Project Log - My Garden

[valve90210]

Hi All

Having fairly recently moved to a new house and for the first time having our own garden my girlfriend and I were delighted to have some sunshine last weekend so we could get out and make a start.

Below is the garden as it was when we moved in, the lawn uncut and the planters on the right full of weeds.

After some fairly light work at the weekend I then decided that the concrete path, which we had said we would get rid of at some point, needed to go fairly quickly. So I set about removing it. One Sledgehammer and a good bit of energy later it was smashed...now I just need to move all the rubble to the front of the house where i may need it for hardcore...

If the weather is kind over the weekend I intend to get out and do some more work and will update the thread next week.

 

[valve90210]

Looks like a nice and interesting shape and a great blank canvas.

I'd spray that fence whilst nothing is about.

Buy and plant some climbers now, you may not know where you want them but they take a few years to establish and you can always lift them and move them. Especially round the trellis style half height fence.

Test your soil to see what plants will thrive.

Good luck and keep us updated on what BBQ you buy

Tis indeed a nice blank canvas, not sure that the former owners were really into their garden...lol

Intend to get something on at least some of the wooden panels over the weekend, thinking of possible going green on some of the ones in the back corner as I'd like to deck the concrete area and I feel a greenish hue to the fence panels would help stop it feel so much like they penned you in.

 

[valve90210]

Over the weekend I continued work on my garden. It was a lot of hard work and has done virtually nothing for the look of the garden but was good preparation work for later projects!

1) Rubble from the concrete path all removed and trench started

2) Main stretch of trench finished. The more observant of you will notice that once I had finished the trench, I decided I might just as well remove the horrible old washing line posts at either end of the garden. They took a lot of pushing and pulling and sledgehammering but I got them both out and refilled the ground as they left great big foot cubed (or bigger) holes.

3) Second run of trench dug

4) Conduit and cable ready to lay in trench (making sure not to include any surprises my 15month old boy had thrown into the trench...see orange object in middle of trench...)

5) Trench filled in and beginnings of raising ground level where path had been. Bottom right of the photo shows a third side of trench which runs along the side of the outhouse building. I have to dig one more trench to get to the back wall where the cable will enter..then no more trench digging ever again...hopefully!!!

Next on the garden project job list is to finish with the conduit and finish off raising the level of the ground using the earth from the raised planters, then I shall refill those with some nice fresh new top soil so my girlfriend can actually add some plants!

Other jobs to do:

1) Treat the fence panels:
They are pretty old and dry but otherwise sound. planning on using paint on wood preserver though will I need to feed/nourish the wood first of will the preserver do this job?

2) Remove existing rotary washing line and replace with a lovely new one which will be given a decent concrete mount so will be removable when we want!

3) Plan and build decking:
The plan for this is taking shape in my head but requires a lot of thinking about as it's a diy project on a much bigger scale than anything I've done before. However I think with careful planning and research it should be doable!

4) Level out some of the lumps in the lawn

5) Plan/design/build enormous bbq!!!

More updates when I get back out in the garden...hopefully this week.

 

[valve90210]

As you can see from the pictures, the fence panels are really dry and in need of treatment. I intend to use something that will give them some colour (most likely green to soften them a little, however, before I do so is there anything I can use on them to rejuvenate them a little so they're not so dry, or will something like the wood treatment below do this for me?

http://www.wilko.com/garden-woodcare-paint/wilko-wax-enriched-timbercare-evergreen-5l/invt/0315772

 

[valve90210]

Looking good. That path must have been back breaking work.

Surprisingly it wasn't all that bad, I had made sure to research correct technique for sledgehammering and that really helped as doing it properly meant the hammer did all the work!

Move the rubble was a slow process but again not too bad as I could move as little as I wanted each time.

Digging the trench was tiring but the worst bit was having to refill it having spent 2 days grafting, using the rake was horrible as the angle was such that it really made for back breaking stuff!!!

Happy to be corrected but I think the timber care stuff is only preventative.

I did wonder if that might be the case, is there anything I can use to give the panels a bit more moisture back?

 

[valve90210]

That's only a tiddly path

Not when you're an office worker...then it's basically the same as having to break up a marathon route...lol

Actually I quite enjoyed it!

With regards to your fence panels, use a solvent based preservative, I find it soaks in better than a water base one.

Cool, will bare that in mind.

 

[valve90210]

I didn't really get anything finished loast weekend as it was my birthday on the Friday and we spent most of the weekend relaxing.

That said I did take several loads of rubble from the removed path to the tip on Sunday.

I want to turf the area where the path has been removed but my next door neighbour has asked if he might bring a mini digger round the side of my house, down the end of the garden and into his garden as the digger won't fit through his side gate.

