Courtyard

The Courtyard emerges from the mud!

Although we have pressed pause on the next phase of the Bakehouse we have decided that the Courtyard will be the next area to be completed - one of these days we would like to stop clearing up the yard after builders and cleaning the layer of dust in the house - a faint hope at this stage we realise but we live in hope!

These are the flagstones that have been lifted from outside the French Doors and the floor of the Bakehouse and which we are going to use to pave some of the courtyard, by way of recycling some of the materials from the house and retaining some of the old alongside the new.

A white line marks the outline of the proposed paves area, starting with the old flagstones by the French Doors and then transitioning to new paving stones in front of the bi-fold doors as the 'contemporary' end of the house

In this shot you can see that we have removed the bed in front of the French Doors.  The Chanomeles (Japanese Quince) now resides at the bottom of the garden and clearly did not like being moved - hopefully it will come back next Spring!  We have sieved all of the earth and transported it to the bottom of the garden into a large builders bag and will no doubt transport it back to the raised bed that will be part of the new paved area - seem to spend all our weekends taking stuff out of the year into the garden and eventually bringing it back...............

   The plants are all in pots waiting to be moved once the builders arrive do the paving.

 

The mini digger scraping off the layers of earth, clay tiles and stone to the required depth where the earth is rock hard - if we had known that we might not have needed to use the rubble and old roof tiles as hard-core!

 The area that will be paved over the next few weekends.

Hardcore, courtesy of the old tiles from the Bakehouse roof and some of the old bricks from various bits of the house and old pigsty.

 Ready for the pavers.

 It's hard work laying old flagstones and the pavers really don't like them - as you can see below - but they do look good.

Some of the slabs of flagstone were so thick that they had to chisel them in half as the still saw was not really up to the job.

 First area completed with a space left for the raised bed (herbs and fragrant plants hopefully!)

 The old flagstones - or at least all we can re-use - are complete.

Moving the lillies hasn't done them much harm as the flowers have all come into bloom.

The pavers were good enough to try and get the old Grapevine out of the ground with as much of the root intact as they could.  However, it doesn't look very happy in the Water Butt although we are going to plant it in the garden and hope it will survive the experience.

 Phase 2 - Aged limestone slabs (i.e. 2015 variant) being laid and they are going down a lot quicker than the old flagstones.

The teracotta tiles which also came out of the old Bakehouse provide the edging for the old flagstones outsode the French Doors and the 'break' between the old and the new.

This is the end of day 1 and its clear these are easier to lay than the flagstones!

Long deliberations on how we 'edge' the water cistern...........

The slabs are all laid and now await the 'pointing team'

The completed 'new' end of the 'Terrace' - it's too nice to call it a patio according to our dear neighbours!

So here it is 'The Serpentine terrace' in all it's glory.  As you can see the BBQ and a selection of pots have already made their way onto the Terrace.

Closer view of the French Doors and the flagstone aspect of the terrace - note the placeholder for the raised bed - WIP!!

View of the terrace from the entrance to the courtyard.

All we need is a bistro table and the raised bed fiull of fragrant herbs and it will be perfect!

Well we haven't managed the bistro table yet but the raised herb bed is in place  two types of sage, basil, ginger mint (in a pot of couse), lavender, thyme and tarragon to start us off..............bistro table will have to wait!!

 The 'window box' at the shed window is finally looking like a window box sould - shouldnhave planted the seeds earlier I expect!

 The BBQ has been relegated the the end of the terrace as if leaked 'fat' on the old flagstones (needed new layer of cat litter) but looks Ok against the hanging basket and the pot at one end of the terrace.

The French doors with the 'sodium light'of the downlighter as evening draws in on an August Saturday...................

Gabion Wall

Developing the 'Ruin' in the Garden

I think that M has some great ideas but this is definitely one of his better ideas.............a Gabion Wall to frame the 'Ruin' and swallow up the rubble that forms most of the remains of the pigsty.

The starting point for the project is the collapsed pigsty and some additional rubble that has ended up on top of it as the best place to store it untilwe decide how to deal with it - preferaly recycle somewhere in the garden or courtyard - another project for this year!

The Courtyard project has helped a bit as some of the bricks are being used as hardcore for the paved area - there will be a separate page for that project!.  The greenery on the right is a random poppy plant which I have now relocated in the main garden

The first Gabion Cages in place waiting to be faced with the stone from the garden and backfilled with rubble.

Stabilising the middle cage so that we can construct all threein a straight line without too much difficulty.  It's amazing how much stone and rubble they hold.

Making progress and whilst it may not be immediately obvious the rubble pile behind the cages is reducing.

We think it looks great and even better the rubble pile behind has virtually gone.  Next stage is to turn it into another bed in the garden - probably a rockery type as the earth is not great quality and still a lot of rubble still in it so hopefully it will suit rockery plants: time will tell.

Close up of the facing stone, which has created further space along the top of the garden to extend that bed - when I get the time!

As usual we seem to end up moving 'stuff' in this case rubble and then undoing it - on this occasion to put weed mat at the back of the Gabion wall 'just in case.

There is a small space at the adjoining wall which will need a bit of thought so that we can 'fill' it with earth and still get access at the side..............

 Also, at the other side adjoining the wall - which needs some TLC - careful backfilling required.

 Ready for weed-mat and then re-filling with rubble.

Starting to fill the 'bed' with the soil taken form the bed in the courtard which was sieved and stored in a large builders bag at the bottom of the garden.The stones cover the top of the weed-mat and 'join' it all up - hopefully!

 At the top of the garden the flowerbed has been extended a bit to allow access around the Gabion wall into the corner space - currently filled with bricks but in time may be used as a storage area for garden equipment.

 Still a bit of work to do to make this 'useful!

The wheel barrow has finally given up the ghost - the handle split - it's done us proud but is heading for the great wheelbarrow yard in the sky - otherwise known as the Stanford-in-the Vale land-fill!

So we are now the proud owners of a 120ltr galvanised wheelbarrow.  It was an interesting trip to Wickes as M is away at the minute so had the 1 series BMW coupe - just as well I am good at jigsaws as eventually made the 'piece fit'!