Barrows, Bonfires, Bark & Beers!

Matt & Sarah came up for the weekend and.........they brought sunshine and muscles!  With Chris's help too, we all moved about 50 - 55 wheelbarrows full of woodchip down to the Henclosure, the Woodland Border and the service path.  The mountain of wood chip was courtesy of Chris who had been asked to fell a Western Red Cedar. Being Cedar it had a really lovely scent and the chickens love scratching around in their sweet smelling fresh new litter. 

Sarah was our brave cave slave!  She crawled into the low, dark cave, swept it all out and then stacked all the remainder oak rails, which the rest of us trimmed to size and carried down. This all took place following intense discussions and negotiations with one inveterate hoarder of oak. Compromises were reached over that which was stored and discarded!  (Nuff said!) Then it was time to burn unwanted broken pallets last week's brash...............and have a beer!  Checkout the video!

Miles of Tiles

Down pipes being made

Laying vintage tiles

Cleaning the old tiles

The first real spring-like sunny day meant I helped Chris lay some beautiful old tiles he just happened to arrive with! They're yellow and red terracotta and look really fab. After laying in ducting for Dave's electric cables, the other job was to clean off mortar from the already re-recycled tiles. These had already been recycled once by us in the previous greenhouse and before that by Kyle. We now have piles of Kyles tiles ready for recyling yet again at the far end of the greenhouse. The used mortar completely filled a whole wheelbarrow and, at the end of the day, a major clear up of brick ends, battens and leftover materials in readiness for greenhouse delivery!  

Kyle's tiles!

Meanwhile, our design engineer at Hartley Botanic: Josh sent this picture of the down pipes under construction. Installation commences on Monday - can hardly wait! Further tiling will take place after this stage.

Yet another project!

Laying in the raspberries

Reclaimed oak fencing

Meanwhile..............down the bottom of the garden: another project is well under way. A new little fruit enclosure for the raspberries is under construction. Chris used some reclaimed oak post and rail fencing to enclose it and planted more beech saplings in order to extend the present beech hedge around the Henclosure. He even brought some currants, rhubarb and  a gooseberry bush. He plans to make a wood chip path and even a gate - eventually. The next stage is to strip the turf to improve the levels and then replace it. This will entail importing soil from the Henclosure but should mean easier mowing with the mower no longer wanting to slide down over the edge of the turf! Will it be finished in time for open gardens?????

End of the day!

Laying a new greenhouse floor.

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Chris mixing more mortar

Newly laid path

After a day in the persistent rain yesterday and getting soaked through and covered in mud, it was a real pleasure to continue greenhouse work in sunshine today. Our star of a builder arrived with much needed bricks for the new greenhouse path - probably cos he didn't trust us to go and buy the right sort! I found 4 old tiles which he built in as features and I was allowed to brush off the mortar! We plan to keep the same greenhouse layout as before with a bed for tomatoes on the right hand side and staging on the left with the far end floor space left free for taller pot plants. So far, the grapevine seems to be surviving

Evidence of building works!

Another Step Closer

Richard...

..demonstrates his theodolite!!

The replacement greenhouse is now another step closer following a visit from Darren & Richard at Hartley Botanic. They came and checked on final levels and dimensions and gave Chris gold for the best greenhouse base! They not only admired his accuracy but also the details in the brickwork. We now need Chris to approve their construction! They even managed to dodge more vicious squalls and have promised to send photos of the manufacturing process & also shelving details.  Roll on 18th when construction commences!!

Richard & Darren from Hartley Botanic

Return Surprise!

Main long wall

Main gable end wall

After a bit of a trip 'up north', we came back to an amazing surprise. We found a beautifully finished greenhouse base complete with a dog's tooth course of bricks beneath the blues on the 'front' side.  Chris had even found time to lay slabs between the base and the sleeper retaining wall.  How does he do it?  Even the door thresholds were all finished! We can't wait for Hartley Botanic to do their bit now! Josh Heywood, their design engineer has been most attentive when it comes to design detail and dimensions and we await their visit tomorrow. They have promised for installation to commence on 18th April. Hopefully, that will give us enough time to finish off before our first open garden event on 1st May (shiver!)

Easter Monday Building

Slate plaque & ridge tile installed

Milk bottle niche - imagine the geranium in a clay pot!

Thanks to Chris sacrificing most of his Easter weekend, huge leaps forward on building were made today.  Even the weather cooperated although we commenced operations in high winds and glacial temperatures! Gradually the winds dropped and the temperature climbed a tad.  Either side of the south facing door we have the milk bottle niche that Chris gave me on the right with the freshly engraved slate plaque on the left. I found some ridge tiles which Chris cut and laid above both features. Both look amazing! Since these photos were taken, the blue bricks on the top were finished. The labourer was in trouble (again) this time for unsatisfactory workmanship whilst brushing off the pointing! Despite such failings, I'm sure that Hartley Botanic will be bowled over when they see this base!

Man with a plan!