New old stone bridge opens...

Hello All,

Here we go again! I'm sure you have all been wondering what ever is that guy going to think of next?....

Well in answer to your question I have lots more to share with you before we even get up to the present day!

Before I bore you all again with my mad cap gardening a quick hello to our ever expanding audience from...UK, USA, Canada, Russia, Denmark, France, Ireland and Vietnam! I have to say we are getting a variety of readers all logging on to get the latest of how this little piece of Somerset (or as we locals like to say "Zomeerrsett") turns out!

February Has been a miserable month here with really low light levels which has made photographing the birds really tricky. I Have however had the continued pleasure of the new Reed Buntings visiting the garden which is nice to see. A beautiful Green Woodpecker has also started to put in a more regular appearance over the last couple of weeks and I have attempted to get some shots of him but he hasn't quite come close enough yet to get a real A1 shot, but to prove his attendance here's the best of a bad bunch....

Following on from the last blog when I worked on the new wildlife area and planted lots of bulbs, here's a picture of the first flowering bulb of this year (2011)...a lovely miniature iris growing out of the bank of the dry(ish) river bed..

Ok on with the gardening and I am taking you back to September 2010 again and the start of my next hair brain scheme! I have written in previous posts about my desire to recycle whatever materials I can,and to date I have told you about my recycled wheel barrow planter, landscaping with recycled branches and logs even using up old bits of sleepers to make benches amongst other things. To continue this theme and not to waste anything I have been piling stones or rocks which have been dug up out of the garden to one side for later use. At the time of digging these rocks up I didn't really have much of a plan for them other than possibly using them for a rockery or similar. Thinking about how the garden links together I wanted to build something to make the ditch running across the middle of the garden more interesting and a feature which linked in to the rest of this area. I had already recycled left over sleepers and fence posts to make a simple bridge but this still felt like 'just a few planks across a ditch'. After much head scratching I came up with the idea to build a real 'proper' feature which these rocks would be perfect for....'A new old stone bridge!' I also had a couple of sections of old concrete drainage pipe which I had found under a pile of rubbish at the bottom of the garden....just the job!!

This is the area at the end of the ditch which was a none de-script border at the edge of the lawn and ripe for some 'Higgy' development! 

As this area is in the ditch although drained it still gets quite wet in winter so anything built had to take this into account and not create a problem for standing/draining water. Therefore the base of my new bridge was built on a substantial layer of hardcore and gravel to allow good drainage. In the picture below you can see that the bridge is actually constructed above ground level with just the concrete pipe sat down into the bed of gravel.

Behind the bridge I used more gravel and hardcore to add a 12" layer of further drainage before back filling with soil which had been dug out of the wildlife area...

This picture below shows the bridge with backfilled soil, note the boards used to the side to add more depth to the shallow ditch and to help blend the finished soil level into the bordering lawn...

The soil was then prepared and planted with grasses and wild-flower seed mix which when grown up should hopefully give a nice natural feel to this feature...

The turf from the surface of this ditch was taken up and used to create natural looking banks inside of the boards, Planting pockets were dug with polythene and soil which were then planted with a variety irises. I have planted irises which should give year round interest due to their differing flowering times. The bottom of the ditch was laid with a weed membrane and then pebbles and gravel added to give a dry river bed effect....

The below picture gives you a glimpse over the top of the bridge to the dry stream bed which runs down the edge of the garden and links into this main feature...I will cover this in more depth next time...

From the picture above you have had a quick glimpse of the dry stream bed and the raised vegetable planters which I will cover in more detail next time. With the weather warming up slightly I may even have some up to date gardening activities to write about! The light should also be improving as we move towards Spring so I also hope to be able to show you a few more photographs of my feathered visitors....

Once again many thanks to all of you who are logging on regularly it is appreciated. I hope that you are finding my daft ramblings interesting and please do feel free to leave comments and ideas which I would be really pleased to discuss in future posts...

Cheers for now...

Recycling & branching out into wildlife...

Hello once again it is now February 2011 and the weather is still dark and damp putting a halt to gardening at the moment. Luckily we are only half way through catching up on last years efforts so I still have plenty to talk about!

Firstly I would like to thank the many of you who have been logging on to see what mad idea I'm going to come up with next. To date as well as a large British audience we have been visited by USA, Canada, Denmark, France and Vietnam so a quick hello to you all, I hope you are enjoying my pointless ramblings and will continue to log in and see what happens next!...

Before I put you out of your suspense as to what happens with that big pile of junk from last month here's some bird stuff first....

Every January the RSPB run a survey called 'The big garden birdwatch' (BGBW). Anyone can take part in this survey by simply spending an hour watching and counting birds which visit your garden or local park. When you have the results simply send them back to the RSPB who collate them to work out which of our native birds are thriving or sadly in decline. All the information is invaluable to help with future conservation projects which makes this a nice simple way to feel like you are doing your bit for our feathered friends. The RSPB forum http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/forums/ is also well worth a visit with some great stuff on there about birds, gardens and wildlife in general.

During my BGBW I counted 20 species during the hour and was lucky to see my first Reed Bunting which also takes my own count up to 33 species seen in the garden so far!

The poor light has been particularly bad  for taking photographs recently so I haven't done too much but here's a shot that makes me smile... a greedy Pigeon coming in for landing...

Right back to the gardening and back to August/September 2010 and some nice sunny weather again!

At the end of the last blog I left you with a picture of the bottom of the garden which over the years had been used as a compost heap and general dumping area. My plans for this area were always to set it up for wildlife whilst maintaining interest and giving a natural flow an link with the open countryside beyond. Also in my very first blog entry I said that I intended to recycle what ever materials I could whilst constructing this garden....

You will now see what happened to all those branches which were cut from the trees when opening up the view last month (July)...

Firstly all the branches were sorted and any which were nice and thick and straight were cut with a chainsaw, they were then used on their ends to build a log semi circle feature at the point where the wildlife/natural area begins...  

I also bought in some 4' round posts which were cut down to size and hammered into the ground to create pathways, which will eventually be covered in bark chippings and planted with ferns and native woodland bulbs...

The thinner branches were also recycled and used to create natural borders which again when planted should become home to various types of wildlife...

From the picture below you can see how you will be led into this area and forced to walk along the woodland paths which will eventually lead you to a sunny seating area (not built yet!)...

These 'logged' enclosures were then filled with hardcore, soil and compost to create banks and planting areas which will give the area interest and depth whilst forming a natural association to the rest of the garden...

 Once planted the paths and banks will add wonderful secret areas for my young daughter and her friends to explore and hide in. Hopefully they will also be area where we can all enjoy a bit of wildlife spotting also....To increase the interest for children the banks will be turfed and as you can see from the below picture accessed by either a slope or steps so that they can run along the paths or over the top of the banks themselves....

Finally the bank with a turf  path on, you can also see that both edges have been left for planting, to the back of this I will plant native wild shrubs which will hopefully encourage wildlife and add some secrecy to the paths behind....

This is as about as far as I have got with this area so far other than planting out several hundred native bulbs such as: English bluebells, snowdrops, anemones, snakes head fritalliries, glory of the snow amongst others. Also already planted here are some ferns placed in the shade of the log bank along the paths and a selection of daffodils and tulips to add some early colour. Please do keep watching to see how this area develops as I continue landscaping and planting it.....Oh and add a bog garden with a twist!!!!!....

Once again thanks for reading.

Next time: Another bridge and a pebble stream....