Complete garden landscaping.

[daiking]

This rumbles on, 18 months after 'building' stopped (I don't think finished is the right description). We're looking for someone, not too cheap, not too expensive who can put an arm around us, answer all our questions and have the knowledge to solve all the garden things we don't understand or know what we want.

 

Its like searching for a unicorn.

 

The house is at street level and the garden was originally a little lower (300mm or so) next to the house and fell (gently) away in 2 directions toward the stream that goes along one of the borders. The garden had not been tended for 40 years previously so despite being cleared before we bought it (except a number of large trees) it was never a proper garden anyway and extending the house in 2 directions just made it worse.

 

We'd like to put a patio (at close to internal FFL) outside the bi-fold doors we have and simply clear and turf the majority of the rest of the garden and take it from there. This patio would be around 1m higher than the garden so requires a retaining wall but not very high and only holding 4m or so of earth between the house wall and it. I also suspect we will need a retaining feature along part of the banking that goes down to the stream just to keep the turf in position.

 

So having failed to find our unicorn, we're going to (mis)manage the project ourselves. So I've been forced to skip my entire squirrel stores of building surpluses so we can clear the garden as far as practicable so we can get some groundworkers in to demolish the garage, scrape several inches off the top and bring in tonnes and tonnes of topsoil before I have a go at turfing approx. 200 sq. m. of lawn.

 

The main patio area and retaining wall can wait for another time, its more important after waiting for so long to get a functional garden. Also there are a number of decisions to be made and issues to sort for that project.

 

Even so, I need something small and basic retainer wise for the lawn which will be plenty to be getting on with. As an aside, the garden has been impossible to keep on top of this year. All the weeds have exploded, 4 or 5 times more than last summer, especially my invasive balsalm. I've had to give up pulling it out as I have nowhere to put it so I've been pulling the flowers off and occasional spraying.

[daiking]

garden scheme.pdf

[Bitpipe]

Our landscapers turned up today to start work - we moved in (from the caravan) end of last summer and it's taken a while to accumulate funds and get the right contractor in to start works.

 

You're doing it the correct way, working from the back to the front - our guy is doing the following.

• Levelling the garden, removing existing vegetation etc.
• Laying the subsurface for patio - like you we're brining it flush to the FFL inside and will have 100mm  french drain around the house and a slot drain between patio and sliding door. Paving will butt under the DPM and the bottom of the door threshold and we will probably mastic the joint to ensure nothing gets in.  Patio will also fall away from the house.
• Only when the paving is complete, will he turf the rear as he wants to get the levels dead on. Will probably delay this step until September to ensure it doesn't get scorched.

 

[Stones]

Having built quite a few houses, I've by default ended up having to create several gardens. Not being a horticulturalist, all I've really been interested in is something that's easily maintained and having somewhere to sit out and enjoy the great outdoors.

 

Apologies, can't recall, do you have young children? That often dictates what type of garden you need.  If the answer is no, then increasing the amount of hard landscaping - slabs/gravel/cobbles etc may be a viable option.  Small areas of grass really are nothing more than a pain / burden, and you can create a pretty nice looking garden without any grass at all:

 

 

Getting some lads in to do the heavy lifting is a really good idea.  You can also do a heck of a lot of work yourself with a minidigger.

 

 

[Ferdinand]

I am a great believer in thickets for birds, especially occasional bushes which are 8-12 ft for roosting.

 

We had a good clear out of our garden at home a couple of ears ago, and this year they are just coming back in decent numbers.

[daiking]

@Stones I have 2 boys, aged 5 and 9. The scale is a bit out but there will be plenty of room to play football. i am intending to keep the pointy end quite natural as its pretty sided by the trees anyway and the area in front will house the shed and a barked area. I think there is potential for a zip line along the stream boundary...

 

@Ferdinand I am currently battling a holly tree that I've taken many branches off and will cut down this weekend. There is probably little to keep in the garden save the big trees. We cut 5 large trees down before we started building an to be honest we should probably cut another one down to stop the birds crapping on us where we intend to put a lawn seating area.

[MikeSharp01]

9 hours ago, daiking said:

Its like searching for a unicorn

Have you not got one? My problem is finding the rocking horse droppings

[daiking]

13 minutes ago, MikeSharp01 said:

Have you not got one? My problem is finding the rocking horse droppings

 

I did have a ready supply of rocking horse poo. It's dried up at the moment but hopefully more will be available in the autumn. 

