Week 11 - May 10th

 So the plan is evolving at the idea that the ramp has got to go. There's been some work done this week and we've finished 99% filling the Gabions. I might buy some smaller stones and fill some gaps as you can see the stuff that's underneath the stones.

There's been a lot of rain - April showers kind of weather and it's pretty cold considering it's may and the garden's just a mud bath with all the clay. I'm writing this on the last day of this week Sunday and I'm hoping to get out into the garden and have a tidy up and see what's next.

So the major decisions to be made are...

(1). What kind of patio stones are going down, I'm of the opinion that we should have Khota black slabs, which are surprisingly cheap. A bloke down the road has had them put in and I think they look nice, but the others don't share my views. Downside is you have to seal them possibly yearly? Plus they are easily put down wrong with crap results.

(2). The steps need to be designed. This is in part complicated by the need to decide what's going on the floor and how far the steps will come out into the patio area and the likes and where they'll go. 

(3). Is the ramp coming down where's all the wood going to go and can it be got rid of without incurring more costs e.g. a skip or another grabber lorry?

(4). What's happening with the grassed area? I did start digging this over, but now it needs to be used as a storage area for all the ramp wood and stuff that's at the bottom of the garden. 

So, the bottom line is the decision re the ramp needs to be made as pretty much every other decision is based on that being resolved. So yep the ramp goes. So today I'll be moving all the stuff under the ramp over to the other side and covering it with a tarp ready for the dismantling. 

Earlier this week: nearing completion and it's looking tight on whether we're going to have enough cobbles.

End of the week - Sunday 16/5/21...

I've moved some of the plants onto the Gabions to get them out of the way, but this is where plants will go eventually.

So here you can see the ramp with the Honeysuckle growing up it. I'm going to try and save that and grow it up the wall I'm taking the picture from. The main thing today is to move all the stuff from below the ramp and get it over to this side. 

Once again a load of the stuff has had to be moved back up to the top section of the garden.

All the stuff that was under the ramp has been moved or got ready to be thrown away. It's being stored under the blue tarp.

All the rubble and stones that were under the ramp have been moved and Ben's started to unravel the Honeysuckle. 

This'll probably be one of the last images of the ramp. Tomorrow or over the next few days weather permitting I'll move all the stuff off the ramp and start dismantling it. 

One of the issues at the moment is the need for more Cobbles. A bulk bag is £185 and we're going to need about 1/2 a bag, so what do I do with the rest? I suppose I can re-do the top Gabions and make them another layer or 2 deep so none of the rough stuff is visible or maybe use them in the shady area somehow or around the patio area? I think putting them in the gabions might be best and using the ruble taken out to fill the new gabions? 

The orders for the Gabions and the Stones has been placed 16/05/21. I've tried to time the stones so that they arrive during the 1/2 term break 2/6/21 by which time hopefully the ramp will be gone, the Gabions made and in place with a load of rubble already in them.

Slate chippings https://www.gravelmaster.co.uk/products/slate-chippings/p/blue-slate-20mm

Slate chippings https://www.cpa-horticulture.co.uk/blue-slate-chippings-20mm?gclid=CjwKCAjwhYOFBhBkEiwASF3KGYzn18fXJWW3yuKGGY5ldzDTXKX9LkcoEQ8V6zOcftM03PovjxYbJhoCD50QAvD_BwE

Step idea - https://www.rossendalelandscapes.co.uk/design-idea-railway-sleepers/

Week 10 - May 3rd

 More catch up work...

A sunny day between the down pours.

At this point we realised that we were running out of filling rubble and spent a few evening tacking down free rubble on Facebook and loading up the car with bags of the stuff. You can see on the top section we also got hold of 8 concrete paving slabs which was a 2 car visit as they're so bloody heavy!

In this shot you can see the black fabric dividers, the rubble goes behind and the cobbles in front.

Week #9 Apr 26th -

I'm playing catch up here blogwise, but this is basically in sequence... This is probably a Sunday as this is the day when a lot of work usually gets done. (Cricket all day Saturday).

In this shot below you can see the black fabric that it placed between rough rock/rubble and the layer of Scottish cobbles. The theory is it appears to be a shadowy recess between the cobbles 'Gabion Karen' on Youtube suggested this having tried a white fabric, but said that looked naff. 

This shot below shows the first completed Gabion with all the cobbles in place.

Ben fixing the smaller Gabion on top of the lower gabions with wire and pliers.

