, where the designers are given four days, a 3x4m plot and a limited budget to create a show garden in the Cottage Garden style - a mini Chelsea. They are sent to a local wholesale nursery to source their plants and are helped and mentored throughout the process by Joe, who won a gold medal at Chelsea in 2012. The finished gardens are judged by RHS judge James Alexander Sinclair and Chelsea Gold Medal winning designer Ann-Marie Powell. The best designer and garden is awarded gold and one designer is sent home. In this episode the amateurs come to grips with the difference between show gardens, which have to look stunning on the day of judging, and domestic gardens, which they are more used to. Just who will judge the right amount of plants they need and the right combinations, and finish in time for the judges?