Up to May 2011

Well once again it's been a long time since I posted. So many jobs still to do but also some real progress - particularly in the back garden.

The wood that was lying in heaps all over the place has been chopped and de-nailed and stacked away - with great help from my father and sister. Thanks!

  After many days digging and raking and turfing. We've finally got some grass which has made a dramatic difference.   

 

The green roof is growing well too, although the balcony rail still needs sorting out. Oh, and the TV aerial hastily rigged on a Velux pole just before Christmas could be improved.

I'm not sure how but the picture above makes the garden seem far wider than it does in real life. The trees are back in leaf and the stone walls still looking good - apart from the bit where we planted the scaffolding poles (not shown!) that will need rebuilding. 

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Looking up the garden from the green roof. Our chopped wood is ranged along the fence on the left. I'll have to think up a way to shelter it or shift it before winter.

and the view from the sitting room. 

I've been making a wooden "aquaduct" that takes all the rainwater from the big south roof over to a water butt up the garden in the vegetable patch. It crosses from the roof to the fence and then runs along the fence to the water butt. There's a drop of about an inch from the roof to the water butt, it's a carefully worked out detail - that nearly didn't work out.

The aquaduct looks a bit odd on its own but there will be three matching pergola beams running parallel to it over the terrace. We've planted a grape vine but it has a few years to go before it covers the pergola.

I boiled the bit of downspout in a pan of water until it was soft enough to squish to shape to fit in the aquaduct. The aquaduct is lined with left-over damp proof course (DPC) plastic.

It's not finished, needs trimming, beautifying and strengthening but it's been working well for a few weeks. That's how things tend to get left at the moment, working but not quite finished. The garden was crying out for a bit of attention on the planting side. 

 The other sections of roof will all drain into a bank of water butts at the other side of the house. Once that's done all our rainwater will be captured.

Below the water butt is a tiny pond, in fact it's another water butt sunk into the ground. Our fish moved in at the beginning of May. They receive a lot of TLC and keep the cat entertained.

Also at the back, outside the sitting room we've had a narrow deck made - it's 600m off the ground - the levels match the floor levels in the house (where there are also three steps up to the sitting room). Partly because I liked the idea of matching the levels in and out and partly to soften the fall for anyone falling off the garden.

Raising it has also made it a sunnier spot. I want to recolour it so it doesn't look like part of the cladding.  We've planted a wisteria on the north side of the window - hoping it will be inclined to grow towards the sun and eventually frame the window.

 Earlier in the year we had pretty pear blossom and a new use for left over earth-wire sheathing as a soft plant tie.

A close up of the wood salvaged from the build. It could so easily have gone in a skip. It's all cut to length to suit the stove. The "grass" up at the top of the garden is in fact bluebells which should come back looking a bit better next year. 





At the front of the house things are looking better too.  I do need to be careful not to look at the garage door (a purchasing error -I hate the plastic-y faux wood grain) nor at the way the overhang was built too low (which induces rage - I really must not think about it). 

On the bright side, and it is nearly all bright, the wood cladding on the retaining wall looks good and the plants are starting to establish themselves.