The Phoenix rising (I hope)

Work started today on turning this



My sorry state know as the back garden...

Rubbish to the left of the picture went down the tip yesterday,

Today, I cut the washing line down, that's going I'm fed up with it...

And then I spent 4 hours working on the right side border, you can't see it, but there was an cemented in lawn edge curb that was below the main lawn, originally the lawn wasn't raised but level with the patio area at the bottom of the picture.

Was hard work, first I had to dig out a 10 inch trench along the curbing, to expose it, wasn't easy has the lawn is only a couple inch's deep before you hit gravel, so this had to be hand cleared with a trowel... to expose the cement footing the edging was sitting on..

Then it was a case of hammering out the footing with a cold chisel and lump hammer, we do have a sledge hammer, but I don't have the strength to swing the dam thing...

This has give me a good idea what's under the lawn, Oh some muppet has been very lazy indeed...

As it seems, that the curbing is the retaining wall for a decorative gravel, as there is a green woven plastic underneath the gravel, then a couple inch's of gravel, this fits the curb edging nicely, then it seems the Lazy person, decided to build a brick wall two bricks high, but some scaffold boarding against the curbing to raise but didn't remove gravel or the underlying plastic, then bunged some top soil on the whole lot and turf over.

 

People that aren't true gardeners bodge! When I started on my back garden I was finding all sorts including an almost complete dinner service! Nowadays the worst is usually in the garden of new builds but sometimes like my garden (65 years old), the owners down the years just keep bodging along the way and leave it to the likes of you and me to sort the mess out!

Good luck, it'll be worth it!

 

You've made a great start, well done!
Discovering what is underneath is half the battle because at least now you know what you are dealing with

Or maybe, people who want to do something with their garden do it according to their budget and skills at the time?
I like to think I'm a little along the road to being a "gardener". But, I'm not a brick layer/carpenter / electrician/ plumber etc., all skills used within a garden to lay paths, create patios, decking, pergolas, cement edgings, lighting, water features, cold frames, erect sheds/greenhouses, etc.
Not even sure I'll be able to lay the turf "properly" when the time comes to doing that task either. I'll probably bodge it and no doubt somewhere down the line another owner, in the future, will see my efforts and poo-poo them.
But, all the while I live here, it will be done to my ability, my budget and my knowledge base at the time. In the meantime ... now I see I'm not a "true" gardener ... shall I get my coat?

 

Plenty of things in my garden were done on the cheap by the previous guy. Him and his wife didn't have much money and became frail in later years. Hence planting climbers/ivy over tree stumps rather than digging them out, slightly dodgy paving/gravel path and lots of things made out of reused materials. I can't say I mind in the slightest. While there are some things we've chosen to change or put right, it all adds character!
Good luck with your project.

 

"M" I'm probably trying to catch you up on the road to being a gardener

Budget and skills do have a major impact on a garden... It's one the main reason why I'm only just started the project I would have like to have done 4 years ago but didn't have the spare cash.

I'm having second thoughts of using reclaimed bricks, as I went down to the reclamation yard morning, checked the bridgwater bricks out, but they aren't quite the ones I was hoping for, two choices, either some that look very new or very old ones that are just a bit too mucky... I was hoping for a weather look, but considering the cost 85p each, might just go with new bricks and allow nature to take it's time.

Skills wise I'm lucky due to hubby being a bricky by trade, even though he's doesn't work in building anymore took a career change a few years back...

 

There is a positive to bodging...... at some stage there had been a stone structure in our garden that someone had demolished and then dumped earth to cover over. We discovered the dressed stone as we learned to garden and managed to dig up enough to build all our garden walls! It was hard work unearthing it all and cleaning it all, harder still for my hubby who worked out how to get the stone to piece up! Over time we built approx 100 foot or so of walls up to 5ft in parts! It was a brilliant luck, as at the time we were a young family and we wouldn't have had the budget to have all the walls built in stone without the find!
The 5000 rusty welding rods found with the stone however, we never found use for!

 

Everyone has a budget to work with "M", I realise that and include myself. I wasn't referring to items used but those lazy devils like the builders who bury all sorts of rubbish (yes, some reclaimable) in the garden and leave it for the poor unsuspecting new gardener to deal with.

I had to level my garden when I moved in, somebody had had the great idea of making different levels which turned out to be a nightmare as far as moving around was concerned. Having levelled one area I discovered a 2 x 2ft cube of concrete underneath the original level. That concrete had a metal post for a rotary washing line in it, talk about belt and braces! It was a devil to break it up and remove it!

 

Ah, so, builders then ... not "true" gardeners (or even aspiring ones )

Ok, we'll do some builders rubble bashing ... *rolls up sleeves* ...

... digging up an old tree root, I found ....




... a very quaint bottle circa 1920's ...

PS: Healthy teasing @Sheal no offense intended.

Disclaimer: this post is not a personal attack on Sheal, her views or her experiences.

 

I didn't think it was an attack "M" I just didn't think I'd made myself clear enough. But there are those gardeners that do bodge......

 

Where!?

Blast! Should never had looked in the mirror when looking around

Disclaimer: this is not a personal attack upon myself. The head banging smiley is not representative of self-harm/ personal attack or anything other than ... it was the only smiley available for this moment of expression.

 

I'm not saying anyone here on GC is a bodger including yourself "M" but the person/s that owned my garden previously were! If a job's worth doing.......

 

I know

 

Getting back on track....

Wish I could say mine was a positive bodge, but alas far from it...

This is slab of concrete, can only assume was meant to be a step! built on the patio and over another slab of concrete, most of it under the lawn!


Must admit I was chuffed that I'd actually managed to swing the sledge hammer just, as a couple of times I found myself being pulled over backwards by it's weight...

And buried in this concrete I found the electric cable to the old brick shed, it wasn't armoured or protected in any way, oh and I found a pair of shears.


But this isn't the only thing that I've found buried under the lawn

I thought that it was just decorative stone under the lawn, but this area was patio slabs surrounded by decorative stone... Been hitting slabs as we been digging out..



As you can see here

 

I've got a feeling one of our hounds isn't too happy about the grass going


We have done well, with digging out better than we expected, we anticipated that we might get 1/2 of the lawn dug out, but we almost managed the whole lot, then we hit the big find....

I started to hit rubble, which we knew some was under this part of the lawn by the left fence, but we didn't realise how much there was going to be...

Found an some concrete surround, then another concrete slab, and underneath a thudding hole filled with breeze blocks (must have been the old shed from the concrete plinth that my greenhouse now sits on) wiring, a light, several kiddies spades..

As I was excavating the ever deepening hole, hubbies shouts, that there's a cable...........

Hum, what he thought was cabling casing turned out to be

A b&q tile cutter, in this photo you can see the old fishpond liner..

To give you an idea of the depth of the hole, my son took a photo of me getting some slate out of it, but there's still about another 2ft or so of rubble underneath the point I digging..



Oh yes, all the rubble around me is what has already come out of the hole..

Think we might have to retrieve some of the top soil from the skip, to back fill the hole!

 

With all that rubbish lying there Ellie it's hardly surprising your lawn wasn't growing well.