[daiking]

If we compare to here: 

We're now much, much tidier, I've even dismantled the trampoline, just a question of getting rid of the weeds to see what an earth is going on

[daiking]

2 hours ago, Stones said:

 

 

 

Getting some lads in to do the heavy lifting is a really good idea.  You can also do a heck of a lot of work yourself with a minidigger.

 

 

 

At this stage, it will just be quicker and easier to get someone in with a mini digger, £250 a day for a couple of days to sort. 

 

I think we're looking at 3+ grab wagon loads for the top few inches of soil and green stuff as well as demolishing the remaining garage and slab it sits on. 

[Onoff]

Being the monkey see, monkey do sort that I am.... 

 

Can't you build your retaining wall FIRST then grade the ground around it and DUMP the soil within the retaining wall area to bring the ground up? Guessing you might need to pre build some piles for the decking.

 

Would save on some skip hire?

[Ferdinand]

I would say to have a look at astroturf for an area - very good in a small garden or play area. I inherited some and I have been surprised.

 

8 hours ago, daiking said:

@Ferdinand I am currently battling a holly tree that I've taken many branches off and will cut down this weekend. There is probably little to keep in the garden save the big trees. We cut 5 large trees down before we started building an to be honest we should probably cut another one down to stop the birds crapping on us where we intend to put a lawn seating area.

 

I was reacting slightly to the relatively open piccie posted by @Stones - which to be fair will look very different in a few years.

 

Round here we still have various old hedges on our lane from when it was fields, and it is interesting how 6ft hedges are fairly denuded of small birds in the evenings, but the occasional 10ft bush may have a score of sparrows roosting in it. Then the Council trims its hedges and takes the bush down to 6-7ft and the sparrows all move down the road to the next one.

 

For muckaway have you got to pile all your muck at the front, or can they reverse onto where your drive/garage are, and use their telescopic grab to save you all that barrowing?

 

On your landscaping, I wonder whether using either some of your hardcore, rubble or subsoil to be a firm base for your garden buildup (and keep it out of the skip) would let you use a less extensive retaining structure. One other possibility is to use landscaping / soil retaining fabric - eg Geocell - on the surface or deeper down than usual to provide a matrix. Around here they sometimes used that type of layering to construct those pregnant-looking hills over old coalmines).

 

I think a very early Grand Designs did that - the one built just off the traffic island with the water tower. They used it to retain a grass bank.

 

(In case the Youtube time index does not work below, Kevin Mcloud being introduced to Terram and things in 1999 is at 37:28.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6zRMY0Lmqc&t=37:28 )

 

Ferdinand

 

 

 

Edited July 5, 2017 by Ferdinand

[daiking]

1 hour ago, Onoff said:

Being the monkey see, monkey do sort that I am.... 

 

Can't you build your retaining wall FIRST then grade the ground around it and DUMP the soil within the retaining wall area to bring the ground up? Guessing you might need to pre build some piles for the decking.

 

Would save on some skip hire?

 

That's partly why its taken so long. Landscapers not typically keen on the wall part of it so we're going with the (near) instant fix instead and do the wall later. In the grand scheme of things it isn't much, it will be full of green things and building rubble anyway so not worth keeping. Even in the past when talking about using the garage rubble for infill, its going to be all much to big pieces to work properly.

Edited July 5, 2017 by daiking

[daiking]

34 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

I would say to have a look at astroturf for an area - very good in a small garden or play area. I inherited some and I have been surprised.

 

 

I was reacting slightly to the relatively open piccie posted by @Stones - which to be fair will look very different in a few years.

 

Round here we still have various old hedges on our lane from when it was fields, and it is interesting how 6ft hedges are fairly denuded of small birds in the evenings, but the occasional 10ft bush may have a score of sparrows roosting in it. Then the Council trims its hedges and takes the bush down to 6-7ft and the sparrows all move down the road to the next one.

 

For muckaway have you got to pile all your muck at the front, or can they reverse onto where your drive/garage are, and use their telescopic grab to save you all that barrowing?

 

On your landscaping, I wonder whether using either some of your hardcore, rubble or subsoil to be a firm base for your garden buildup (and keep it out of the skip) would let you use a less extensive retaining structure. One other possibility is to use landscaping / soil retaining fabric - eg Geocell - on the surface or deeper down than usual to provide a matrix. Around here they sometimes used that type of layering to construct those pregnant-looking hills over old coalmines).

