Garden Project

[Penners]

Garden Project

Objective, to create a safe area for my 2 girls aged 1 and 2. Where they can play all year round.

Background, My garden is quite large and is on several levels due to the incline within the garden we simply can’t allow the children to play without fear of them falling down steps or into rose bushes etc.

 

[Penners]

This is the area I'm going to convert into the play area

 

[Penners]

My first injury!! It’s a given to be honest every time I do DIY I get the obligatory injury lol this one did sting for a bit though. It certainly delayed my work.



Note to self cut your bloody nails next time and you won't accidentally rip the bugger off !!

 

[Penners]

Back to work, finger nail nicely strapped had to nip to hospital for them to push the thing back in but all is good.



Well the grass has got to go. It's more moss anyway to be honest and one less lawn to cut is always a bonus.

 

[Penners]

Last pic of the moss before it goes



Now time to pull up the turf. I've rented a turf cutter so hopefully this goes well.

 

[Penners]

The turf has gone and now onto the labourious task of digging post holes for the fencing all 26 of the buggers !!!

Fencing coming along nicely

 

[Penners]

6*2 retainers are in, time to level out the ground.



The slope is almost gone had to hire 2 skips to shift lots and lots of topsoil and turf. Its amazing how much soil you need to move just to get the gradient down a little.

 

[Penners]

Sh!t oooooooooops

I was cutting the tops off the fence posts and carried on cutting right into the top of my hand.

I've done my own repair, had some spare sterostrips



Hmmmm wife not happy with my bodge job so she's sent me to the hospital

Funnily enough the nurse was very impressed apart from I hadn't pulled the wound tight enough. Patched up and ready to go again

 

[Penners]

Next job is staining, I must admit although it’s the easiest of the jobs so far I hate staining too monotonous, it just goes on and on and on and on.



and on and on

 

[Penners]

Next job is to select the astro turf. There are so many different types.

After meeting several companies for quotations etc. and many sample patches of turf I finally decided on PrimaLawn

I love this bit as the only job I now have is to make the teas and keep them in supply of biscuits.

First job they have is to lift 2 ton of crushed granite for the base layer. Poor chaps they were certainly sweating barrowing the granite from the bottom of the drive.

 

[Penners]

Well the project is near to completion thank god !!! working 5 days a week then spending nights and weekends on this is starting to grind. The plus side is I'm feeling fitter although shattered if that makes sense lol.



Can you see the panel I've missed thought I'd finished bloody staining




The path leads up to what we call the secret garden purely because we didn't see this section of the garden prior to purchasing the house.

 

[Penners]

A couple more pics









Baby Dave is liking the new grass




Job Done

 

[Penners]

Before After


I hope you enjoyed looking at my pics maybe it might inspire someone to do a little garden project themselves this year. All in all it was a very enjoyable process if not a little tiring at times lol.

The icing on the cake has to be seeing my 2 children playing happily for hours on end without me being on edge wondering where the next fall / trip is coming from.

 

[oneman]

Good job, having done my own garden I know how much effort it is.

One question about astro turf, I was thinking about using it but I hear it attracts cat poo ?

 

[Penners]

I did mention the cat faeces to the chaps that installed the lawn essentially you just remove the offending item and rinse. The lawn is very quick draining so hosing down is not a problem.

However after having the lawn installed now for 6 months I have yet to find a single piece of cat poo. The only thing that has defecated on the lawn was a fox. Which has since been shot, (it was harassing / killing my chickens)

The lawn also comes with a 10 year guarantee well 15 years guarantee on the main area and 10 year guarantee on the sloped path leading to the secret garden.

Apparantly a lot of people with dogs also buy astro turf as its easier to maintain with the dogs number 2's

 

[Penners]

Just a side note on the fox, I don't condone needless killing of animals however this was a half breed quite an aggressive one at that and was visiting the garden several times during the day trying to kill the chickens.

Sorry for the pic quality

 

[Rumpelstiltskin.]

Excellent job matey, should be proud of your self.
Hope the kiddies love it.

 

[Penners]

Excellent job matey, should be proud of your self.
Hope the kiddies love it.

Thank you Manic01 much appreciated

 

[goldie]

wow what a fantastic job you done !!!
hope your war wounds have healed up now. i need to re do my garden too
wont be anything near as nice as yours
many congrats on the work you've done and i wish you and your family many happy years safely playing together xx

 

[*Matt*]

Very good work there pal