Non-Gardener builds an Observatory, Garden Railway and even Dabbles with Plants!

18th June ~ July 5th 2024

Between mid June and Mid July, I got the patio foundation filled with hardcore, followed by concrete. Two layers of bricks followed, to support the edge of the patio and to contain the hardcore which would support the slabs. When the brickwork had set, I started breaking up old bricks, left over from the garden side and front walls, to fill the patio area.



On the 20th of June, I took a break from smashing bricks and dug out this tiny border on the drive side of the house. The original leafy thing ( no idea what it was ) had died off, so I planted some of the Daisy Pomponettes and Silver Dust that I'd grown from seed.

 

I couldn't find any paving that matched the colour and pattern of the patio. To keep the patio looking the same, several paving slabs were pulled up from the side path at the front of the house, as they matched the existing patio. I found some paving with a similar pattern, which would then be used to replace the side path.



On the 7th of July, a layer of mortar was added over the top of the hardcore and the paving laid on top. The slab at the back right wasn't fixed and just laid in place to get the spacing of the others. This slab had a drain cover under it, so it needed to be removable. There was move work to do there once the other paving had set.

I placed bricks around the perimeter of the new area, to make sure nobody accidentally walked on them. It looks like the patio slopes down to the right, but it's actually the path against the house that rises up to another drain cover.

 

I was really pleased with the extra space, even though it was only four feet wider. With the table, chairs and a few guests, it got quite crowded up there, especially trying to get past to go to the lower patio where the barbecue is usually located.

The original edge of the patio had an eight inch drop into the border, so if you pushed your chair back a little too far, you were launching backwards into the undergrowth! I planned to build up the earth height around the new edge.



On the 5th of July, the drain cover slab was wrapped in cling film and the area around the drain cover was filled with mortar. The slab was then lowered into place, supported by three small blocks of wood until the mortar set. The mortar would give as much support as possible under the slab. The rest of the patio was then pointed between the slabs.

 

8th July 2024

With the patio set enough to walk on, I began barrowing soil from the bulk bags, to the border and back filling it. It took quite a few trips, as the border is about ten feet by three and needed six to eight inches of soil adding. I also mixed in some sand and compost.

When I pulled the side path up for the patio, there were quite a lot of twelve inch square paving stones in that stretch of path. There were too many to use on the patio extension, so I had to pull up more path than I wanted, to get full and half stones. That left me with lots of square stones needing a home. Some of them were laid along the Yew hedge, to provide somewhere in the border to stand while hedge trimming.



9th July 2024

The following day, I planted some of my seed grown Silver Dust at the front and Canterbury Bells at the back. To fill in the area around the bottom of the hedge and stepping stones, I planted a load of Creeping Thyme as a ground cover that could handle being walked on every so often.



Further down the border, beside the steps that lead to the back door, we planted a Hydrangea. More Thyme was added to fill in the ground until the Hydrangea grew to fill the corner.

 

10th July 2024

The next day, I started working on the next area down towards the lawn. The remaining plants, including a small yellow/green Fuchsia, were dug out of the top area, so the soil level could be raised. I tried to dig out quite a large area of soil around the roots, in the hope they wouldn't get too upset with me for being moved! Once again, I dug in a load of sand and compost to break up the clay.

I still had quite a few of the square paving left and so I started adding them as a small set of steps, through the middle of the border. With the path only a few feet to the left, they weren't meant for regular foot travel, but just a solid surface to stand or kneel on, to be able to reach both sides of the border for planting and maintenance.



Like the previous border, I planted a load of Creeping Thyme around the stepping stones. I think the Fuchsia only spent a day in the pot before being replanted. It had to come out as it lay right where the stepping stones were laid. The picture above makes the soil look really sandy, but once it was all dug in properly, it returned to being brown.



It was a bit of a wet day, so things got a little muddy while laying the stones, but it did mean it was easier to dig, even if it did want to stick to everything.



On the other side of the house, on the driveway, I previously planted some of the seed grown Candytuft in a barrel. I'd also put some Daisy Pomponettes around it. The Candytuft, despite being out of date seeds, had grown well, and produced lots of flowers. I was feeling quite smug. There's nothing to this gardening lark!

