Nursewhen Digs It Up

[NurseWhen]

Here's my current garden project. Advice and comments are welcome.

Introduction - Blame It On The Council

Here's how I got into my current state. I apologise in advance as it may descend into a rant.

Here's my front garden when I first moved in.


I thought 'Ooh lovely, nice long garden, flower bed round the tree, smashing.'

Then I found that silver birch trees don't send their roots down, they send them out in a web about 1cm below the turf, making the whole area completely undigable.

I decided the tree had to go.

On my estate, you need the council's permission to take down a tree planted by the builders. So I applied and told them I would replace it with a smaller, better behaved tree, but they said 'No'.

At that point I completely lost interest in the front garden and concentrated on the back.

Twelve years on, the tree was taller than my house, the roots had grown under the paving slabs of my drive making it look like a sine wave and grass is the rarest plant on my lawn.

Here's my splendid moss collection.



And weeds



Recently, I picked up the local paper and found it was open garden weekend with everybody running around looking at everybody else's garden; except me; who wasn't allowed to have one.

So I decided to strike a blow for Britain in Bloom.

I rang the lumberjacks.

Tune in next time for 'The Cunning Plan'

[ 16. November 2007, 09:59 AM: Message edited by: NurseWhen ]

[NurseWhen]

Chapter 1 - The Cunning Plan

Here's my newly de-treed front garden.


My front garden faces north and it's a shared lawn with my next door neighbour. It's 38 foot long and about 20 wide (only 10 of that is mine) The soil is heavy, alkaline clay and I know from my back garden experience that it will be full of builders' rubble and will have a huge population of slugs .

The area furthest from the house is the only part lit in spring and autumn. A small area closest to the house is shaded all year but the rest is lit throughout the summer.

What I want is for the two gardens to look like a whole. The house next door is let, so it's unlikely that will ever be anything but lawn. So I came up with the plan below.


It has 3, 10 foot diameter circles which are linked together. To give the garden some structure, interest in winter and to accentuate the circles, I plan to run a very small box hedge around one side of each circle. I'm going to concentrate my autumn and spring plants in the far circle, summer in the middle and all year interest nearest the house.

[Helofadigger]

Good luck at finally looking forward to having a front garden to be proud of NurseWhen.

I think its terrible when councils are able to stop us doing something that is more appealing to the eye, a planted area is so much more attractive than just plain grass.

I'm sure you will be pleased with your end result although it will take lots of hard work and a few pennies to complete it but well worth it in the end, you may even be surprised how many people passing by will stop and chat about your lovely new garden to you! ;)
Helen.xxx.

[NurseWhen]

Thanks Helen, I've already started on the garden. Tune in tomorrow for 'Chapter 2 - Getting the Hump with the Stump'

And you're right. In the 12 years I've lived there, I've hardly met any of my neighbours apart from my immediate ones. Now I'm swapping planting tips and banter as they go by (The most common one being 'No, I'm not doing yours next') ;)

[ 01. November 2007, 02:58 PM: Message edited by: NurseWhen ]

[Helofadigger]

Lol I get that one all the time I even had someone who wanted me to tackle a forest of trees in her garden...needless to say I didn't take her up on that offer not even with the promise of a nice cuppa!

I'll look forward to seeing how your garden grows, take things slowly you don't want to end up like me! :eek:
Helen.xxx.

[daitheplant]

I like the look of your design NW and look forward to seeing some pics of the finished garden. David.

[NurseWhen]

Chapter 2 - Getting the Hump with the Stump.

I had asked the lumberjacks to grind the tree stump. In my innocence, I imagined a pile of sawdust where once there was a stump. What I discovered was that it had only been ground down to ground level and the stump was still there in all its brooding glory.

So I set about digging it up.



And turned my front garden into a quarry



After two months of digging whenever I got a chance, it was still there.

I had, however entertained my neighbours one day by digging a very deep hole and then falling backwards into it.

I decided to give the stump a rest and started taking the roots out. They were 30 foot long and ran just under the turf of the lawn. To add to my quarry, I had now torn up the lawn.



I wish I'd taken a picture of the mountain of wood I removed from under the lawn. I think there was more tree under the lawn than up in the air.

A very nice man who'd dropped a skip to somebody else in my road offered to pull the stump out for me. He brought his truck with the crane arm over and looped two canvas ties round the stump and set it hauling.

After he'd nearly turned his lorry over and the stump still hadn't budged, we decided he'd better leave it (but I gave him two bottles of beer for trying which I think made his day)

I decided I probably needed help.

So, I rang the lumberjacks who told me that digging up tree stumps was 'blood, sweat and tears' (Yes I know) and that they were booked up for the foreseeable future (Oh yes?) and why didn't I have another go by myself and call them if I was still struggling (Frightened of breaking a nail?).

