0 comment Wednesday, August 20, 2014 | admin
e bee
Many many thanks to the St Paul's Volunteer group - I was expecting only a few people but instead there was a fair swarm, as well as one young fellow who was a dab hand with a pickaxe! Digging, trimming, cutting, MORE digging, dismantling, digging - did I mention digging? I'm just amazed these people worked for six hours straight for a complete stranger.
And work they did!I now have a patio rather than a mudpit! They left the side on the right open as there will be a digger coming through and they didn't want the tile to get ruined for me, so they'll be back to do more later. They did lay down some small "replacement" tiles as the paving was so bad toward the stairs once they scraped it free of mud they were afraid I'd fall on it - it was a mishmash of broken bricks, spots of tarmac and broken paving all crammed together in a mass. In short, no surprise for this house, really. I've got dirt aplenty to fill in along the side of the hedge and to straight up my roses, so woot there.
Monster triffid rosebush has been removed from the raised bed - and by the look of things it took a huge effort to do so! The rose bush had obviously been planted when the house was built, and I think it is a hybrid rose which was grafted onto a wild rose stem as it's a mad amalgamation of two different types of rose growing from the same stem. However, I wanted to try and keep it, and it has been moved to the side portion of the house. I'm not sure it will actually grow - it might just die, but we'll see.
In the meantime, I have the raised bed now full of all the topsoil from putting the hedge in. They tried to give me a little walkway with raised bits to either side of the raised bed, maybe to plant flowers in, but I think I'll shuffle that over a bit and maybe try to get some more paving laid in there as I need access to the bed.
Can you spot what's missing? Yes! The godawful compost/tip/hazardous dump is now gone! Loads of soil and a few slow worms were moved under the sumac tree, which has been pruned. The soil will hopefully be used to help with the levelling which will happen in a few weeks' time, or for the flower beds - the heap had so much rubbish in it; old carpet, plastic and paint cans that there's no way I'm growing food in that soil, but it will be useful for growing other stuff. The bramble is also gone, as well as a ash sapling which was trying to grow its way through the fence from the neighbour's yard. It's amazing how having that compost thing gone really opens up the garden space, but I'm not sure sprog will be so happy the "jungle" has been tamed a bit. Still, there's loads of dirt for digging and they even removed all the metal and glass from it, so he can dig aplenty.
And, of course, there's good news fo sproggo - there was enough sand left over that he can have that sand pit he's been asking for; it's builder's sand but sprog won't mind, he'll play with it for now, even though it's a bit sharp. We just have to build him a proper sand pit and then figure out how to cover it, but all in due time. Until that point, I'll rig up a temporary one for him to use during the holidays.
There's still a fair bit to do, but the transformation is indeed taking place, and I'm once again humbled and grateful for the people who have been willing to blow a Saturday to work, and work hard, at a stranger's house - all the people who have donated seeds, all the cuttings, and all the advocacy certainly starts to stack up to form a cohesive whole.
So awesome, I really wish the weather would hold off a bit, I want to have breakfast with my son on the patio.
Many many thanks to the St Paul's Volunteer group - I was expecting only a few people but instead there was a fair swarm, as well as one young fellow who was a dab hand with a pickaxe! Digging, trimming, cutting, MORE digging, dismantling, digging - did I mention digging? I'm just amazed these people worked for six hours straight for a complete stranger.
And work they did!I now have a patio rather than a mudpit! They left the side on the right open as there will be a digger coming through and they didn't want the tile to get ruined for me, so they'll be back to do more later. They did lay down some small "replacement" tiles as the paving was so bad toward the stairs once they scraped it free of mud they were afraid I'd fall on it - it was a mishmash of broken bricks, spots of tarmac and broken paving all crammed together in a mass. In short, no surprise for this house, really. I've got dirt aplenty to fill in along the side of the hedge and to straight up my roses, so woot there.
Monster triffid rosebush has been removed from the raised bed - and by the look of things it took a huge effort to do so! The rose bush had obviously been planted when the house was built, and I think it is a hybrid rose which was grafted onto a wild rose stem as it's a mad amalgamation of two different types of rose growing from the same stem. However, I wanted to try and keep it, and it has been moved to the side portion of the house. I'm not sure it will actually grow - it might just die, but we'll see.
In the meantime, I have the raised bed now full of all the topsoil from putting the hedge in. They tried to give me a little walkway with raised bits to either side of the raised bed, maybe to plant flowers in, but I think I'll shuffle that over a bit and maybe try to get some more paving laid in there as I need access to the bed.
Can you spot what's missing? Yes! The godawful compost/tip/hazardous dump is now gone! Loads of soil and a few slow worms were moved under the sumac tree, which has been pruned. The soil will hopefully be used to help with the levelling which will happen in a few weeks' time, or for the flower beds - the heap had so much rubbish in it; old carpet, plastic and paint cans that there's no way I'm growing food in that soil, but it will be useful for growing other stuff. The bramble is also gone, as well as a ash sapling which was trying to grow its way through the fence from the neighbour's yard. It's amazing how having that compost thing gone really opens up the garden space, but I'm not sure sprog will be so happy the "jungle" has been tamed a bit. Still, there's loads of dirt for digging and they even removed all the metal and glass from it, so he can dig aplenty.
And, of course, there's good news fo sproggo - there was enough sand left over that he can have that sand pit he's been asking for; it's builder's sand but sprog won't mind, he'll play with it for now, even though it's a bit sharp. We just have to build him a proper sand pit and then figure out how to cover it, but all in due time. Until that point, I'll rig up a temporary one for him to use during the holidays.
There's still a fair bit to do, but the transformation is indeed taking place, and I'm once again humbled and grateful for the people who have been willing to blow a Saturday to work, and work hard, at a stranger's house - all the people who have donated seeds, all the cuttings, and all the advocacy certainly starts to stack up to form a cohesive whole.
So awesome, I really wish the weather would hold off a bit, I want to have breakfast with my son on the patio.
Labels: Before, During, Good Life