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I recently demolished my garage in order to extend the garden and within the last few days I have broken out the garage floor slab. The idea is to create flowerbeds around the perimeter and to lay turf adjacent to that. The broken out flooring was only a couple of inches thick and once I have broken it down even more I was intending to put a topsoil/compost mix on top to create the flowerbeds. I am assuming that the broken up flooring will assist with drainage and stop the soil from simply washing away when it rains? I have several bags of Homebase topsoil and was intending to mix them in with compost of some sort. Can anyone offer advice and tell me if this is a good idea? I intend to plant climbing roses and honeysuckle at the far end of the garden because I have installed trellis at high level. Going forward I will be planting runner beans and tomatoes on the more exposed wall and pyracantha and other Sparrow friendly plants elsewhere. I will post some photos when I get home, in order to give a better idea of the layout. Hope someone can offer some advice. Thanks.
Unicum arbustum haud alit duos erithacos
(One bush does not shelter two Robins)
Zenodotus (3rd Century B.C.)
Something that has just popped into my head MC, could you not put a notice outside advertising the rubble for free if it is collected from you? Glad to see Higgy in touch, I'm sure he will have a lot of good ideas & sound advice to offer!
Your visiting birds are certainly going to be spoiled for choice for perching & foraging, they'll love it!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
I've been reading your post with interest MC and I'm sure you will succeed with "your new patch" and though your back will be aching at the moment then at least you can see you have made headway now. The robin will love you for digging up the worms for him, and I'm glad you have re-instated the Chalet. Good weather forecast so onwards and upwards, as they say.
Lot to learn
WendyBartter said: Something that has just popped into my head MC, could you not put a notice outside advertising the rubble for free if it is collected from you?
Something that has just popped into my head MC, could you not put a notice outside advertising the rubble for free if it is collected from you?
Someone else suggested that, but it's mainly breeze block and mortar, so I don't think I'd get any takers to be honest. I am taking the first full week of October as leave. I will get a skip for the Monday and load it with the rubble. After that I will have the soil delivered on the Wednesday and spend the next few days adding it to the garden. That gives me three weeks or so to get the remainder of the floor up. I will be hiring a more powerful breaker for the weekend after next. In the meantime I will get the trellis for the walkway sorted this week.
Such a lot of heavy work - good job you're young, fit & strong MC!!!
I'm also re-jigging my garden but not to the same extent as you & am moving a lot of heavy planters around so I can plant the contents in the garden ... having to sit down a lot! Lol
I have now purchased the trellis for the passageway, to be constructed on the right hand side linking the two parts of the garden. I just need to apply the darker wood stain. I have also sourced a skip supplier who can access the rear driveway. It's coming together slowly.
That looks a lot of work & I agree with others, rmove all the rubble & concrete & keep going down until you reach a good soil base & then add soil as needed. If you're thinking of a pond you could have a sunken one to save you infilling that area. You could have a step down to the whole area if you have to go down a long way!! We always used to find a local farmer to take our rubble for gateways, but there may not be any near you!! Our last lot of rubble ended up making good local paths with the help of a farmer & tractor.
Best wishes
Hazel in Southwest France
Good thing the weather seems OK for next ten days or so MC, that should help enormously!
Fingers crossed!
I can't do any more work on the concrete floor until this weekend (I have hired a Hilti TE3000 breaker for that particular job!), so I am continuing with the Chalet Enclosure for now, much to the delight of Garden Robin (GR) who realises that each time I do any work on the trellis, I take him a small dish of live mealies! He didn't take any from my hand today, mainly because he was perched in the Chalet and was waiting for the delivery to be made to his door!
So here's the latest phase of the work, completed this evening. I had done the prep work for the trellis over the course of the past week. Due to the warm weather I was able to fit the first trellis panel today.
The 4x2 beams were set into the soil last week and screwed together. Yesterday I filled the small gully alongside the beams with post-crete to set the beams and the 2x2 posts, thus giving a firm base on which to fix the trellis. The area to the left of the trellis will form the covered passage. Once I have flattened it down and made it more solid, I will insert another 4x2 beam on the other side for base of the second trellis wall. That will give me a nice inlay in which to add stepping stones and more post-crete in which to set them. There will be a trellis roof to the passageway.
In order to restrict access to Starlings and smaller, I fitted PVC coated galvanised mesh panels to the trellis (prior to installation).
Overhead view. I have yet to decide how the step down will be achieved, but that really depends on how deep I have to go before hitting the soil beneath the concrete.
Having fitted the right hand section, I put the rear panel in place to see how it might look. It has yet to be fitted with the PVC coated galvanised mesh. Putting it in situ did give me some more ideas though.
From above. The original structure of the SBS was fractionally lower than the new installation, but I can resolve that without too much difficulty.
There will be a 3'x3'6" return on the front right, just in front of the chalet. I don't want GR to have any unwanted visitors!
The last 18" of trellis on the right and the return section are going to be cut and replaced at right angles to the main frame. This will create a small square shaped alcove (on the right as we look at it), where I will plant another climber. This trellis is South facing, so I need to expose a small part to the sun in order to get the effect that I am seeking.
It did occur to me that I could transform that giant pile of breeze block into a large waterfall... but I won't!
You're doing a grand job MC, it looks very professional. Agree that the pile of breeze blocks would be a gigantic waterfall, sure you could find use for them later on though.