 

11th July 2024

On the 11th, I dug out some of the Campanula Bluebells from the left side of the sloping path and planted it on the right side. Lynne wanted a symmetrical look from the kitchen window. The Fuchsia was removed from its pot and planted near by.

Since so many of the Daisy Pomponettes had grown, I planted a load of them up each side of the stepping stones. They probably wouldn't be a permanent feature there, but would give some colour and greenery for the 2024 Summer. The remaining gap in that border was to be filled with a Hebe. Prior to reworking this area, most of it died off over the Winter, leaving a very dull view from the kitchen. We were looking to mix in some evergreens in time, to keep a bit of colour over the colder months.



12th July 2024

Yet more Daisy Pomponettes, plus a few Canterbury Bells, were planted in the side path border, basically to clear the patio of pots! So much had grown, I ended up giving a wheelbarrow full of Daisies, Bells and Silver Dust to my neighbour, as we didn't have enough borders to plant everything.

 

We then took some time out for a garden centre trip, coming back with three Hebes and some other bits and bobs. They were selling off some Celosia, so we got a pack of six to go by the patio for some instant colour, knowing the Canterbury Bells wouldn't flower until next year.



One of the red/purple Hebes was planted in the gap in the stepping stone border, with some more Canterbury Bells along side for next year. After flowering, they will probably be replaced.



So with the last few plants in, this was another area of the garden that could be ticked off as complete. With the patio finished by mid-July, it was ready for Summer barbecues - if we had any Summer weather!

 

14th July 2024

On the 14th, I got one Hebe planted in the slate area in front of the sun room. There is a weed membrane under the slate, which had a number of holes in it, left over from the Lavender we pulled up in 2021. I'd been patching the weed membrane with some spare bits, glued down with Mastic. That's why there's a pile of slates at the bottom of the path.

There's two more Hebes in purple pots on the patio. The darker one was to go in the slate area, while the lighter one would be going to the bottom of the garden, in the lawn. It didn't take long for rain to stop activities.



After packing the tools away, I had a quick wander around with my phone on a selfie stick, to get some birds-eye views of the progress.



By mid-July, the railway was in full bloom, with most of the flowering plants showing colour. The conifer on the right had now almost fully recovered from being completely bare on one side. Knitting the branches across the bare side and then allowing time for them to grow in, had done wonders for its appearance.

 

15th July 2024

Another job that had been on the "To Do" list since moving in, was the mess behind the garage and gap in the boundary. Laying the path down the back was just the first step here, to improve access and maintenance.

The pile of wood behind the low wall, was on top of my neighbour's compost heap. He's a keen gardener too, with a large vegetable plot behind the main garden. Just in front of the low wall, is a single row of bricks. This is the boundary. On the right, I had a shipping pallet, filling a gap in the Hawthorn hedge.



The straggly tree was loose in the ground and partly rotten, so that was removed. When we moved in, its branches were over the top of the garage roof and pulling at the guttering. Two six feet long fence panels would fill most of the gap and tidy up the area.

 

Later in the day, after clearing the area behind the garage, chopping up the tree and carrying some bricks around there, we set off for B&Q. Of course the only thing was had that was big enough for the fence panels was my Dodge and that was too big for the B&Q parking spaces! The car park was fairly empty, so I parked over four bays, so I had plenty of room to get around the truck, to tie the fence panels into the back. I don't think I would have managed all the garden work with the Dodge and its crane!



We bought three panels; two at five feet tall for the garage area and one at three feet, to finish the fence behind the observatory and veggie planters.

 

16th July 2024

I spent the day, on and off, painting fence panels and posts. The workshop window seen here and the doors to the right, face South East and South West, so it gets a lot of sun. As a result, the paint dried moderately fast, allowing me to get more coats on quickly.



17th July 2024

The next day, I was brick laying again. I extended the original wall to the left and cut two strips of paving slab to sit on the earth to the right. This would keep the bottom of the fence out of the damp earth, lengthening its life. I did plan to also make them removable for future repainting.