So the gloves came off. Armed with a two handed axe, saw, lump hammer and hatchet, I set about the offending object.

Then I hit gold. Actually, I hit a thick stratum of builders' sand directly underneath the stump and digging suddenly got much easier. After snipping yet another root, I felt it move and finally I managed to haul it out of the ground.

I ran where burly men with power tools feared to tread. Huzzah!

Ripley inspects the stump.



I inspect the hole that used to be my front lawn.



Stay tuned for 'Chapter 3, Getting Drastic with the Plastic'....

[ 01. November 2007, 08:26 PM: Message edited by: NurseWhen ]

[jjordie]

Well done you NW!
Can't wait for the next instalment

[roders]

[img]smile.gif[/img] What a woman.

[youngdaisydee]

wow NW, Great job, hows the blisters, i once moved a ton of gravel from front to back garden on my own, hard work but worth it. [img]graemlins/eusa_dance.gif[/img] can,t wait for the chapter 3 , hurry up girl [img]graemlins/eusa_clap.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/eusa_clap.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/eusa_clap.gif[/img]

[walnut]

Well done nurse all credit to you we will have to start calling you wonder woman, just be careful you don't overdo it.

[NurseWhen]

Thanks all, hopefully I'll get chapter 3 up tonight [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Helofadigger]

Great pictures and so much hard work, sorry guys but us girls can work as hard as you guys although some on us just don't know when to stop i.e.ME!

I bet NW you were amazed at the crater that the tree left and maybe even had second thoughts that you were doing the right thing when the lawn started to rip up! :eek:
Helen.xxx.

[freddy]

Hi NW, I`m quite enjoying this thread, amusing and very eloquently put together. I dare say this could one day become a `classic`(fable)taught in schools up and down the land Looking forward the the next thrilling installment. Cheers...freddy.

[NurseWhen]

Chapter 3 - Getting Drastic With The Plastic - Trouble With The Rubble - And Now Nursewhen Presents - Needing A Hand With The Sand.

HELP! It was all going so well. Now I need some help and advice.

The first circle (now minus tree) was as expected. Losts of rubble and concrete. The plan was to dig out the rubbish, mix in lots of compost and then cover with mulching material and leave it until spring. (There may be a short hiatus in the thread, we apologise for the delay). Then I planned to compost it again, add a bit of blood and bone and start planting.

All was going swimmingly. I was entertaining the neighbours with my animated black bag puppet shows (my cats think that black bags are akin to lobster pots) and Ripley thinks it's a hoot to jump on my back and perform balancing acts on my shoulders.

The first circle was composted and covered.



Today I started on the second circle.



Here's where it all started to go wrong. I know that my house was originally built on a green field site and I'm beginning to suspect that they may have put down a temporary road during building and it's now my front garden.

I have a couple of inches of topsoil then a layer of hardcore and then a thick layer of pure builders sand.



I don't know whether to dig it or make sandcastles with it.



I thought it might just be in one spot, so I dug a bit at the other end of the circle (10 foot away) and it's the same there.

What do I do? Do I dig it regardless and rely on composting and a delivery of topsoil to make it useable? Do I skim off the topsoil and dig out the sand and get more topsoil delivered? What do people think?

Help help

[Sarraceniac]

Employ a gardener.

[NurseWhen]

I've calmed down a bit now and can admit that in my heart of hearts, I know what I need to do. Skim off the topsoil, dig out the sand and get more topsoil delivered.

*Sigh*

I was hoping to get it all cut, composted and covered this weekend and then look forward to a gentle winter plotting my planting.

It looks like I have another spate of quarrying ahead of me (and my long-suffering neighbour).

Well at least it'll sort my heavy clay problem

[Palustris]

Just out of interest, what is the sand like? I mean if you can make sandcastels out of it then you need to remove it as you say. If it cuts your hand when you rub your fingers through it and falls to pieces when you try to make a sandcastle, then you do not need to do anything other than get as much humus into it as possible. We used to garden on a south facing sand dune and I mean SAND. We dug down once looking for the sewers and were going through beautiful sharp sand for over 3 metres! Never did find the sewer either. We actually used some of the sand when we built an extension to the house.
Anyway, if yours is SHARP sand (listen to it when you rub it between your fingers, you can hear the sharpness, honest!), then , as I said get compost in it and grow things which like a well drained soil. The builders rubble is more of a problem than sand, that you would be better getting out, especially if there is any asphalt in it. That stuff kills plants.
Just to make you feel better, we have removed over 30 tons of builder type stuff from this garden over the years.

[NurseWhen]

Thanks Palustris. No, it's definitely builders' sand. Perfect sandcastle stuff. I've used sharp sand before on my clay round the back and it's completely different.

I just hope there's not 30 tonnes of it

[daitheplant]

NW it sounds as if you`ve found the spot where the mixer was. Stick with it girl you are doing a brilliant job. David.