The weather has remained dry up until Easter weekend, making progress easier than if it were cold and wet. This pic is from last week and I have since completed the walls. (it’s round so there is only one wall, but it feels like there are many as it is a long process!).
The next pic shows the entrance where I’ll make a pair of solid Oak doors in a Medieval style. The window has oranges and green leaves which look great in the afternoon Sun.
This pic shows the skylight at the centre of the the Round house and the whole build has moved on substantially from my last blog to the point where the walls are almost complete but i’m going to put those pics up a bit later. We even had one of the chickens that roam around here lay a couple of eggs in the Roundhouse,
Well we’ve spent most of the past 5 days putting the different layers on to the roof frame with 4 days carrying bag loads of soil up there. To reduce the weight I ordered a pallet load of Perlite an expanded volcanic rock which can be used as a lightweight aggregate. Today we finished putting the soil on the roof and I sowed a mixture of Cornfield Annuals for instant colour this year as well as a perennial mixture of meadow flowers, but not meadow grasses as these tend to take over too quickly pushing out the more interesting flowers.
To ensure success with germination and growing I have installed a mini sprinkler irrigation system which you can see in this photo.
Well it’s the beginning of March and we have erected the Sweet Chestnut roof frame over the English Oak Frame (trying to keep all materials as local as possible). I’m very pleased with the progress so far and the whole structure is going according to plan, which is not always the case! We have got a week off this coming week as I’m having to do a Church garden in Ipswich which has been on hold for some time while permission was sought to proceed – it’s a shame to have two projects on top of each other as it adds to the stress and worry of finishing either of the projects and very unusual at this time of year. Here is a pic of the Roundhouse so far.
I should have started blogging on my low impact Cobwood Round House that I am building at Jimmy’s Farm a few weeks ago, so i’ll just say a few words on the process so far.
This beautiful and versatile building is going to be 5 metres in diameter and be of a load bearing Oak ‘henge frame’ (think of Stone Henge). This will have a ‘reciprocal’ roof frame made up of Sweet Chestnut that I coppiced my self from the woods at Jimmy’s Farm. This roof frame supports its self without the need for a central post to hold it up as each inward facing beam rests on the previous one with the last one tucked under the first one but on top of the previous one – keeping the whole structure up in the air. A mixture of wild meadow perennials and cornfield annuals will be planted on the roof.
The gaps between the henge frame are filled in with ‘Cobwood’ – short lengths of logs bedded together with ‘Cob’ – soil mixed with water, hay and a bit of lime (chalk). Also there will be a mixture of leaded glass windows and large Perspex viewing panes.
Finally the floor will have broad 12 inch Larch planks that I’ve ordered from a local saw mill. Thats it for now, thanks
John and Liz had a rectangular section of garden about 18 metres long by about 6 metres wide, at the end was a large mature Willow tree, the rest of the rectangle was made up of weeds and grass. This section of garden had laid unused for several years since they had moved in, they were bored of the view from the kitchen window and were looking for something other than the usual ‘lawn – patio – mixed border’ combination.
Using the Willow as a feature of the new garden, I designed and made a water garden. It starts with a spring, under the Willow, where water emerges from several places from bare rock and flows along a shallow stream. This is planted with Dwarf Mace Reed, and Butomus umbellatus (a flowering Reed). The water flows past a pebble beach and on to where the water drops a few inches into the pond, keeping noise levels to a minimum. The pond is divided into two sections. The first section is a pond (great for the kids to splash around in) or where you may sit on a rock and dangle your feet into the water. The second section is divided by boulders and contains a variety of marginal water plants. The shallow stream, with its reeds, allow the water to warm up in Summer also the reeds help to keep the nutrition levels down and the water clear. This is supported by a bio pressure filter fitted with a 30 Watt UV bulb as well as an Ion Emitter which mineralizes the water and prevents the formation of fibrous algae.
Beside the pebble beach and stream is a small handmade ‘Snug’ with a sloping ‘living roof’. Inside are the electrics to manage the lighting, pump, pressure filter, and ionator as well a double socket to allow one to sit and work with a laptop or plug in additional lighting or music. There is also a shelf inside, on which are a number of items found whilst digging out the garden, some are pretty old my favourite is a fragment of crockery that depicts a steam paddle boat.
The planting for the garden is informal and is designed to give a feeling of a natural woodland glade. Under the willow and along both sides of the stream the planting is of a woodland nature; Foxgloves, Bergenias, Ferns, Primulas, Heucheras, Geraniums, Hostas, bulbs. Whereas outside the drape of the the Willow, the planting is a Flowering meadow mixture. The area closest to the house is being kept as a normal lawn so that it may be used to sit and relax or entertain friends. This whole garden is screened off from view from the outside by overlapping Willow fence panels (thin Willow branches Woven through to make up an attractive natural and rustic looking screen) on which we are growing a mixture of Clematis and HoneySuckle.