Week #8

 Sunday night I ordered more lining fabric which is scheduled to arrive Tuesday. This is a black lining that is going to go behind the nice cobbles, between them and the rubble. It'll be interesting to see how we do on the rubble front as everyone else says we haven't got enough and I've got a suspicion we just my have enough. 

Friday 23rd the day the cobbles were allegedly going to arrive and nothing. No answers to emails or phone calls. A little disappointing when the order was placed almost weeks ago and they gave a date for the delivery. I thought at the time the extended delivery time was probably to give them a chance to get it right? Seemingly not.

On the Gravelmaster website there appears to be a tracking option for my delivery. It doesn't look promising. All the icons apart from 'With collection depot' at the very start of the process (Seemingly) are not coloured, so I'm assuming my rocks are still at the depot at the start of the process? At least it appears I have 2 full pallets? Worryingly though there's a date 5/5/21. Looks like that might be the delivery date? That's 2 days short of a month from the day it was ordered. I'm not holding my breath.

What I might do is start putting the rough rocks in the gabons at the back and try and tidy up the area at the bottom and get a sense of whether we've got enough hard core and rocks/stones. 

Sunday 25/4/21  This afternoon Ben and I started to work on getting some of the rocks into the Gabions leaving space at the front for the nice rocks to be placed. Once we got started we realised there were a few issues...

(1). The gap down the back of the Gabions is a bit tight and in some places pretty much too tight to get anything down the back of it other than really small stones, so we may have to buy some tiny pebbles or gravel to put down the back, 'Pea shingle' would be the perfect option, so we'll have to see how that pans out and give that some thought.

(2). I realised the lining should have been attached to the inner divider before I put all the wires in to help the gabions from bulging. The lining now has had to be attached in strips between the wires which was a real pain and I've done that using small cable ties which was impossibly fiddly and only just possible as I could only just get my hands in between the grids of the cages to tie them up.

Other than that it does look like there's not enough rock/rubble and we're going to have to source some more from somewhere. These is a load in the garage and there's loads around the estate that we can clean up and use. 

Anyway, here's the pictures...

Week #7 - Sunday

 Another dry day and I've been able to crack on with Gabions. Most of the day was spent tying in the internal bracing wires. Each cage has numerous wires attached to the backs and fronts and from the panels from side to side. This means that once you start filling it with rocks and it starts to misshape and bulge you simply twist the wires as in a Spanish windlass manner and correct the bulge. The wire's thick and this takes some.

Before the Gabions go in the Geotextile lining goes in first. (Above).

The Gabions made up and ready to drop in. (Above)

The small pebbles are smoothed out to level the base which was a bit of a faff.

Joe on a test run to see if the Gabions sit level. We had to do this a few times before I was happy having to lift them in and out each time to re-level the stones. 

Above a view from the ramp looking down at the Gabions in position now ready to rock.

By the end of the day the Gabions were in position ready for rock and I'd painted the wall a bit.

The next big phase is this Friday when the rocks turn up, Ben's going to have to get them all in from the back road into the garden or guard them till I come in and I can give him a hand.

Then the filling will commence.

In the meantime if time and weather allows I'll have a bit of a tidy up of the bottom area and maybe work on breaking the clay up a bit more on the top section.

Week #7 - Saturday

 Saturday 17th April

Still no stones, they're not due till the 23rd. So today after some cricket, all three of us went to Mopsies "The home of cricket" as it was a lovely sunny day albeit a bit chilly (We've been getting frosts in the morning). Once back we cut the big gabions down to size and fixed the properly with wire. 

A little bonus at the end of the day was I've eventually found some Bourgainvillea after searching for them for a few years now. 

Week #7 (Tuesday 13th)

 Tuesday 13th

Between this post and the previous we'd been waiting for the Gabions and we couldn't do a great deal. I dug out the base area again and angled it a bit more and tided up and then today (Tuesday) the Gabions arrived and Ben and Joe were there to receive them, so here they are in the garden all wrapped up.

Over the next few days we unwrapped them and had a look with the idea that we'd start to put them together.

Towards the end of the week Ben opened them up and set one up temporarily using cable ties, so get a sense of what we're working with. 

It was decided that instead of having the Gabions 2m x 1m x 1m - meaning that the gabions encroach 1 meter into the empty space we cut them down to that they were 750mm into the space.

We then had to source a disc cutter which we did from our friends Carl and Dawn.