I don't want it going over newly laid turf...but I'm also worried that it will destroy the rest of my lawn and possibly damage the concrete base at the end of the garden. My neighbour assures me everything will be ok though.

I guess any damage and I'll get him to pay for it to be restored to how it currently is!

Hopefully he'll get the work done asap as I want to crack on with building a deck at the end of the garden in the next month or so!

 

[valve90210]

Not sure what type of digger, he just said it'd small and would fit round the side of my house...should I be worried?

 

[valve90210]

Hopefully it's the smaller one. Really hope it doesn't damage my lawn or concrete...

 

[valve90210]

As it was a nice weekend (well Saturday was a bit grotty but not too bad) my girlfriend and I decided to leave boarding the loft for another day and continue with working in the garden.

After a lot of driving about garden centre to garden centre in the morning we finally managed to get some of the bits and pieces we wanted and get out into the garden at about 2.00pm so didn't get a huge amount done on Saturday.

Then on Sunday we only had a short time in the garden before we went to my parents for a bbq and yesterday again we were out and about so only had a fairly limited time but here is what we managed to achieve.

Firstly, having used most of the soil from the two raised planters to fill in where we removed the concrete path, I ordered a bag of top soil from a local supplier. It was delivered onto the front garden during the week so I needed to wheel barrow it round to the back. I had done some of it in the evenings but it was tricky as my little boy was very keen on running around the side of the house and onto the driveway....not ideal so my girlfriend had to keep him inside while I shoveled, wheeled, shoveled and tipped about half of it.

As we had taken him to my girlfriends parents house for the day we managed to get the rest of the soil moved and into the two large planters so they were ready to use.

We also used some of the soil in a small raised bed. It's a pre-notched kit from Wickes and I know we could have made this ourselves for less money but to be honest for the saving in time and effort it was worth the extra money. We lined it and fille with soil. It was then planted up with some nice little alpines and other small plants and decorated with vvarious stones from the Jurassic Coast which we picked up when we went on holiday there a couple of years ago. This raised bed is a nice small little area of the garden where our little boy can play around with a small trowel and stuff that we have got for him...hopefully meaning he won't be quite so interested in destroying the rest of the garden...lol

Next we planted up the far planter with lots of herbs. We thought this would be lovely as we intend to build a deck at that end and we figured it would lovely have the scent of the herbs in the air when sitting in the sun down there. You may notice that the herbs could have been set a bit more evenly back to front; this was a deliberate decision as it keeps them out of the reach of a certain little boy who was very interested in pulling them out as we were planting so we had to put them out of his reach!

We also repotted a nice bay tree my parents have had in their garden for me for the last few years. It needs some tlc but with a bit of work and feeding it will be lovely

I then made a start on treating the fence panels which fromt he looks of things have never had any kind of treatment since the day they were put in! I know it's not to everyone's tastes but we've gone for a green treatment as we like the colour and feel it softens the fencing. Once there are more plants in the garden it will look great!

Got my work cut out for me though as there are a far few panels to do!

We also managed to put a few plants which had been donated by my parents into the other planter. We will obviously need to get more plants in here but it's a start!

This is how the garden was looking by Sunday. The turf we removed for the small raised bed has been laid in place at the end of the strip of earth where the path was removed. I may well lift more from the front garden to save us having to buy any more turf...we shall see.

Yesterday I got myself a sprayer to apply the fence treatment as it is a time consuming job and a bit of a pain! Even with the time taken to mask the fence posts etc it is far far quicker than applying with a brush!

I only had a short amount of time but managed to get four more panels done. Depending on the weather when I get home today I might mask up some more and spray them too.

I think the panels at the end of the garden are going to need a second coat as they get more sun than the first panels I did and they were incredibly dry, the treatment was soaking in a quick as I could spray! However I would like to give all the other panels a coat first so they all have some protection!

You can also see in the photo above that we got a couple of trough/trellis planters, these are to go along the wall of the outhouse to give us something nice to look at while sitting at the end of the garden rather than just a brick wall. One has a honeysuckle...the other I can't remember but it's another climber. They will be put in place once I've finished off the trench with the power cable in... more diggin for me then!

Still a very long way to go but every little bit makes it feel more like a garden.

 

[valve90210]

I thought I had mentioned what the cable is for but after a quick scan it seems I haven't
.

I've put it in place now ready for when I've built the decking to give me an outdoor power supply for lighting etc. I figured while I had a strip of unturfed lawn it would be a good time to dig a trench!

This is our first garden and it's really quite exciting to get planning and working out in it, so roll on nice weather!!!

 

[valve90210]

Well, another weekend and a bit more progress on the garden...

