During the last week of September, we managed to get the boys round again to do all the manual work on our back garden....
They had to dig out part of the grassy area, lay down membrane, flag over using our reclaimed paving flags from the front and the side yard plus a few from the back and then they brought in another half dozen reclaimed paving flags to complete it.
The main patio area is now raised up with a slope at the edge leading down to a drainage channel.
My husband then joined the drainage channel to an existing pipe to our main drain which also incorporates the overflow from the upper part of our water butt.
This has now resolved our main headache because the back garden had very poor drainage and no access to a main drain anywhere nearby. Each time we had heavy rain it constantly puddled all along the length of the conservatory so we wanted to make sure it was sorted out before the winter sets in.
After the guys finished their part of the job, we've since rearranged the position of the summer house (several times) and given it a lick of paint - there's a bit more to go on inside there so that will be another post when it's finished. We rejigged the plastic shed around and have installed a new 8' x 6' wooden shed where the plastic one used to be.
We still have to paint the new wooden shed but it's all weather proofed so not the be all and end all if we don't get it done before the end of the year and we will probably add a few more plants in the beds as we go along after we see how they all progress. We had to heavily cut back the Camelia bush and the Clematis because we also replaced the wooden panels along the left hand adjoining fence.
Some before and after photos....
Before:
Halfway there:
After - you can see the drainage channel here below the upper level of the paved area:
Instructions on how to put the shed together from the Brompton Joinery delivery man:
[/url]Construction of the new shed (my hubby and brother in law at work)
It took 3 of us to get it this far as we were putting it together on the tail end of ex-hurricane Ophelia:
Not quite finished yet:
Sunday Event 22 October, poor Lynne wasn't ready for this shot:
12th birthday celebrations - our Great Nieces (twins) and their younger brother visiting from Essex.
As the evening was drawing to a close:
so had a bit of a do for them and invited friends and neighbours too to join the unveiling of our work.
)
