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.