I finally finished off the electrical conduit and wire which I have been putting in place for future use when I've finally built my decking area.

I dug the last couple of metres of trench, which was really hard going as every inch or so I hit more and more building rubble under the thin layer of top soil. Also it seems that the previous owners used the area between the outhouse type building and next doors extension as a dumping ground for old paving slabs and bricks etc so it all had to be moved before I could get on with the digging.

Before we moved in:

(as you can see the area under the window between the outhouse bit and the extension is completely unused. You an also see that the patio area shown in some of my pics was completely covered with greass and moss where the previous owners hadn't done anything in the garden for years!)

Anyway, once the trench was dug I asked my girlfriend's Dad to drill a hole from the inside to the outside for me to pass the cable through as he has access to an SDS drill etc.

With this done I was able to finish the conduit, fit an IP55 junction box and get the wire through to indoors!

My girlfriend then made a start on turning this area into a nice bed by doing some serous digging to break up the ground. The soil here is heavy and clay-y, with a lot of work we broke it up and got it into some kind of state for planting. More plants will be added and hopefully once they have established a bit will gradually hide the conduit from view.

The slabs on the right will be home to a lockable toy store which will be home to at least some of the toys for the little man which currently are strewn around the garden.

We had a stroke of luck when visiting a local homebase the other day, they had turf reduced from £3.99 a roll to 50p a roll! Ok it was really yellowing and wouldn't look good when first laid but with a bit of tlc will be fairly easily rescued so we picked up several rolls and managed to get the old path turfed

Ok so it doesn't look much at the moment as it's pretty yellow and completely different length to the rest of the lawn (which I've not been able to mow for a few weeks) but given a bit of time will be fine. Definitely couldn't pass up the opportunity to do it for the price of a single turf normally!

With the trench finally all finished and filled in, we were able to plant up two planters we got the other weekend and put them in place where we wanted them to, over time, cover up the wall of the outhouse giving a rather nicer view when looking back down the garden from what will become the deck

Please excuse the mess, the slabs etc on the patio area are all ones that were dumped down where the new bed now is, there is a spare roll of turf and of course toys...

Would normally have tidied a bit but it started tipping it down so I just made sure the tools were away and went indoors!

I also purchased a few micro irrigation kits over the weekend with the intention that I will put them in place to make watering the beds a simple case of turning on the tap rather than having to lug watering cans about...but I think they will need some careful planning to get the most of them...

Still a long, long way to go with the garden but it is starting to look better!

 

[valve90210]

Hmmm, was having problems with the first pic when I uploaded it but it started working here, I'll see if I can upload it again.

I decided to have the conduit run above the soil on the last run as the ground was so full of rubble and crap that trying to get anything dug to get it into the ground was just not possible and I figured running up a little way would keep it from constantly being damp wet as that area of the garden doesn't get a lot of sun so stays pretty damp on the ground. I'm sure with some more plants it won't be too long before it's out of sight!

 

[valve90210]

Cheers, hoping it'll fill out nicely.

I'm not sure what to do with the concrete posts, I'm reluctant to paint them as it will be another horrible task to do each year...

Ideally we sort of want to the fence to disappear into the background and I'm not sure painted posts would help with that...

Cheap grass seed is sitting in the outhouse at the moment waiting for me to prep the ground a little and for it to not be quite so horrible outside!

 

[valve90210]

I have thought about something like that but I'm not sure we'll need anything for quite a while, a lot to do on the house so money for a holiday won't be happening quite yet!

Also we're only a couple of minutes down the road from my girlfriends parent's house so they could come round and water if we did go away.

That said, I do like such things and maywell get one for use when I just can't be bothered to water...lol

 

[valve90210]

Been nearly a couple of weeks since I updated this thread now, and having had two lovely weekends, the garden has progrossed some more.

My girlfriend has been doing lots of drawing and planning for the garden with a view to it looking nice over the summer and maturing into a lovely garden over the next year or two. However at present funds are tight so we've been making the best of what we have and gladly accepting various plants etc which have been offered to us.

Starting at the newly created bed by the back wall. My girlfriend has added a few little ornaments as she likes little hidden away things in gardens, I have no strong feelings either way so am happy for her to do as she pleases...at least she is not adding gnomes anywhere!!! She has also been thinking about the finished shape of the bed and was experimenting with using bricks as an edging seeing as we have a fair few bricks laying around that we found dumped in the garden when we moved in.

Below shows the roughly positioned bricks to give an idea of the way we intend to edge this bed. The bricks will be flush with the lawn, on a bed of sand and cemented/mortared in place. I will no doubt be asking for tips and advice when it comes to doing this.

