Now last blog we got to the end of the pond build with fish safely in and enjoying their new home. Work at this stage was still only just beginning and I had plans in my head of a raised deck, opening up the view at the bottom of the garden amongst 101 other ideas which were spinning around in my head!
When ordering the sleepers for the pond I actually over ordered to make sure that I wasn't short on the build and to allow me extra materials for further landscaping etc. At this stage further landscaping is a bit of a make it up as you go along for me so with the dozen sleepers I set about using them to follow the wood theme through the garden and soften the impact of the sleeper pond. The house is set raised up from the garden which steps naturally from the house down to a raised patio (top of pond level) and then down again to a lower patio and then down another two steps to the lawned garden. I already had a plan of turning the raised patio into a raised decked area which would sit level to the top of the pond so it seemed that a sleeper feature further down on the lower level would lead you out into the garden using the same theme. With this in mind I built the following 'tropical' planter to act as an entrance to the rest of the garden. Once again I think pictures will demonstrate this better than words...
Raised planter constructed to mirror the pond construction and planted with tropical type plants such as Banana, Canna, Bamboo and Cordylines.
A bridge too far....
To extend the wood theme further and tie the garden together the natural dip in the lawn was used to add a bridge and create a feature and a natural link to the lower part of the garden.
Three sleepers and four posts were bolted together and screwed down onto a wooden plinth each side of the bank...
Levels were made up with top soil and plants planted (irises, crocosmia and primula) grass seed sowed...
The finished bridge sits nicely in the lawn linking both areas together....
The view...
This may sound like the simplest of jobs pruning a few trees and taming an old hawthorn hedge? Generally I'm sure it would be but throw in a wobbly ladder, a chainsaw and a gardener who suffers from severe vertigo and you have recipe for a lot of blood sweat and tears!!!...I could now share with you my tales of hanging onto a wobbling ladder whilst a 30 foot branch tries it's best to knock me clean off but I think I've now learned my lesson and will leave it to the professionals next time!!...
I think the pictures say it all...
View after!!!!....we didn't even realise what a view we had until we opened it up so a real treasure to find!
Now what do you do with all those branches that you have cut down?...recycle them of course!...a future blog will go into this in more detail but here's an idea what you can do with you 'left overs'...
Next blog we will be starting the raised deck, so lots more hard graft and sweaty brows!!...
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