Throughout the garden and in the Snug is a low voltage lighting system on a Dawn2Dusk sensor meaning that every evening the lights come on at dusk for a pre determined time and then switch themselves off. garden lighting transforms the use of your garden after dark. To ensure all the plants get enough water there is an automatic irrigation system since a large willow will create dry shade and the shallow living roof will dry out in a couple of days as a planter would.
The Client brief – to create a family garden out of what used to be a pub carpark, and a brick, glass, crockery dump – well thats what i discovered the garden space was made up of but all that hardcore and rubbish was hidden under a thin layer of turf, scabby grass, and weeds.
other requests were to move the existing vehicle entrance which was near the house down to the bottom of a separate paddock, remove the separating wall, close up the old driveway and create an new one to come up to the house. Allow the parents to view the entire length of the garden so that they may see their children playing down the bottom. Make the garden as simple and easy to maintain as possible.
Being a family garden there needs to be plenty of lawn play area for the kids but also somewhere that provides an area of interest for them that is safe but secludes the kids from the openess of the garden like a den but not just a play house - a secret garden!
On the outside of the garden and along the roadside we cleared the bricks and rubbish, weeds, and stones and planted a row of Allium and rows of early.Mid, and late Narcissus. Instead of turfing this strip of soil we have sown a flowering meadow mix that will need little maintenance and will soften,and brighten up the village of Holbrook.
If you would like to discuss your garden wishes or any aspect of gardens and or garden maintenance please contact me.
This was a pond that had been made recently by a landscaper but a rather unimaginative effort with the pond liner clearly visible as was the pipe for the pump and the electric cable. The stream they built was one of those narrow gutters with same sized rocks lining the length and a waterfall of about 2-3 inches. In fact the stream was so flat that it also emptied at the back of the stream by the filter meaning the client could only run it for a few hours before having to fill the pond up again.
I contructed a new pool at the head of the stream which flowed over pebbles,river stones and boulders much like a mountain stream and then over a large flat rock and into the pond falling approx 2 feet. The earth banks have been planted with ground covering ‘Mind Your Own Business’ (a good substitute for Moss) and Ajuga Reptans another ground covering plant with small spires of blue flowers and a couple of Ferns.
To get the stone that i wanted for this and every water garden project i do, i go and hand pick stone from Agstone, a Quarry in Lancashire. The pebbles, cobbles, and boulders can be bought from a good landscaping centre.
The brief for this garden was to create a small natural looking pond and provide planting for the whole garden, The planting plan was to be of a tropical look using hardy palms, Ferns, and other evergreen shrubs that would add to that tropical look such as Fatsia, Dicksonia Antartica, Acuba along with Red Acers, Bamboo and a number of perennials.
The rocks that lined the pond hid the pond liner (not Buytl Liner but a more modern and flexible alternative called Greenseal which i buy from Water Gardening Direct) giving the pond a more natural look with a small waterfall on one side and a pebble beach on the other comprising of a dozen or more different sized pebbles, river stones and boulders as well as Sandstone hand picked from Agstone quarry in Lancashire. The Pump is hidden as is all tubing and wiring and a pressure UV filter burried and hidden at the back of the pond. A couple of low voltage lights were submersed to add interest at nightfall.
A solid Oak Pergola was hand made to fit over the existing patio area and LED low voltage lanterns fixed to the posts. Evergreen Clematis Armandi was planted to grow over the Pergola.
A low voltage ‘Plug n Play’ lighting system was installed to light up certain plants and shrubs as well as the Pergola and the pond. The lights are on an automatic ‘Dusk to Dawn’ light sensor with an adjustable time dial so that whatever the season the lights come on at dusk and can run from one hour to nine hours transforming the look of the garden at night as well as being economical to install and run in fact the whole garden is lit by less than 150Watts.
Two automatic irrigation systems were installed one is a ‘leaky pipe’ system a porus pipe that circulates around the planting watering the plants by osmosis.
The other system is a drip feed and micro mist sprinkler system that specifically waters the Tree Ferns and the plants around the pond. Both these systems are on separate timers.
This project was to re-design and build a new patio to go where there was an old 1970,s patio made up of concrete slabs and overgrown leggy shrubs, We also undertook a smaller one at the side of the house as well. Along with the new Raj Green Indian Sandstone patios is a new planting scheme to go in the now cleared beds also an irrigation system and lighting. This stage of the project will be carried out at a later date.