lewis
Well-Known Member
Figured this could be an amazing place to share landscaping projects big or small we all participate in. Here is my first one:
I moved into my first proper family home January this year and since then Ive been spending all spare money and time on doing the house up and making it into a home. It was literally a shell when we moved in. Other than mine and my partners bedroom now, the house is effectively finished inside save for some extra finishing touches. Every wall in every room was badly painted dark grey (some rooms had red crayon all over the walls too - Who the hell likes dark grey that much
? ) and there was no flooring down in any room and some doors were missing. The Central heating wasnt working and there was some damp issues not only in the walls mainly upstairs (due to lack of damproofing) but also the kitchen cupboards were all ruined due to water damage. So there was ALOT to do inside. The neighbors were telling me about the previous family, and deary me...how can people live in such a way?.
Anyway being done now inside it means I can get outside.........so
That has brought me to the garden. The previous tenants (I presume it was them) had just laid patio slabs straight down onto mud (handy as Ive acquired plenty of paving slabs for free but a poor way to do the job, weeds and uneven slabs were rife), they had thrown about 30,000 cigarette ends into the gravel under the windows (which is appalling) and the entire garden was filled with random stuff all hidden in the lawn, in the mud and about anywhere. Broken toy parts, USB cable, a shoe. Ive lost track of the stuff Ive found and dug up. They had also created a concrete shed base (and done a shoddy job of it).
So here is basically what I started with once I had started to take up the patio slabs and neaten as I went (there were slabs between the grass and the concrete base originally \/ ) -
as you can see I have a nice enclosed rectangle space to work with. The fence panels are lovely and tall so no one can see into the garden and sun light is very very good in the space so thats a bonus.
The "lawn" is utterly dreadful. It looks ok in this pic because its long, but the ground is ridiculously uneven. Trying to mow it is so tough despite it being such a small strip. So the plan for this is to dig it all up, and replace it with artificial lawn so I would not have to worry about cutting the grass again. That way I can get it lovely and even too. But Im doing 1/3rd of the garden at a time.
You can see the Shed base on the top right there. It had to go for what I have planned, so out came the sledge hammer and a long day of hulk smash. Led to this -
So the entire area was cleared. Earlier today I re dug the whole thing up and raked as level as I could see by eye at this stage and down went some weed membrane -
The right half is proper stapled into the ground to hold it down, the left side has yet to be done because I ran out of staples.
Put in a large order earlier for much more stuff. Arriving Thursday the 10th I have a jumbo bag of sharp sound suitable for 11mx11m sized area with 5cm thickness. Plenty of concrete powder, more staples, and some extra tools. This area is 3.45M x 7.25m.
The plan is, this entire area will be patio'd properly using mortar over a compacted sand base.
At the very top near the fence opposite this back door, will be a Hot tub with large gazebo over the top. On the right before it will be some sun loungers and I need to order some tree bark chippings for a small area not shown immediately on the right as you step out into the garden.
Will post more updates as they happen from next Thursday!.
I moved into my first proper family home January this year and since then Ive been spending all spare money and time on doing the house up and making it into a home. It was literally a shell when we moved in. Other than mine and my partners bedroom now, the house is effectively finished inside save for some extra finishing touches. Every wall in every room was badly painted dark grey (some rooms had red crayon all over the walls too - Who the hell likes dark grey that much
? ) and there was no flooring down in any room and some doors were missing. The Central heating wasnt working and there was some damp issues not only in the walls mainly upstairs (due to lack of damproofing) but also the kitchen cupboards were all ruined due to water damage. So there was ALOT to do inside. The neighbors were telling me about the previous family, and deary me...how can people live in such a way?.Anyway being done now inside it means I can get outside.........so
That has brought me to the garden. The previous tenants (I presume it was them) had just laid patio slabs straight down onto mud (handy as Ive acquired plenty of paving slabs for free but a poor way to do the job, weeds and uneven slabs were rife), they had thrown about 30,000 cigarette ends into the gravel under the windows (which is appalling) and the entire garden was filled with random stuff all hidden in the lawn, in the mud and about anywhere. Broken toy parts, USB cable, a shoe. Ive lost track of the stuff Ive found and dug up. They had also created a concrete shed base (and done a shoddy job of it).
So here is basically what I started with once I had started to take up the patio slabs and neaten as I went (there were slabs between the grass and the concrete base originally \/ ) -
as you can see I have a nice enclosed rectangle space to work with. The fence panels are lovely and tall so no one can see into the garden and sun light is very very good in the space so thats a bonus.
The "lawn" is utterly dreadful. It looks ok in this pic because its long, but the ground is ridiculously uneven. Trying to mow it is so tough despite it being such a small strip. So the plan for this is to dig it all up, and replace it with artificial lawn so I would not have to worry about cutting the grass again. That way I can get it lovely and even too. But Im doing 1/3rd of the garden at a time.
You can see the Shed base on the top right there. It had to go for what I have planned, so out came the sledge hammer and a long day of hulk smash. Led to this -
So the entire area was cleared. Earlier today I re dug the whole thing up and raked as level as I could see by eye at this stage and down went some weed membrane -
The right half is proper stapled into the ground to hold it down, the left side has yet to be done because I ran out of staples.
Put in a large order earlier for much more stuff. Arriving Thursday the 10th I have a jumbo bag of sharp sound suitable for 11mx11m sized area with 5cm thickness. Plenty of concrete powder, more staples, and some extra tools. This area is 3.45M x 7.25m.
The plan is, this entire area will be patio'd properly using mortar over a compacted sand base.
At the very top near the fence opposite this back door, will be a Hot tub with large gazebo over the top. On the right before it will be some sun loungers and I need to order some tree bark chippings for a small area not shown immediately on the right as you step out into the garden.
Will post more updates as they happen from next Thursday!.
