Non-Gardener builds an Observatory, Garden Railway and even Dabbles with Plants!

21st April 2025

I've noticed that as the nights have got lighter, there has been less night time activity in the wood. We still see the young fox, but the other two have been absent for several days. Perhaps they are looking after cubs, but I really don't know. The hedgehog seems to come perhaps once or twice a week, or at least that's all the camera is catching. I've seen it on the patio before, so it obviously explores the whole garden. We also had the first rabbit in the wood for quite a while.



For the last few days, I've stopped putting the pond-cam out, simply due to the huge quantity of video files it was creating. It has given me a good insight into what birds visit the wood and use the pond. So far I've seen Blackbirds, Pigeons, Jackdaws, Magpies, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Dunnocks, Eurasian Doves, Robins, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Sedge Warblers and Blackcap Warblers. I think that's everything caught on camera.

Dunnocks, Blue Tits and Pigeons are the greatest pond users, hitting around thirty visits each in a week, with the camera out from around 10am to 6pm. The other birds are all in single figures for using the pond.

 

An interesting selection of birds there. It was well worth the effort of making the pond.

 

23rd April 2025

We had four bulk bags delivered today. Two of top soil, one of river gravel and one of building sand. Two hours after delivery, twelve wheelbarrow loads of soil were moved from the drive to the bottom of the garden, 275 feet away. It was spread out around the bottom of the wood, to the wood side of the stepping stones. The front edge where the bricks are, won't be finished off until the lawn edging has been completed.



I also sprinkled a little over the area planted with Thyme, as that soil was quite rough and had quite a few stones. It might not look like it, but there's 850Kg of topsoil here! I swear I'm two inches shorter after barrowing all that. This is the view back towards the lawn.

 

Because I didn't feel like I'd compressed my spine enough, I then barrowed another three loads from the second bag of topsoil, put in the empty bag near the workshop patio, ready to refinish the lawn at the top, now that I can finish concreting the edging in properly.

With enough soil in that bag to stop it blowing away if the wind picks up, I then did three wheelbarrow loads of river gravel, down to the rebuilt garden wall. Some of the original gravel here, went into making concrete foundations for rebuilding the wall. I need to continue bringing more gravel to this area, to continue along the red brick wall to the fence, then along the end wall of the garage. Any remaining gravel will go to cover any thin areas elsewhere on the drive. Having barrowed around a metric ton of stuff around the garden, I was done for, so packed in for the day, as I could hear the sofa screaming my name!



In the wood, the vandals ( Magpies ) have been digging out the Daisy Pomponettes, leaving some quite large holes around the pond. I'm guessing the wet soil from the pond spill, has made the soil easy to dig while they are looking for bugs to eat.

My next plan is to find some three to four inch, random shaped stones and edge the pond with those, trying to "dry stone wall" them together, to minimise gaps for beaks to get into. I'll probably move some of the bulbs away from the pond edge too, as the larger birds are just trashing the place!

 

Either that or your arms are longer. It was worthwhile though, it looks good.

It's a shame the birds are being destructive. I wonder if paddle stones would work around the pond?

 

24th April 2025

I spent the afternoon barrowing the rest of the 850Kg of river gravel onto the drive around the garage and wall. After that, I dug out under the lawn edging stones, to allow addition concrete to be added. I finished the afternoon filling the wheelbarrow full of building sand, ready for the concreting the following day.

25th April 2025

It was a struggle to get out of bed this morning. Everything hurts! I went out to the garden around 10am, but it was a struggle. I began by pulling up the other paving stone that leads to the lawn. Neither were secure, neither were level and as it turned out, neither had a solid foundation. It took a while to break out some of the grit, sand and cement foundation, but other areas had no cement at all and was just loose grit and sand.

I'm lowering the front edge of the stones closer to the new lawn height, so dug out a channel and concreted in four bricks to support the front edge of the stones. Tomorrow, that should be cured enough to dig out the rest of the old slab foundation and then concrete the two stones back in place. We're then hoping to start spreading topsoil on the lawn side of the edging stones.

