All things to do with gardening
We have just had the first dump of snow this winter and the views are amazing. It is the time of year that you are glad of 4×4’s.
We had a fair amount of snow last night and this is what we woke up to this morning! The views across the valley are amazing, now the sun is out.
View across the valley with Holme Moss in the background.
These photos are courtesy of Paddy Martin who did the work in the garden. These before and after shots just show how much work has gone into sorting out the sunken garden.
Here is the before and after for the sunken garden. All in all, it took about 8 weeks to sort this out.
Another before and after shot. You can also see the impact that the telehandler has had on the grass in the background.
After we moved in, we had an old pallet for a door step. It is great to see that it has been sorted out. It still needs to be pointed, but it is a vast improvement.
At last all of the ashlar is in place and all of the flagstones are down. There is still pointing to do, but that is going to have to wait a bit until the weather improves – it can’t be too wet or too cold when doing the pointing.
Three sets of steps and 160 square meters of flagstones. The pointing is still to be done between the flagstones, but we are going to have to wait for some better weather. The lights are still to be installed (although the holes and wiring have been put in place).
We still have to point the flagstones. This will be done using lime pointing (just like the main house), however, this is going to have to wait for better weather.
The ashlar slabs have been installed outside the master bedroom. We haven’t moved in here yet, but in the summer it will be possible to step out into the sunken garden from the bedroom. The floor inside is the same level as the ashlar slabs outside.
The new steps from the lounge and a step of steps to the upper terrace.
It would have been easy just to have put 1200mm wide steps in here, but it looks so much better with the bottom steps extended outwards. The reclaimed walls could do with being pressure washed to remove some of the old paint and dirt but they contrast with the new stone steps.
There was major relief today when the final set of stone steps were installed in the garden. Installing these steps has been a monumental effort on behalf of Paddy and Jonny. Most of the stones are well over safe working loads for two men, so that have had to use the ingenuity to get these in without any major incidents.
Once the step is roughly in position (but still resting on the slabs of insulation), the stone step is lifted up (the sides are protected by some thin blue foam) and the insulation removed (very quickly). If it all works out properly, the stone step ends up in the right spot!
Pulling out the installation. It looks a bit like a sequence from a game show, but you need to be quick to make sure your fingers aren’t underneath the stone step when it is lowered!
Once the step is in position, the blue foam is pulled out. This protects the sides of the step as it is lowered into position. The flagstones will cover the bottom half of the first step which is why it is a taller than the other steps – half of it will be buried.
After 5 weeks of waiting, the ashlar finally arrived for the stone steps in the sunken garden. We need to get the steps into position so that we can flag up against them and get the flagging finished.
We are installing the three large ashlar slabs that are laid in front of the bi-folding doors to the lounge. This makes the top step wide enough so that the doors can be opened without overhanging the top step.
There are lights to be installed in each of these three slabs (you can see the wiring where the middle slab is still to be laid. These slabs are being moved into position using a powerful suction device.
Using a powerful suction device, the final ashlar slab is lifted into position. These slabs are very heavy and this photo doesn’t really convey exactly how difficult this task was. There was relief all round once it was in position.
These steps still need to be pointed, but the steps are pretty much complete. They also need to be pressure washed to get the “green” of them – they have been covered for the past few weeks to protect them. Once cleaned, the steps will match the new slabs installed in front of the doors.
The weather this week hasn’t been great. And the weather today has been great either. The fog never really lifted at all. However, we are continuing to make progress in the sunken garden and it is starting to feel like we have turned a corner. The main thing that is holding us up now is the delivery of the stone steps from the quarry. This was meant to take 4-5 weeks, but we are now on week 6. I am guessing that by the middle of next week that we may run out of things to do if the stone doesn’t arrive.
The last of the has been completed so that the flagstones can be laid on the upper terrace. This small wall can’t be seen (it is under the hessian) as it is being protected from the wet weather that we have had today. We have also had the holes drilled to take the lights in both the lower and upper terraces.
The wall that we have built today is hidden under the hessian. There is still some work to be done on the other side of the wall, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. Hopefully, the weather will be a little bit better! Or rather drier!
A view from above showing one of the 92mm holes that have drilled in the flagstones to take the lights. The wires were laid a few weeks ago before we put down the crushed stone. We worked out that these lights need to be about 300mm away from the wall to create the best effect.
There was a small area, just behind the smaller of the front gates, that needed to be flagged. This was completed this week.
As well as sorting out the flagstones to the rear of the property we have also sorted out the flagstones under the porch canopy. They still need to be pointed, but the pointing will be done when all of the flagstones – front and back – have been laid.
With the lower terrace now flagged, our attention has moved to the upper terrace. This is considerably smaller, so will not take nearly as much time to get done. Two days in and probably 60-70% of the upper terrace has been flagged.
