Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Garden Seating a Raised Bed and Patio Make-Over!

Hello All,

You are probably feeling confused at another post so soon after my last one about moth trapping and both of them following such a long gap!!

Well as I said in my last post I have lots for you to catch up with but at the same time it's that part of the year when you also start to plan forward and decide what projects need doing or certain areas that need a make over or complete overhaul.

Before we go back in time my plans to take forward into next year and from things experienced this season is to find some comfortable and good looking garden furniture. You may have noticed from past postings and pictures that our main seating and outside eating area contains a large oval shape white plastic table and chairs set. Although practical it looks downright UGLY!!!

As a reminder here is a picture of the nice secluded seating area that I worked hard to create...

Our main seating area is situated below the Koi pond and is tucked away behind the trellised raised bed that in the height of summer is full of tall and lush planting making a nice natural screen. A small wildlife pond here also adds extra interest but it's a shame the same can't be said for the white plastic 1980's patio set!!!....

So first plan for next year will be to get rid of the 1980's white plastic patio set and get something a little more attractive and in keeping with the garden. Initially I have been looking on line to see what is around and to get an idea of what would fit into the style of our garden. With wood featured throughout the garden initial thoughts are to go with a wooden picnic set with attached seats similar to the furniture supplied by the company here... 'The Garden Furniture Centre'
Please do take a look and let me know what you think would fit best?

Going back in time to August of this year and to a little project that I completed one weekend, not so much for wildlife but to tidy up a certain area of the garden and tie it into other recent landscaping jobs. As I have said on numerous occasions although the garden is for wildlife and we are extremely proud of what wildlife it has attracted so far, it has to be used as a family space and we like it to also be an attractive space. With this in mind I decided that it was time to tidy up the area by the raised beds on the old patio and will take you through this project step by step below...

I have been keen to tidy this area of old patio up for some time and have been slowly utilising this unused space with the addition of a raised vegetable bed and a cold frame to bring on plants in. However it still remains an unattractive and drab concrete space!!...

In true Higgy 'recycling' style I also managed to 'liberate' some old scaffold boards that had been sawn in half and were destined for the fire place! 'I've got just the job for them' I thought to myself before asking if the builder if I could have them!!.. 

   With a rough plan in my head and with a few old scaffold boards I set to work transforming this ugly concrete space into a much nicer 'softer' looking area and of course creating a little extra planting space at the same time! (well you still have to think about the wildlife a bit and add some pollinating plants wherever you can!!!)

The boards were simply stacked into place on top of the existing patio which provided a firm level base that I knew drained adequately...
In a many of my garden projects I use this galvanized building strap to fix together wood especially inside structures such as raised beds where it can be hidden out of sight. The beauty of this strap is that it's readily available from any builders merchant and you can easily cut it using tin shears and it comes pre-drilled!!
Once a piece of the builders strap is cut to the required length simply screw it into place using some good quality exterior wood screws. I generally use about four screws depending on the size of the pieces of wood being joined....
The inside of the raised bed is then lined using old compost bags, this protects the wood from rotting and also helps to retain moisture in the compost....

With the raised bed finished and lined with polythene I filled it with a mixture of compost and well rotted manure and planted it a few different plants. As it needs to be a big feature it has been planted with a nectar rich Hydrangea and some Japanese anemone for autumn pollen and colour. Also planted is some bamboo to help act as a bit of a screen and a Arum Lilly to help tie it in with slightly leafy jungly look in this part of the garden,
Despite the new raised bed this part of the garden was still an old concrete patio that looked drab and made for quite a boring floor surface that still didn't really tie into other works recently done here like the rockery and plum slate detailing in the seating area below.

Despite the new bed and planting this area still looked drab and boring...

It was now that I decided to go the whole hog and sort this 'boring flooring' problem out also...
Due to the problem we have with horsetail weed I decided to keep the firm level base of paving slabs as they provided a good solid base to work from and also offered a strong barrier and good resistance to these dreaded weeds.

The first stage of my new slate path was to fix 'runners' to the concrete slabs... 
  This was done by drilling through the wooden runners and then drilling and 'raw plugging' the concrete pavers which were in turn screwed down onto the floor....
The wooden runners were spaced evenly to look attractive but to also help to keep the slate aggregate in place.

Once all the runners were screwed securely in place plum slate was spread out between them.... 
The combination and contrast of the wooden runners and plum slate really make this whole area much brighter and add much needed interest....
 In this last picture you can really see how this simple make over ties this area into the rockery and  seating area below. By using the same materials it creates real flow through the two areas and links them up in a smart and modern way....  

So that really is a quick fix on a drab and boring and under used area of the garden. We included some salvage and recycling with the scaffold boards and ended up making I think an interesting and much smarter area than now blends seamlessly into the next part of the garden. One thing that I really wanted to achieve in the garden was completely different spaces and areas that did their own thing yet still linked effortlessly to their neighbouring areas. I think in this case we have managed this as there is a lot going on in these spaces including, Koi pond, Vegetable bed, Flower beds, Wildlife pond, Rockeries and of course the garden's main seating and entertaining area! Yet somehow all these different aspects and features work wonderfully with each other now!

This probably concludes my mad ramblings for this time but I do hope that this has given you a few ideas about what you could also achieve in your own garden, with not a great amount of work, on a small budget and in just a space of a weekend!!

Next time I will report on a few more of the summers past tasks in the garden and of course some more wildlife visitors. Planning forward will include some spring bulbs I've chosen for early pollinators also.

My leaving picture is a view of the large perennial pollinating border taken in October. Even now it still holds a lot of colour and flowers providing nectar for late bees, butterflies and other pollinators....


As always thanks for reading I hope that you have enjoyed it and found some interest in this latest project. Please do mail me with your thoughts and comments as I always love to read them and will of course answer all messages that receive.

Best

Higgy



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