What a Difference!

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Some of you may remember from my last post that we were having some work done on the back garden. When I say some work I pretty much mean rip it out and start from scratch lol.

The back garden is pretty big (much bigger than I first thought lol). But it was not a nice place to be. There was a horrible breeze block hut right by the utility window, blocking the view and the light, a patio by the house which had been lifted by the mares tail roots, a hedge my dopey other half planted right in front of the kitchen window (around the rotary washing line – which he left in place), a lumpy lawn (well more mares tail than grass) a concrete path which was breaking up with a concrete slab by the garage and a fence which was close to falling down. The photos (below) actually make it look a little nicer than it was.

Well last year I took several months coming up with “the plan”

Which 2 weeks before work was due to start OH suddenly found an opinion so the top patio was altered, to “the plan part 2”

Anyway 17th March the landscapers turn up. 8.15am they are on site with a sledgehammer bashing away at the old breeze block hut until the digger turned up at 9am. 11.30am the digger broke – good start eh – so they got the digger taken away for repairs and packed up until the digger was returned the following day. Still they got a fair bit done:

Day 2, the digger returns and thankfully this time it doesn’t break. Several hours and one rather huge bonfire later we have:

This is a tree (shrub?) that grew between the garage and the concrete path. We can’t remove it without causing damage so I’ve got a new feature. Mom says it looks like a birds head:

Day 3, the pile of rubble is taken away and the fence arrives. I still can’t believe how quickly they got the fence up. It seemed like I’d blinked and 3 panels were in. Oh they also ripped the rest of the old hedge out along our neighbours border. Bit of a last minute decision but none of us really liked it, so we decided to get rid and replace with trellising and lots of climbing plants at a later date. Unfortunately we discovered the neighbours wooden fence posts had rotted. The hedge was pretty much holding the fence up oops.

Day 4, the next “problem”. I’d ordered the path and paving materials after running my choices past the landscapers. Anyway the blocks for edging the path turn up. We’re expecting fairly regular sized blocks (similar to what you’d use for block paving), no more than 20mm difference in sizes. What we got had a range of about 80mm difference in block thickness! What a nightmare. I then spent the morning running round trying to find a replacement. Thankfully a local place had something that would work in stock and agreed to deliver the next day (even better – it worked out cheaper). Unfortunately the original supplier couldn’t collect until Monday and the crate with the original blocks in was on top of a crate of pavers (cue very tired arms on Saturday as I moved them all from one crate to another – all 340 of them). Anyway they finished off the fence (most of it and started laying the top patio. I didn’t take any pictures as I was trapped in the house – daren’t step on the freshly laid pavers.

Day 5, they finished off the top patio and laid most of the patio by the garage and put the rest of the fence and gate up. Again I didn’t take photos as I was still trapped in the house (and too lazy to walk the long way round lol).

Day 6 (Saturday) OH and I went out (the long way) to start shifting the big pile of old hedge. Since it was a last minute decision I’d said we’d dispose of it, if they would rip it out (far easier with a digger). 2 trips to the tip with 2 cars later, we’d got rid of most of it. This time I took a few photos before we packed up.

Day 7 (Monday), the landscapers came back and finished laying the patio by the garage, cut the patio by the house to shape and laid most of the path (leaving themselves enough space to get the wheelbarrow in and out).

Day 8, I really felt sorry for the landscapers as we had torrential rain all day. By the time I left the garden was looking decidedly soggy. Still they soldiered on through the rain and finished up the hard landscaping (cut the patio by the garage to shape, laid edging stones and finished the path). The only photo I took was through the upstairs window before I went to work the following morning – it was still raining and far too soggy to walk down the garden.

This weekend OH and I have worked rather hard, removing the roots of the hedge, taking the last bit of hedge to the tip, laying edging stones and gravel along the patio by the house and putting in a step by the back gate. I’ve also spent several hours digging out the bit of border by the garage and top patio, removing a lot of weed roots and incorporating a fair amount of farmyard manure. I also started digging the border where were going to put a rockery (stones being delivered next week). My word is it tough there. Very stony, couple of fairly big rocks, and very gritty soil (mostly thanks to the 2 inches of hardcore compacted on top of the soil). Still got loads of work to do there before we put the rocks in place.

Looking from the gate towards the house:

The border by the garage I’ve worked on for several hours today:

Patio by the garage:

Border where we’ll put the rockery (part shade – as is most of the garden)

Patio by the house with its new edging:

And a small selection of the roots I’ve pulled out today:

There’s still a huge amount of work to do, but I’ve enjoyed myself this weekend (ok not so much with laying bricks lol). Even the back breaking digging has been good to do. Can’t wait till I can start planting now :-)

• 30 Mar, 2014
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