Tomorrow the holes are going to be drilled for the lights to be installed in the garden. While these are being drilled, Paddy and Jonny are going to flag the area under the front porch. We will see considerable progress by the end of the week.
The upper terrace is significantly smaller than the lower terrace hence progress has been that bit quicker. We will not be able to finish this area though until the stone arrives for the ashlar steps. It could be another couple of weeks before that arrives.
The majority of the flagstones have been laid in the lower terrace. They still need to be pointed as well as the holes drilled for the lights and the ashlar steps installed. Things are being held up a little bit by the weather as well as the availability of the stone steps (the local quarry is very busy!).
The flagstones gently slop away from the house and any rainwater is connected by a drain that runs along the back of this area (you can just see the slot (protected by a yellow strip) to camera right). There are a couple of flagstones that are propped up against the wall. These need to be drilled to take the uplighters that will be installed later.
The flagstones have now been laid in the lower terrace in the sunken garden. The holes for the uplighters will be drilled next week and we should then be able to get all the flags laid in this area. We are going to use a special epoxy compound for the pointing, but this will be done when all of the flags have been laid.
We made some good progress in the sunken garden last week. Or rather Paddy and Jonny made some good progress. It did rain on a couple of the days, but not until late in the afternoon so it didn’t hamper progress too much last week.
This weekend was down to us to get as much work done on the reclaimed wall that separate the lower and upper terraces. By the end of the weekend, we had all but finished this section of wall. We ran out of stone (but there is a lot in the back field), but there is probably only a couple of hours of work left here. All in all, it was a good couple of days of walling. And in some nice weather too!
There is probably still a couple of days work for Paddy and Jonny to do to finish off the flags in the lower terrace. In the meantime, we have continued to work on the reclaimed wall that separates the two. This is built in a similar way to other walls in the garden.
With more of the wall complete, we are now ready to turn the corners on each of the ends. There will be two sets of stone steps here.
The wall is now the same height as the other walls that we built in the garden. We have turned the corner and a set of stone steps will sit on the concrete blockwork. We will need to wait for another 2-3 weeks for the stonework to arrive.
The view from the other end of this section of wall. We have run out of stone (we have lots in the back field, we just need to find it) to finish the rear part of this wall. It will have to wait until next weekend.
The weather has hampered our efforts this week, but even so we are making progress. After 2 days of laying flagstones, Paddy and Jonny reckon that that have laid about 20 sq yards (this is out of a total of about 160 sq yards, so there is still a way to go!). We reckon that it will take most of the coming week (weather permitting) to get all of the flagstones laid just on the lower terrace. However, you can see from the flags that have been laid so far that it is going to look amazing when it is finished.
Jo and I have started on the wall that is between the two sets of steps that divides the upper and lower terraces. This wall needs to be brought up to about 300mm to allow Paddy and Jonny to lay the flags up to it. The rest of the wall can be finished off at a later date, but the bottom few courses need to be in place for them early next week. I am glad to say that by the end of the day we had succeeded in building up the wall for them. It is deceptive, but there is a pickup full of reclaimed stone just in the short little wall (it might be short, but it is quite long!).
The blue pipes allow any water that builds up behind the retaining wall to escape. This blue pipes will be cut short and plastic weep holes built into the wall at the front to allow the water to escape should it build up.
End of day 2 laying flagstones and we reckon that about 20 sq yards has been laid. A rough calculation would seem to indicate that it will take most of the coming week to get all of the flagstones laid on the lower part of the sunken garden.
Two days in and Paddy and Jonny have laid about 20 sq yards of flagstones. By the end of the coming week, the lower terrace should be finished (in terms of laying the flagstones).
This is before we started building the wall at the front of the retaining wall. The blue pipes allow any water that builds up to drain through the front wall. The wiring has been installed for the two lights that will be at the front and the drain has been installed to allow the water to run off the flagstones once they are laid.
We need to get this part of the reclaimed wall built so that the flagstones can be laid throughout the lower terrace of the sunken garden. This took about half a day to get to this level and this is high enough to allow Paddy and Jonny to finishing flagging this area. We will be able to finish off this wall after the flags have been laid. The blue pipes will be cut shorter and will feed into plastic weep holes built into this wall.
There are two sets of stone steps to be installed at each end of this lower wall. We have formed the steps in blockwork and the large pieces of ashlar will be bedded onto the concrete blockwork. Unfortunately, the stone is not due to arrive for another 4 or 5 weeks. In the meantime, we are going to have to get on with the rest of the work.
The wall between the two sets of stone steps is being built in the same way as the other walls in the sunken garden. The stone has been reclaimed from other parts of the property – the majority of this stone came from a wall that we knocked down in one of the old cottages. Most of this stone went into the wall in the kitchen, but this stone was left over.
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