 

18th July 2024

Somewhere around this date, we'd also had another garden centre visit. We are a bit spoilt for choice, having at least seven garden centres within a five mile radius of our house - several having great coffee and cake shops!

One was selling off trays of Creeping Jenny. Having read up on it, it looked to be a great ground cover for behind the garage. Originally, I was looking at building a small retaining wall, to hold back the earth along the Hawthorn hedge, as for part of it, the earth sloped up a good twelve inches or more above my path.

The Creeping Jenny would like the conditions back there and rooted itself as it grew, which would help to hold the earth bank together. No need for a wall. We bought twelve plants to start with and after reading how easy it is to grow, took a few cuttings and potted them in water until the roots developed.



19th July 2024

On the 19th, I spent part of the day, repairing a hanging basket bracket. It had been ripped off the front house wall in a storm and was also covered in surface rust. The basket had been swinging side to side so much, that it started the whole bracket swinging. That eventually pulled the Rawl plugs out of the wall.

I gave it an electrolysis bath to remove the rust, welded two small arms to the mounting bracket to stop it swaying and painted it in Hammerite. It was then left in my curing cabinet to bake hard.

Down at the railway, three months after planting, all the plants were looking more settled and there was plenty of colour. The Rock Cress had filled itself in all along the ballast, making a nice divide to keep the gravel and earth separate.



Up at the slated area, in front of the sun room, I got all the weed membrane repaired and the slates washed and back in place. The second Hebe was also planted here. The remaining one in the purple pot, was the one for the bottom of the garden, but there was a bit more work to do there and some metal tree rings in the post.

 

20th July 2024

The next morning, I started to build the fence, but as I wanted it removable, it took a little thinking to work it all out. At the far end, where it meets the open fence across the path, I screwed two vertical strips of wood. These were spaced the same as the width of the fence. This allowed the far end of the fence panel to slot into the gap and be secure.

That then set the post position, which was to the side of the wall, half overlapping the end of the fence panel. I concreted a metal fence spike into the ground, which would allow the post to be removed for repainting or replacement in the future. I drilled the post at the top middle and bottom, for some 8mm studding. The studding would hold three wooden bars which would clamp the fence panels against the post.

The top one can be seen sticking out past the end of the post. To stop the bars from spinning, I put a nail in each end, just sticking out a few millimetres. These would stick into the fence as the threaded rod pulled the bar against the fence. When the fence needed any work, I could unbolt the studding and quickly remove the panel. I'd also weeded and planted the first few Creeping Jenny plants while the concrete was setting.



The planting continued along the bank, which you can see in this picture.



Two of the Jenny plants were kept for hanging baskets at the front and rear of the house. This is the one with the repaired bracket. You can see the two arms I welded on, to stop the bracket from swinging with the plant.

 

21st July 2024

The next day, I got the second post and panel fitted behind the garage. We'd been back to the garden centre for more Creeping Jenny and they were selling it off even cheaper. I think it was £5.00 for a tray of about fifteen plants. That was all planted along side the path.



22nd July 2024

The following morning, the steps, loppers and hedge trimmer came out. The Hawthorn was quite tall at this location, over the garage guttering in places. The previous owner and myself until the path was laid, would have found access to this part of the hedge was limited. It was chopped right back to the same as the rest of the hedge.



23rd July 2024

The third fence panel was the low one, keeping Hawthorn clippings out of the slates. Before fitting it, I had a change of plan and repainted it dark oak, rather than the medium that the shed, sleepers and other two panels were. When we first did the garden, the medium oak came out a bit too orange for our liking. There was no point in painting them all straight away, but now I was fitting the new panel, the other two panels were also painted.

 

24th July 2024

With the low fence panels all now in dark oak, it was time for the rest of the garden to catch up. There were somewhere around fifty six sleepers to paint, plus the plinth around the observatory. It took all day.



While I was busy painting, Mr Amazon had delivered our steel tree rings, so Lynne got busy planting those around the three of the four plants at the bottom of the lawn. The last one, a straggly looking Japanese Skimmia I believe, was going to need cutting back first. One plant was dead, so that's where the remaining Hebe was planted.