Easy Build Bridge for Child Friendly Wildlife Garden...

Hello All,

Yet again I start another blog post a long time after my last post and as is usually the case the good weather has seen my time spent in the garden and not on the computer writing about it!

Although I much prefer my time outside I felt that I must come on and update you all on my wildlife pond and show you a new feature built for my daughter recently.

Before I tell you about the new child friendly feature I will give you a quick update on the pond that you will know from previous posts was dug this Spring.

 So at just six months old you can now see that the wildflower planting around the outside of the pond has really taken off and gives the area a nice natural feel. The planting inside the pond is also adding to this feel and providing a great habitat for variety of animals and insects...

Visitors to the pond...

 Last time we spoke about the Damselflies but now these have made way to Dragonflies that are also depositing eggs into the pond. Above is the plentiful Common Darter and below is a Migrant Hawker both seen in the garden around the pond....

Although my Blackbirds still bathe daily in the pond all sorts of birds use the facility to wash and drink from like this thirsty Greenfinch...

I always talk about my wildlife and the things that I enjoy in the garden but for some time I haven't mentioned my daughter in this blog!

If you cast your mind back to my first post one of the key things for this garden was to demonstrate that you can have a wildlife garden that is family and more importantly child friendly!

Of course my daughter has her play area with slide, climbing frame and trampoline etc but like all young children they get bored and desire other things to keep them active and entertained.

This presented me with a bit of a challenge as I was also looking to find a little more planting space so building new play equipment would take up space that could be planted in!?!...

Cost is of course always a factor and in the current climate we really couldn't afford to be buying brand new equipment or even materials to build something.

After much head scratching and discussions with my daughter as to what she wanted it was decided that building a bridge into her play area would be just the thing to add a bit more fun to her part of the garden! I could also see this as an opportunity to provide more planting space by creating a pollinating flower border the complete length of the play area and using the bridge s a means to get over the border and into the play area, how exciting!!...

Materials!!??...

Now this was a question! obviously wood would be first choice as it fits into the theme of the rest of the garden. Also I had a large pile of reclaimed roof-joists in the garage just waiting for a likely project!! These joists are 3x3inch and between 6-8feet long so I would need to be creative in my design but at the same time wanted to show how someone could make a really simple but effective 'play-bridge' feature out of reclaimed materials....

So first job was to sort out how many lengths of wood we would need and cut them all down to about the right size. I left the pieces that would be used for the steps slightly over sized so they could be 'adjusted' as required. This is also a good time to get the kids involved and once cut my daughter and I spent about two hours in the garage painting each piece of wood. This has two effects; the first being that you get a protective covering on every side of each piece of wood. But it also makes your children feel like they are really involved in the building of these play features with you!!....

So once the posts had been cut and painted we ended up with a wooden jigsaw like this...

 To get started on your bridge lay the small base pieces on the ground where you want the steps to be located whilst using one of the longer lengths to ensure that they are in the right place at both ends of the bridge...

Once happy with the position of the base pieces of wood start building your bridge 'dry' without screwing anything together or using any fixings at this stage...

 Building the bridge 'dry' like this enables you to make adjustments as you go along to ensure that you get it in the best position possible. You can see by the picture below and above that the design is a simple 'stacking' of the various pieces of wood. It is at this stage that you could decide to add extra pieces to make your bridge higher or as you can see here trim pieces to ensure they fit in the space correctly.....

So now you have the base of the bridge fully assembled. You are 100% happy with it's positioning and have made any adjustments or cut pieces of wood that required it you are ready to proceed to the next stage....

DISMANTLE!! Yep that's right you now need to take it all apart again! Now a word of Warning here. When dismantling do it piece by piece and very carefully. What you don't want to do is move your base pieces as they are in the exact position where they need to be to support your new bridge!...

Having not disturbed them cut around your base pieces with a sharp spade and then dig out the area where the bases will sit..... 

Back fill the holes with concrete and reset the base pieces into the concrete using the end of a lump hammer handle to gently tap then into the concrete mix. Important - At this stage you must use a spirit level to ensure that the base pieces at both ends of the bridge are level or as I did just very slightly off level to allow drainage of water along the bridge.

Once you have got to this stage and the base pieces are firmly concreted into place it's a simple matter of following the above process but screwing each piece of wood into place and into the piece below. For ease I pre drilled and countersunk every piece to ensure a nice even and neat finish.

You now have the base of the bridge finished and fixed firmly in place....

The final part of the build is to add some handrails to make the bridge safe to use but to also make it look a lot more 'bridge like'

To add handrails simply get six round stakes (like the wooden stakes that are often used in fencing or to stake trees) and cut the spiked end off of two. Put those two posts aside and hammer the other four into the ground right next to the bridge. Use a tape measure and spirit level to make sure that they are evenly spaced and level and then drill and screw each leg onto the bridge base as below.... 

Hammering the post into the ground is for safety reasons to make sure that the rails are solid and any children leaning on them aren't going to cause them to collapse. Make sure that they have had a couple of good coats of preservative to slow down any rotting of the posts.

Now take the two 'spikeless' posts and lay them along the upright posts on one side of the bridge and mark with a pencil where each upright meets the rail. Using a chop saw it you have one cut the section between each pencil mark out to create a shallow grove the width of the end of the upright. Once cut out simply lay back along the two uprights so they sit in the groves and screw a long screw down into the upright to fix the handrail firmly into place as below. Then simply repeat this process on the opposite side...

At this point add another lick of paint and remember to paint the ends of the pieces of wood that were cut earlier. This obviously makes the bridge look finished but more importantly helps prevent the naked ends from rotting...

So there you go a really simple and quick way to build a garden bridge and of course another fantastic feature in our child and family friendly wildlife garden. The size and height of the bridge is only limited by your imagination so why not have a go and bridge a flower border like I have rather than have a boring path or bridge a garden pond and then paint it whatever colour you want!!...

 The finished bridge built in just one day!...

As you have seen from other posts I used the same design for the new pond and it works well over water also!!...

That's about where I have to leave it this time but I will leave you with my Top Tip...

TOP TIP - My bridges have been built using reclaimed roof joists from a builder that I know. This is a very cheap way to source timber for this sort of project as the price of tips has escalated recently meaning that many builders are more than happy to create extra space in their skip by letting you have some wood! Just remember that you can't help yourself and must always ask before taking away anything such as this. 

The only downside is that the timber won't be treated so will need painting or a few coats of wood preservative but what a great way to recycle and if your really lucky Freecycle!! :-)

See you next time

Best

Higgy