Nursewhen Digs It Up

[daitheplant]

I totally agree Geoff, it`s obviously easier (and cheaper) for builders to hide their rubbish rather than dispose of it properly. David.

[NurseWhen]

Thanks all, I hope there's not cement down there! One of my work colleagues was kidding that I might need a kango and at the time I just laughed!

I can relate to metal ties! When I was digging out the tree stump, there was one root which I absolutely could not get out of the ground and I couldn't work out why.

Eventually I found a metal cable embedded in it which ended up in a lump of concrete.
I dug that out but still couldn't get the root out. Then I realised that the cable came out of the other side of the root as well and that also led to a lump of concrete. It was effectively stapled into the ground! [img]graemlins/eusa_doh.gif[/img]

I've sent off my letter. I'm now waiting to see how Bryant deal with it. ;)

[Palustris]

Don't come digging here then folks! There are Tudor house remains under and around the Summer house. There are the remains of 3 other houses which fell down in the 1950's (1804 built!) and were bulldozed across the land. At some time someone has had a load of subsoil delivered and dumped on the lower half of the garden to raise it so that it does not flood. The previous occupants kept pigs so there are the remains of their accomodation and the people before us mended cars and caravans and there are all sorts of bits of those around too. Oh and did I mention that the Damson Wood appears to have been used by the whole area as a rubbish dump? And of course not forgtting the 4 feet deep lot of household debris which once covered what is now what we call the Hidden Garden. I reckon we have removed over 30 tons of assorted grot and still it turns up!

[Pro Gard]

Always amazing what you find when you start digging.

Working in the sticks its not unncommon to find bottle dumps around here, found some strange bottles before.

[geoffhandley]

In my first garden after I cleared the rubbish I was digging up fossilised wood. I dug a deep drainage sump, the surface was basically boulder clay from the last glaciation, the builders had obviously stolen the top soil. Below that I was into boulder clay from the previous glaciation and embedded in that was wood from the forest that had been destroyed by the advance of the glaciers. A couple of miles away at the quarry they dug up a mammoth skeleton. All I have dug up here is part of a cow or horse. On the veg plot i will have to keep trenching. After all a few yards away at the end of the road someone once dug up a Roman mirror.

[walnut]

Didn't know the daily mirror had been going all that time Geoff now I know how the mammoths became extinct those romans riding half a cow and half an horse weilding a piece of fosilised wood with a daily miiror in their balteus chased them down the valley.

[NurseWhen]

Has it stopped snowing?

*Nursewhen rushes to the shed and gets her quarrying tools out.*

OK, to recap, three circles in the garden, One is dug over, composted and covered for winter.
Two and Three have been found to be a thin layer of topsoil over hardcore, rubble and sand.



However, I did have a flower in my front garden this spring!



So, determined to have at least something growing in the garden this year, I decided to have a go at pots.
I bought the 'RHS Containers for Patios - simple steps to success' which I think is brilliant and set about a pair of pots.

They're metal and I bought them before Christmas and to my annoyance, they started to rust, so I went off to Halfords and bought a pot of black car paint and gave them a couple of coats, hammered some holes in the bottom, lined them with bubble wrap to insulate them in winter, packed out the lower part with bog standard compost and filled the top with a mix of soil based compost and vermiculite (to retain nutrients) and water storage gel.

I ordered two cabbage palms (Cordyline Australis) which arrived at work.
They were packed together with the fronds upright so they formed a long pole with the root balls at the base.

Being green, I walk to work, so I had to carry them home and couldn't understand why cars kept on veering as they went past and pedestrians fell about laughing. To my confusion, one lady shouted 'I'm not going to ask!''

It was only when I got home and looked at the pakage properly that I realised that it was 4 foot tall and looked remarkably rude! (Sorry, no photo for decency reasons)

I hurriedly unpacked them and planted them up with Marguerites and Ivy around them and was feeling quite pleased with myself.





And then this happened... (back garden)






which broke some of the fronds and seriously upset the Marguerites. Anyway, I now have a set of white, trailing Begonias on order which will be better suited to the shady spot.

Tune in for the next exciting episode.

