Category: Gardening (Page 7 of 9)

All things to do with gardening

Trench for water and electric

October 8, 2013 / stephen

We are going to be moving both the water and electric connections around to the new utility room. This was something that got missed off the original budget and can be a significant cost.

We have decided to dig the trench now. Once the new extension is built, the access would be severely limited by this trench. So we are going to do it now, lay the pipework and fill it back in before the porch is built.

We are also going to put connections into the outbuildings for both water (for the orchard and polytunnel) and electric for the sheds (lighting and power).

This was completed in a day. Probably another day’s work will get it to the utility (!) room. We will put a connection into the outbuildings for both water and electric.

The new water and electric connections will go in this trench. It is cheaper for us to dig it and put in the conduits rather than the utility companies doing it. The tarmac is cut with a floor saw and then a mini digger is used for the trench.

Courtyard garden wall

October 5, 2013 / stephen

The weather was ok today with no rain, so we spent the whole day on the wall in the courtyard garden. We have now got the end wall above the level of the blockwork for the reatining wall. The wall will need to come up a little further, but it will do for now. We are now starting to work on the wall that will adjoin the timber steps that lead to the upper terrace.

We spent most of the day today building the wall in the courtyard. We are making the most of the fine weather, after all, it isn’t going to be last much longer. We are now about to turn the corner where the timber steps will be built.

The end wall is now up to the same level (and in some place, above) the retaining blockwork. We have used 3 one tonne bags of 3.5 inch stones and one bag of “jumpers” (the bigger 6 inch stones).

We are sorting out the reclaimed stone as we build the wall. The stones are sorted into groups according to their height. All of these stones are 8cms high.

Progress in the courtyard garden

October 3, 2013 / stephen

I have been busy on other things this week and not had a lot of time to work on the wall in the courtyard. However, I did get a couple of hours on it today, in between showers. Unfortunately, I have had to cover today’s work with hessian to prevent rain running down the front of the stones and washing the cement out.

Today’s work is covered in hessian to protect it from the rain. With the weather, we only got a couple of hours to work on it today.

Courtyard garden

September 30, 2013 / stephen

We have made some good progress on the reclaimed stone wall in the courtyard. We have being making the best of the recent fine weather – it is October next week and I can’t believe that this good weather is going to last.

There is still a lot to do!

We have spent a bit of time on the wall in the garden this weekend. It was really only two half days, but we made some good progress.

Reclaimed stone wall – revisited

September 27, 2013 / stephen

When I looked at the photographs of yesterday’s work on the reclaimed stone wall, I realised that it wasn’t great – the courses were just to muddled up.

There was no alternative other than to take it apart and redo it. The sand and cement that I used to backbed the stones was still soft, so it didn’t take long to take it apart – just a quick tap with a hammer does the trick. If I hadn’t rebuilt it, it would have bugged me for years. It seemed a worthwhile investment of an hour or so to rebuilt that part.

The reason for the poorly built wall? A sprained ankle. I fell over the previous evening coming out of the pub (not because of too much beer, but a pothole in the road – honest!) and sprained my ankle. The next day I was hobbling around. This meant that I didn’t stand back and look at the wall frequently enough while I was building it. I only looked at it at the end of the day and probably only looked at it properly until I photographed it. Then it was too late.

Looking at today’s photos, I am much happy. It looks much better – not perfect, but better.

All in all, three days work – including an hour or so to redo half a dozen courses that I wasn’t happy with.

Well, I looked at the photographs from yesterday and I really didn’t like the part of the wall to camera right. There was no alternative but to take it down and redo it. It took an hour to take it down and rebuild it.

Reclaimed stone wall

September 26, 2013 / stephen

I have spent the last couple of days building a reclaimed stone wall in front of the retaining wall in the garden. This is the first set of stone that we have imported to the site. Much of the existing stone on site is poor and unfortunately the quality of a wall depends on the quality of the stone used to build it.

The stones are “back bedded” meaning that a small amount of sand and cement is used at the back of the stones to hold them in place. It also is required to attach the front wall to the retaining wall using the stainless steel ties.

It has taken a couple of days to complete this part of the wall. The stones come in large bags and need to be “coursed out” – sorted into groups depending on their height. The stones are sorted into groups of 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9cms. The larger stones are almost all 15 or 16cms high. While it takes time to course the stones, it does make building the wall that much quicker – as soon as you know you have enough of one course, you can get on and cement the stones in place.