Quite a large section of the lefthand fence has low panels with trellis at the top which while it does soften the fence rather, does not give us much privacy from the neighbours, as such we got hold of some virginia creepers cheap at a boot fair over the weekend and have planted them next to the fence so they can climb and grow along it. It should give us some nice foliage to help soften the garden and in the autumn the leaves turn a nice red which will give some nice autumnal colour to the garden.

I am aware that they can go mad so I shall have to make sure we keep it in check so it doesn't completely overwhelm the fence...

The cutout beds for the creepers will be edged nicely when we find something we like that will keep the edge tidy and is also child friendly.

The Blue pot in the pic is a small oak tree which my parents found, self-set, in their garden. We are going to try to grow it in a pot and see what happens.

I spent some time planning and putting in place two micro-irrigation kits I got cheap from Wilkos. They may not be the best kit in the world for such things but each kit was only about £6 and they work so I'm happy.


Irrigation in place in the herb planter. As the herbs grow they will begin to hide the tubing which will look a lot nicer but it does make watering much easier!

The other planter, also with irrigation in place. Have added a couple of extra plants we were given so it's beginning to fill out a bit.

Irrigation in action.

I have a lovely Bay tree at the end of the garden which has been in need of some tlc as it's been yellowing and has some sort of leaf damage on parts of it. After repotting to a bigger pot, I've been watering it with a sequestered iron plant tonic and it does seem to be getting a bit greener. I've also stripped off some of the affected leaves. I'm hoping it'll perk up and be back to full strength in time as it is a lovely tree and have a lovely twisted trunk which was formed by growing it round a section of drain pipe over several years.

Over the weekened I picked up an Olive tree from my local Morrisons for £18, it stands about 5 feet tall and seems to be growing nicely. We've repotted it into a horrid but large pot that we had and have put it near the Bay tree to keep it company. We were really pleased to see a very similar olive tree for sale in a local garden centre for £80!!!

Both trees are shown below on the concrete base that one day will be the location of some decking:

The recent variable weather seems to be suiting the Honeysuckle we have in one of the planters we've put by the outhouse wall and it's growing very nicely. Looking forward to lovely flowers and that lovely scent as the summer rolls on.

The plant in the other planter however seems to be doing virtually nothing...

The very yellow turf we got for a bargainous 50p a roll has also been loving the recent weather and is now beautifully green and lush. In the autumn I intend on spending a lot of time getting the lawn a bit more level as it's all over the place at the moment but at least it is growing fairly nicely and is getting much greener!

My parents and I are going to go halves on a scarifier/lawn raker so as both our lawns need some tlc and having a tool like this between us seems like the best option. At present I'm getting the lawn growing nicely and getting it as thick and good as I can, then in a month or so I shall put down some 4 in 1 weed and moss killer to kill the huge amounts of moss and weeds which I shall then rake out with the raker... Then come the autumn it'll be scarifying and levelling etc.

Turf coming on nicely

Having lived in a flat for 6 years with no garden, we decided that as Sunday was a nice day we'd put together the cheapo bbq my parents got for me some years ago, put out the garden table and chairs and enjoy the sunshine with a nice bbq. We had a friend of ours over who brought her little boy and the two of them had great fun running around. It was so lovely to finally have the garden we've always dreamt about having and being able to enjoy it together.


Bbq lit and table ready to enjoy the sun.

There is still a very long way to go to make this the garden we really want but we feel we've made a decent start and it definitely looks better than it did.

I'd really like to get the decking I want done soon but it's going to be pretty expensive...especially if I go for composite rather than softwood, which I am considering for it's non-slip and low/zero maintenance properties...

But as everyone keeps saying, we're in no rush!!!

 

[valve90210]

Cheers, we're pleased with the direction it's going in!

I was talking to the neighbour on the side of the lower fence and he said that it was lovely to see our garden being transformed as the previous owner wasn't a gardener and just left it and never did anything with the space.

 

[valve90210]

Hmmm I did wonder that when I looked them up, I might change them for something else... any other suggestions for something that will be more suitable but that isn't Jasmine as I can't stand the smell of that!!!

 

[valve90210]

I did wonder about honeysuckle though having one already on the wall of the outhouse, I didn't want to be overwhelmed by them...lol

Are there any other options I could think about?

 

[valve90210]

Cheers, I'm enjoying adding to the thread too as it's giving me a good chance to see how the garden is progressing and it's great to get other people's input too.

The bay tree has been very low maintenance for me over the last few years as it's been at my parents house!

In honesty I think it is pretty low maintenance though mine needs some tlc at the mo as it's yellowing and some of the leaves are suffering some sort of damage. but on the whole it's seemed to be just making sure it's in a big enough pot and watering and feeding it.