[borrowers]

Oh NW, i do feel for you. (Sorry had to have a gigile sometimes too). You are very, very good to have the tenacity for all you are doing.

Did you send the letter to the builders? Did you get a reply?

Look forward to seeing how you get on. You do make me feel bad about doing what little i do in my garden - still i'll just watch yours & pretend it's me

cheers

[NurseWhen]

Hi Borrowers,

Thanks for your support. I did write to the builders and I got a reply from the director of customer services, which shows that they gave it due consideration. However, she'd obviously had a humour transplant and it basically said 'p**s off'.

She said

'According to our records, your property is over 20 years old. Bryant therefore have no obligation to do remedial work, nor will they wish to do so.'

I was hoping for something a little more entertaining.

[Helofadigger]

Nice to have you back NW your pots look stunning just a great shame the cold snap happened, never mind there's always something else to have a go at. Good luck.Hel.xxx.

[NurseWhen]

Hi Hel,

It's good to be back, though it currently feels like winter again!

I do have other things to do, I have gone back to my first love... quarrying the garden and slug collecting. :rolleyes:

[Helofadigger]

Lol slug collecting I know that one far too well goodness knows what the neighbours think Bob and I are doing in the evenings touches in hand and screaming 'that's a dirty huge one' but a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do slugs are a goner in our garden a good one is a dead one in my book. Hel.xxx.

[NurseWhen]

Originally Posted by Helofadigger

Lol slug collecting I know that one far too well goodness knows what the neighbours think Bob and I are doing in the evenings touches in hand and screaming 'that's a dirty huge one' but a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do slugs are a goner in our garden a good one is a dead one in my book. Hel.xxx.

I'm a bit of a softie, me. I take them round to an area of wild undergrowth and liberate them.
Once I had the embarrassment of Dr When singing 'Born Free' very loudly while I was doing it.

[Helofadigger]

No problem then Nurse unless of course they find their way back to your garden once again then goodness knows what you would have to do. Slug pubs maybe?Hel.xxx.

[NurseWhen]

Chapter 6 - Losing the Will to Live.

I remember Saraceniac likening my circles to Dante's circles of Hell.
He was so right.

It was too wet to do any digging, so I though I'd improve the front lawn. I saw the advert, spread feed, weed and moss-kill on your lawn and in two weeks it will be beautiful and green. Not true. If you've got more than 40% moss on your lawn, in two weeks it will be dead.

I reduced my neighbours side of the lawn to a brown wasteland.

Overcome with guilt, I decided to try and fix it by patching the dead areas with turf.



Now I'd turned my neighbour's side of the lawn into a patchwork quilt. What's worse, non gardeners though they are, I think they've noticed!

So, back to the circles of hell.

since digging out the front garden was going to take a long time, I decided a skip wasn't cost effective, so I got a mega hippo bag to fill with refuse and a medium one for storing the top soil. you can keep a hippo bag as long as you like and then phone for it to be removed when you're ready.

Then I found how much I'd underestimated the amount of earth and rubbish involved. Skimming off a thin layer of top soil filled two medium hippo bags



and the mega bag was filling fast.



On the plus side, the lawn was starting to improve



And the pots round the front are looking great.



So back to quarrying. I managed to dig the rubbish out of a trough 6 foot long and 2 foot wide which worried Dr When immensely. The mega bag was full and it keeps raining.



So I decided enough was enough. I climbed out of my WWI trench, threw away my spade and reached for the yellow pages.

Time to swallow my pride, I need help!

[Ivory]

Great journal. I can totally relate to your misadventures and surprises in ground digging (including falling backward in holes, digging up rubbish by the ton, stuggling with stumps and metal cables, and finding the nature of the soil changes every two meters). Why mustbuilders be such complete imbeciles?

A cheer for all lady gardenenrs digging on their own.

[Tropical_Gaz]

It will look great once finished

[capney]

We have to attend the grand opening when its happens.
I would have lost faith and the will to live ages ago....

[NurseWhen]

Thanks for your support folks.
I shall indeed have a grand, champagne opening, but don't hold your breath, it could be a number of years.

* looks forward to the mini digger currently being negotiated *

[Little Miss Road Rage]

You're doing great NW. I love these threads of passionate gardening and will be following this one too