Kristen's Project

Looks good Kristen, those Volvo diggers are nice, I like the feel of the servo controls on them. Was it a 7.5 ton?

Were the site alows, for landscapeing work involving plant I like to use 360s over 3 tons, the hydralic power saves so mutch time compared to the 'toy' ones.

The hedge should have a flying start with all that compost!

 

I did some sums when I was trawling for prices. I can't remember exactly, but I think it was something like £10,000 - £20,000 to plant a hectare with hedging plants (6' between the rows, say), and then if you sold them, say, 5 - 6 years later as "instant hedge" at £200 / Metre you would get about £ 750,000 per hectare. I very nearly planted up the veg patch on the spot!!

 

"Was it a 7.5 ton?"

6 ton I think. Turning the caterpillar-tracks gently enough, on the lawn, to not chew it up is a challenge, but when I used to use a standard JCB-with-legs thingie, in the old days, I used to make a phenomenal mess manoeuvring about the place ... the hydraulic extension of the front arm (I think it was a Ford, don't think JCB had that "gadget" back in those days) helped an amateur digger-driver like me to actually get the spoil into the dumper!

"the hydralic power saves so mutch time compared to the 'toy' ones."

I used a toy one the very first time I hired one. Complete waste of time - particularly on our heavy clay soil. Bust a hydraulic hose on pretty much the first "pull" ... never again!

 

To avoid damaging lawn areas one thing I sometimes do is to buy a few sheets of the cheapest poss shuttering grade ply in around 3/4 inch thickness, four of them layed down before turning.

 

I'm a Scrooge when it comes to things like that - false economy of course. For the bit where I ran over the lawn to get to the hedge, to do the work, that would have been perfect ... Thanks Pro, I'll remember that for next time - I can probably scrounge some from the house they being built just down the road and stick them in the garage for next time.

 

I've added an update showing what we did during the Winter

After we'd pulled out the Leylandii hedge at the front we replanted it with Copper Beech and some 2M yews that we plan to Topiary.

We also planted some Limes and have started training them into a Pleached hedge

The Plant Greenhouse is now built (very nearly 2 years after I bought it on eBay!!) and I've dug out the soil from the Cropping Greenhouse and replaced with Compost + Muck

I've written a short article on a couple of windowsill propagators I bought - which have worked well.

 

"are they thermostaically controlled?"

Nope, but only 14 watts I think, so only just taking the chill off. probably not that suitable for cuttings, but got the seeds going very quickly, and price reflected the fact that there is no thermostat.

My grow-houses are hitting 30C now, but nice and humid inside, so the plants are doing OK.

 

I've ben reading k's blog for some time now, such a big garden with equallly big jobs that need to be done. I'm jealous of all that space! Great blog .....keep it up!

Steve...

 

Kristen, what I'd like to know is, when do you open to the public ?

 

Thanks Steve. Nice to know that writing about it is of interest to folks. Its quite therapeutic ... I built a kit car many years ago, and was astounded at the number of people, not content with the huge number of hours required to build the thing then maintained a blog about all the mistakes they had made, and where they found the cheapest nuts etc. I thought they were Barking!, although I appreciated the great resource they had created and which helped me no end, saving me loads of time (and, indeed, I met many of them so that was a bonus too).

"what I'd like to know is, when do you open to the public"

I'd like to know that too, 'coz the answer is "when its done"

" 'I'm organised' he sighed ... and died" !!

 

Kristen, so you plan on opening to the public ?

 

Yeah, when its done, of course ... :D

 

Wow. I would call that a lake........:gnthb:
and a very nice job to.
Cant wait for the open day..