Nursewhen Digs It Up

[Palustris]

Another question. What happens when you pour a lot of water on to it?

[walnut]

Nursey you only need to have 2 spits(2spade depths)of compost to grow most things, if you are planting a tree or large shrub then dig deeper and add more compost, looking at your garden before your assault it didn't look as though you had a drainage problem so I wouldn't try to dig it all the sand out, I live on an area that was many years ago an estuary when I dig down after 2feet it is pure sand, never had a problem growing anything

[NurseWhen]

Originally posted by Helofadigger:


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.

The tree wasn't so bad, I was expecting the crater and root rip-up. The sand was a different thing altogether. I was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel but it turned out to be another, bigger tunnel

I hope you feel better soon.
xx

[NurseWhen]

Thanks for the advice all. I'm not at home at the moment. I'm digging my parents' allotment now. (I think I must have been a mole in a former life) I'll pour some water onto the sand and report back tomorrow.

[NurseWhen]

Chapter 4 - The Adventures of Nursewhen - Nursewhen dictates a letter.
(Ref:- Monty Python - Biggles Dictates a letter)

Right, I feel the need to vent. My special brand of 'perfectly polite' letters sometimes bear surprising fruit. Let's see what Bryant make of this one. ;) :rolleyes:

First draft. I'll tidy it up and then release it into the wild.

*Nursewhen affixes the antlers and dictates*


Dear (Somebody high up at Bryant homes)

I have had the pleasure of living on one of your lovely homes for a number of years. Just recently, I decided to create a flower garden to replace my front lawn. Unfortunately, after removing the turf, I found that my soil, to quite a considerable depth consisted of nothing but hardcore and builders sand.

I know that an award winning and professional building company can be relied upon to be fastidious and rigorous in their disposal of waste. Therefore I find it impossible to imagine that a quality builder of homes such as yourselves would do anything so underhand (not to mention unlawful) as to fly tip your commercial waste into somebody's front garden and disguise it with a thin layer of topsoil. I can only imagine that it must have been an unfortunate oversight and you are as shocked by this discovery as I was when I found myself up to my knees in sand.

Of course, I am certain, after this appalling revelation, that you will be eager to rectify this unfortunate lapse. Although the area at fault is only about 10 foot by 25. I am sure you will appreciate that for a sole lady gardener such as myself, emendment of this state of affairs may require months of elapsed time, not to mention the cost of hiring a skip and purchasing topsoil.

I am aware that Bryant are building another estate of beautiful homes within walking distance of mine. I therefore feel that it would have little impact on your working day for a small team to be despatched to my home, remove the sand and deliver the topsoil which should have been in place when my home first went up for sale.

I look forward to your immediate reply and speedy mobilisation of a workforce.

Yours faithfully

Nursewhen

*chortles*

[Sarraceniac]

Bet you 20p you get a reply similar to the following:

Dear Sir or Madam,

We are very distressed to hear about your problems with your drains/garden/driveway or lavatory.

We endeavour to give a service that is second to none and have referred your comments to our area manager to look into the matter. Unfortunately he is on a business conference in the Seychelles at the moment but I am sure he will look into the matter the moment he returns in July 2010.

Please be assured that we do take problems like this very seriously and to demonstrate our concern we enclose a voucher for 'Buy one get one free' at our sister company, Pizzas are us.

If you wish to discuss the matter further please call us on 0907-555666 and speak to one of our trained counsellors. I suggest you phone in the middle of the night to allow for the time difference between Delhi and the UK. Calls are charged at £3.00 a minute.

Yours sincerely

Noel Noel.
Customer rip-off dept. [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[elainefiz]

Good luck Nursewhen.Hopefully they`ll send a wagon load of plants with the labourers. [img]graemlins/eusa_clap.gif[/img] [img]smile.gif[/img]

[NurseWhen]

Great letter Sarraceniac.

I don't expect to get anything out of them, I just want to see how somebody is going to squirm their way out of the accusation of underhand fly tipping.

[NurseWhen]

Originally posted by Palustris:
Another question. What happens when you pour a lot of water on to it?

Hi Palustris, I poured a pint of water into the sandy hole and this is what happened.

Full


Draining


Drained


Cat


Does that happen every time one pours water on sand?

[NurseWhen]

Originally posted by walnut:
... looking at your garden before your assault it didn't look as though you had a drainage problem so I wouldn't try to dig it all the sand out, I live on an area that was many years ago an estuary when I dig down after 2feet it is pure sand, never had a problem growing anything

Hi Walnut. I have to say that I was pleased when I dug up the first circle because the soil looked completely different from the clay of the back garden. It was much easier to dig and much better draining.

However the soil of the second circle is completely different from the first. The sand that I found in the first one was very deep down, which is why I was happy to compost and cover it ready for the sping. In the second circle, the sand is almost directly under the turf.

I've made a start on the third circle now and I dread to think what's under that one because I can't get the fork in more than 1cm.

[ 06. November 2007, 01:33 PM: Message edited by: NurseWhen ]

[geoffhandley]

I think you got your photos in the wrong order. Surely the last one went first!

[NurseWhen]

Dang! I didn't want to admit that it was actually a pint of cat urine.

[Sarraceniac]

1st circle, 2nd circle, 3rd circle.... Are we discussing Solzhenitsyn or Dante? Virgil is my hero. ;)

[NurseWhen]

It certainly feels like Dante at the moment, though I haven't yet had to lie in the mud under constant rain, hail and violent storms.

Mind you, if next summer is anything like our last one, I'll pobably end up doing just that.

[Sarraceniac]

[img]graemlins/eusa_clap.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/eusa_clap.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/eusa_clap.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/eusa_clap.gif[/img] :eek:

[Helofadigger]

Originally posted by geoffhandley:
I think you got your photos in the wrong order. Surely the last one went first!

Sorry to laugh at your expense Nursewhen but Geoff's post made me howl!!
Helen.xxx.

[NurseWhen]

Originally posted by Helofadigger:

Sorry to laugh at your expense Nursewhen but Geoff's post made me howl!!
Helen.xxx.

It's not at my expense, it made me laugh too.

[Pro Gard]

Your test hole indicates the hardcore is free draining.

Personaly I would build the soil level up by importing topsoil and organic matter. Top soil at £25-£30 per ton is a lot cheaper than skip hire and the soil you would then need.

If you can get 300mm of soil this will be enough for most pereneials. For anything with a larger rootball just break out an area for the roots using a bar, remove the rubbish and dig in some compost/manuare and top soil.

[Palustris]

Agree. We have areas of this garden where there are house foundations and all we have done is to put 18 inches of top soil over the old concrete floors. Only trees really need to go deeper than that.

[geoffhandley]

With regard to the third circle i wonder whether you will have cement under there. The presence of all that building sand might suggest that is where they were making all the concrete and cement. Quite often they would have just dumped spare concrete and cement and just buried it. If it is then sometimes you can lift bits up or smash it up if its quite thin. i would use a fork to see if you can work out where the edge is because you can work at it from the edge, but you need to expose what is under there.
I just hope you don't have what I had on my first garden. I moved in when the house was 25 years old and i had to hire a concrete breaker and filled a skip with what i dug up - on a bigger area than yours i should hasten to add. Builders are so dirty. On my present house which we got new the worst was those metal ties they put round piles of bricks. I would dig one up and trace it, finding it eventually embedded in concrete. Why they cannot throw everything in a skip? They just bury and forget. I cannot stand a garden with buried rubbish.