Ongoing woodland walk project.

Hi, here I go in at the deep end with my first post.

This is a bit of an ongoing project, but because of a down turn in work, I thought that I may as well get my finger out and get busy.

To the front of the property that we have been renovating for the last three years, was a very dead/overgrown and neglected area. Having said that the whole garden hadn't been touched for many many years, and I spent a week with an eight ton machine clearing and burning. I had four fires burning, that lasted for over three weeks!
Once it was all over I gave the neighbours a few bottles of wine for putting up with me and not moaning.


Anyway, the following photos show how the site looked three years ago, way before thoughts of pathways entered my head.





The garden clearence begins.







Late last year, I borrowed a one ton machine from a friend, put on a 900mm ditching bucket and just tracked back around the area digging what I thought was the right kind of shape for a pathway, which would ultimately give interest and utilize more or less the whole site.
In my mind it worked first time, which was a bit of luck!

Once again time wasn't on my side and the site had become overgrown in the space of the last year


The site was dug and then foolishly left for year





Once I had re dug the pathways again, I laid down Terram 1000. This was done for several reasons. To stabilize the site, stop weed growth and give me something clean to work from. Once this had been done, I set to work cutting and installing the 163 linear metres of 100mm x 25mm pressure treated edging. Each board was cut at 150mm centres to create the curves. I also had the lovely job of cutting and pointing approx 330 450mm long pegs. I banged them in at 600mm centres and surprisingly only had to cut the tops of three of them.
After this was all done, I spread and compacted approx 7 cubic metres of crushed hardcore to act as a sub base and to avoid wasting any of the very expensive Fittleworth stone that I have spread and compacted over the top.
Laying the Fittleworth has been a pain in the backside. Not because of the stone, but because of the frost and bad weather. Bearing in mind that the whole project has been carried out by myself, I was struggling to load, barrow, spread, and compact the stone before the frost was beginning to set in. It made the process very difficult, and I'll probably have to go over it again in the spring once it has all settled.

Laying the Terram membraine





The timber edging and sub base are now in place





And here is the 'almost' finished article.










The next job is move the remaining stone down to the veg plot, install another bench, fill the beds with some soil, begin the planting, spread the wood chip, then sit back and enjoy it!

 

Thank you for your kind words.

In respect of finding interesting things on the forum. I don't think that there is ever going to be enough hours to go through all of the superb topics and threads!

Planting is sadly going to be the biggest ongoing thing with this garden. Or more specifically the amount of plants needed and a severe lack of funds to buy them! But I guess that the fun of gardening is all about beg stealing and borrowing plants from friends and neighbours.:D

This project and the veg plot are just two of many that I have either completed or have underway. I hate being indoors and feel like a trapped animal when the weather is as dire as it is at the moment.

 

Fantastic pic Love the flow of the paths - looking forward to seeing future pics!

 

What a superb piece of land you have, looking forward to seeing the end result.

 

excellent area for some of the Cornus species (kousa, capitatia) and other acid tolerant plants.

I see the van has a tree painted on it, are you a landscape gardener by chance.

 

Does one ever sit down and enjoy a garden...or does one always see something that could be improved/changed/added to?

Congratulations on your project.

 

All idea for plants are more than welcome.

The van used to belong to one of my nephews. For my living, I construct oak framed buildings such as this one that was at our last house.

What a depressing thought!:D
Thinking about all the different projects that I have in mind or currently doing, I'm probably looking at five years worth of work before I can sit down and enjoy it.:o

 

For me gardening's 90% doing and 10% sitting down and enjoying. The investment in the 10% "income" is well worth it. :gnthb:

 

Can anyone else see the large red word 'Warning' then in black Hotlinking is theft?as I was able to see the photo's when i looked the other week and now apart from the one with the wooden building all the others have vanished and I just see the warning words:cnfs:

 

It seems to be a DIY forum,sales based.........looks like SPAM to me.

 

Sorry about that.:o

The images were hoseted on imageshack, and rather than loading the photos again, I copied them straight across from a DIY forum that I use. Foolishly not realising that you couldn't just do it!:(

I have now loaded them again straight from Imageshack. (Me and computers aren't the best of mixes!!:dh:

 

Join the club!

Love your work in wood. We're currently renovating our barn and hope to construct more garden features (i.e pergola)in the future. I may need to pick your brains . :hehe:
I sometimes find it exasperating that I have loads of ideas for our land but so little time.

 

Central France!! My bags are packed and I'm on my way!:D

 

Not sure you'd like it at the moment. We're still in minus temperatures with a blanket of snow. The ground's like concrete. On the up side it's quite cosy inside with the wood burner and some garden plans.