 

I think a very early Grand Designs did that - the one built just off the traffic island with the water tower. They used it to retain a grass bank.

 

(In case the Youtube time index does not work below, Kevin Mcloud being introduced to Terram and things in 1999 is at 37:28.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6zRMY0Lmqc&t=37:28 )

 

Ferdinand

 

 

 

We're intending to use a small area of astroturf on the side return at the back of the extension. This area is relatively dark and wet and the children have access to it from their play room but I don't want to use much, it would be a shame to use it other than when genuinely practical in such a green looking space.

 

In time I think some sort of hedging type plant would be useful against the chain link fence, in part to stabilise the bank but we'd be looking at under 4 foot tall as we enjoy the feeling of space you get looking through/over the fence as you get the extra few metres of the stream. The birds already piss us off, so I don't want to encourage them wth 10 foot hedges

 

Muck away will be off the drive, dumper hire is an extra £50 a day on top of the digger and driver hire to save borrowing. Everything just needs to go. Spent to long now trying to think about saving this or saving that. I've just skipped an entire skip load of bits of wood and building related tat as its too hard to work around stuff in the garden. I still need to take down the shed and move it into the very corner of the garden and bring the playhouse up to the front of the house before work can begin. 

 

Its been mentioned to use the sections of concrete garage to form the short retainer I need but I can't handle them between 2 people let alone by myself. I've been looking at the Tobermore and AG block retainer systems and one of the Tobermore methods for taller walls is to put a layer of membrane with each course to stabilise the ground. Ultimately my proper wall will need a patio on top and handrails so I'm not sure that those blocks are suitable. 

[daiking]

Provisionally, guys booked for next Weds/Thurs or following Tues/Weds to clear, remove, grade and re-fill.

[daiking]

I go away for cub camp and wtf?

[PeterW]

She's done well ..!! 

[Onoff]

Fair play to her. You should go away more often!

 

Maybe if I fecked off for a bit the bathroom would get done...

[daiking]

6 hours ago, PeterW said:

She's done well ..!! 

Don't go there. She always leaves more questions than she answers.

 

Anyways must go water the thing for an hour before work. 

 

Did you hear the joke about the Welshman who knew the secret of guaranteeing nice weather? His wife got a lawn laid at the worst time of year. 

 

I'm calling a summer hotter than 1976.

[jack]

Oh dear. Are you on metered water?

 

We were going to bite the bullet and plant our back garden in early summer, knowing it was a bad time of year and accepting that there'd be a lot of watering. But then it just didn't rain for week after week, then we had that really hot spell. In the end we decided we can look at the weeds for the rest of summer and plant when it's cooler.

[ProDave]

That's looking good.

 

Get yourself a sumbirsible pump and water it from the water in the stream.

[PeterW]

8 minutes ago, ProDave said:

That's looking good.

 

Get yourself a sumbirsible pump and water it from the water in the stream.

 

I was half way through typing the same post @ProDave..!!

 

Get a bucket and drill some small holes in it all round and submerse that into the stream - pump goes into the bucket and keeps all the big crud out of the water. You may want a strainer on the output too if it's going to a sprinkler. 

[Onoff]

Get yourself a BFO trampoline (with net) and set it on bark / landscaping fabric. That'll keep the kids occupied whilst the grass establishes itself. And stepping stones too as required.

[daiking]

We are metered, will just have to take the hit, think it's about £4/cu metre.

 

Don't think there enough water in the brook to run a pump. I'll have a look tonight. Biggest problem is having to move the sprinkler round so I'm going to buy 3 more and just swap the tap connections to rotate them.

 

We have a bfo trampoline that I had to take down and a playhouse. Kids only have 8 days to wait till the go on their hols so theyll be ok.

 

Overcooked it on the turf, got 25 rolls spare 

[PeterW]

4 hours ago, daiking said:

Don't think there enough water in the brook to run a pump. I'll have a look tonight.

 

As long as there isn't anything below the level of the bank for a good way up stream you can always build a temporary dam with some blocks and some plastic sheeting - cover the bottom of it with some gravel and it will stay fairly watertight for you. Just raise it by 8-10" at most.