It has been very wet here in Yorkshire for the past week and this has impacted on the progress on the work in the garden. Actually, the progress has been pretty good, but the impact is definitely starting to show on the grass! Lots of rain, new grass and heavy machinery are not a great combination. Still, it will grow back!
Paddy and Jonny have really put the hours in this week and it shows. The two terraces are starting to take shape and next week we should be in a position to start laying the first of the flagstones. All of the wiring is now in place for the uplighters that will light up the walls around the garden at night.
There are a number of uplighters around the perimeter of both the lower and upper terraces. The wiring has to be put in place before the flagstones are laid. We know the position of the lights so that we can drill the holes after the flagstones have been laid.
The wires coming out of the short sections of brown drainage pipe are for the lights that are going to be recessed into the flagstones. The lights are positioned 30cms from the walls to shine light up against the stone work.
The blue pipes allow water that builds up behind the retaining wall to seep through the stonework that will face this retaining wall. The pipes will feed into small plastic weep holes in the finished wall.
This blockwork has been built to support the stone steps that will be installed here. The blockwork to the right will be face with the same stone as you can see on the back wall above.
These arrived in the week on 4 lorries. There should be enough flagstones here to cover the 154 sqm in the sunken garden. It is difficult to believe that we are going to need this many flagstones, but we did measure it (at least twice!). As well as the sunken garden, there are also a couple of areas to flag at the front of the property.
There is a drainage channel along the back of the sunken garden. The flagstones are laid so that water will run away from the house and into this channel. Only the thing plastic groove will be seen as the rest will be covered by flagstones.