This is the reclaimed stone wall that has been built in front of the retaining wall in the courtyard garden.

The wall is made of reclaimed stone. We are using two sizes of stones 3 – 3.5 and 6 – 6.5. The larger stones are used as “jumpers” to break up the courses and make it less uniform.

This shows how the reclaimed stone wall has been tied into the retaining block wall. The ties are made of stainless steel.

If it rains over night, the rain may wash some of the cement down the front of the stones. This would cause marks and can be avoided by covering the newly built wall with a large piece of hessian.

Terraces in the sunken garden

September 23, 2013 / stephen

The concrete base and retaining walls are now finished in the sunken garden. The blockwork will have a dry stone wall at the front. We have bought some reclaimed stone for this purpose. It is already coursed out – bags of 6 inch high stones and bags of 3 inch stones. This allows us to break up the courses when building a wall – we will put in some 6 inch stones at random. I built a small amount of test wall to make sure that it looks ok. It is difficult to tell from such a small section, but I am sure it will look fine.

The dry stone wall will be back bedded – a small amount of mortar is used on the back of each stone to hold them in position. Using mortar also allows us to cement in the metal (stainless steel) ties that have been left protruding from the retaining wall.

There are going to be 2 terraces in the courtyard garden. The white bags to picture right are full of reclaimed stone for the dry stone wall that will stand in front of the blockwork.

The dry stone walling stone has arrived. It has come in around 10 one tonne bags. These are easily lifted into position with the telehandler.

The soakaway is actaully a 15ft deep hole filled with clean rubble at the base. The rubble is covered with Visqueen (plastic) that stops fine dirt and earth from washing in and blocking up the drain.

The land drain is installed behind the wall at the base. If any water gets caught behind the wall, it drains into the pipe and is then diverted into a soakaway. This stops water building up behind the wall and pushing it over (potentially).

Close up of the land drain that is inserted behind the retaining wall. Any water that gathers behind the retaining wall will seem into this pipe and is then directed away from the house. The pipe eventually feeds into a soakaway – a large hole filled with rubble and then covered back over.

The blockwork retaining wall will have a dry stone wall at the front. The stone will be back bedded and tied into the retaining wall using stainless steel ties. This photo shows what the dry stone wall might look like. We are using local reclaimed stone.

Retaining walls in the sunken garden

September 19, 2013 / stephen

While I have been down in London for the past couple of days, the builders have made good progress with the retaining walls in the sunken garden. The walls are now complete and ready for the dry stone wall to be construct in front of them. Even the stone has arrived on site, so there is no excuse for not getting on with this work.

While I have been down in London for the past 2 days, the builders have started (and finsihed) the retaining walls for the sunken garden.

This blockwork will be largely hidden by a dry stone wall at the front. There are metal ties that enable the dry stone wall to be attached to the blockwork at the back.

The coil of black pipe is a “land drain” that will be inserted behind the wall. The pipe has holes in it allowing water to seep in. This will prevent any water that gathers behind the wall to seep into the pipe and run away into a soak away.

This arrived while I was away in London. There are two bags with 6 inch courses, but the rest is largely 3 inch. This enables us to break up the courses a bit when building the wall.

This is the first stone that we have imported for building dry stone walls. It will be used to face the blockwork in the sunken garden. It is much better than any of the other stone we have been using to build dry stone walls with.

Foundations for the garden walls

September 11, 2013 / stephen

Before the excavators are returned, we have been doing some tidying up. This has included reinstating bits of the top soil and digging the footings for the retaining walls in the garden. I am quite keen to return parts of the site back to it’s original condition asap. This way the grass will have a chance to re-establish itself before we move in (otherwise, it will be like living on a building site).

We have also started stacking all the blocks ready for when the extension starts to get built.

We have dug out the footings for the retaining wall in the sunken garden. There will be a dry stone wall in front of the retaining wall. We will build the dry stone wall ourselves.

It rained this afternoon and there is nothing more miserable than a wet building site. The blocks are all stacked ready to start building the extension.

A new tree for the orchard

September 1, 2013 / stephen

Friends came over at the weekend and brought with them an olive tree for the garden. It needs (apparently) to harden up in the polytunnel before being planted out.

Many thanks to Diane and Steve – next time you come over, I hope that you will be able to stay in the new house!

The new olive tree needs to harden up in the polytunnel before we decide where to plant it.