We still need to rake back the slate area a bit more, back fill it with soil and put a new weed membrane over the top. We're planning to put a mix of Aubrieta along the edge of the slates, since they've filled out the railway embankment so nicely and colourfully.



After getting the four bricks in, I mixed up several batches of concrete to fill in under all the edging stones. This will be set enough by tomorrow, to start barrowing the second 850Kg of topsoil to fill along the edging. The height needs building up by two to three inches and then blending back into the rest of the lawn. This will remove the awkward hump and hollow that led up to the path previously.

Any topsoil that isn't needed here, will be put in the back of the railway, to increase the depth of the top of the embankment for some additional background planting.

 

26th April 2025

It's been a busy back end of the week! I worked out I pushed the wheelbarrow 1.25 miles up and down the garden to put the soil at the bottom of the wood on Wednesday!

On Saturday morning, Lynne dug out the remaining Geranium roots, slates and rocks from the corner of the lawn. While she did that, I laid a new foundation for under the lawn paving and then concreted them in place.




The slight gaps between the lawn edging, were filled with silicone to stop the grass from growing through, then the old soil was raked back to the front of the edging.

 

By the time we'd finished that, it was already heading towards 2pm, so stopped for lunch. We then started barrowing the second bag of topsoil to the back garden and spreading it out along the edge of the lawn.



The lawn in this area wasn't flat or even. It needed building up to partially bury the edging, but it took the rest of the afternoon to back fill the edge and blend it back into the rest of the lawn.

 

The soil was wetted out a little with the hose and then seeded early evening. This was followed by a thin sieve of soil over the top to hide the seed from the birds and keep the moisture in. This picture is before it was covered. It has been a nice warm day and the concrete paving was already set hard.



To finish the day, I buried a water pipe to the roots of the Ilex Aquifoleum. There's been very little rain since it was planted and despite trying to water it, I don't think enough has been soaking down to the roots, so it's not looking happy. The pipe can get water and feed straight to the roots. As the light was fading, Lynne finished her day spraying weedkiller on the Germander Speedwell, covering the top of the lawn. There's creeping buttercup in the bottom of the lawn too, so more work to get rid of both of those.

 

27th April 2025

On Sunday the 27th Lynne started to dig out the Montbretia from the corner of the slate area. She planted a few bulbs four years ago, to replace the woody Lavender she pulled out. Over those four years, it spread quite a lot, poking up through the weed membrane and slates as it spread. I dug out and kept dozens of Grape hyacinth bulbs, ranging from fully grown bulbs, to tiny new bulbs. I'll find a home for them somewhere.

Several clumps were kept to be replanted, but this time, we're going to do it a little differently. The plan is to set one bucket into the ground, flush with the planned top of the slates. The weed membrane will be glued around the edge of this bucket.

A second bucket will be filled with soil and planted with the Montbretia. This bucket will be lowered into the first, sitting on a shallow block, so the vacuum between them doesn't prevent the bucket from being lifted out again. The slates will then cover over the buckets and soil. This will hopefully prevent the roots from creeping and the inner bucket can be easily lifted out if we want to thin them or change the plant, without disturbing the slates.



The cold frames have been filling up with various plants. There's more Daisy Pomponettes for the wood, Geraniums ( which aren't really Geraniums ), Hollyhocks, Foxglove, Creeping Thyme, Achillea, Cornflower, Creeping Jenny, a new small Lavender for the middle of the slate area and Lupins.

 

On the patio and in the various planters, the Pansies and Petunias are mostly flowering. We did loose one, not to frost, but most likely to a hungry rabbit! We've seen them on the trailcam around 5am across the last week.



29th April 2025

Delayed in the post, on the 29th, the postman eventually turned up with the 100 Anemone Blanda mix. The destructions said to soak them for several hours before planting, so that was planned for the 30th.

 

30th April 2025

Wanting a mix of Anemones and Aconites in the wood, I had to work out where they were going to go. The 100 Anemones needed spreading throughout the wood, but mixing with the Aconites which won't be purchased and planted until Autumn.

In order to get an even spread, mixed between the two types and enough for the various areas I wanted to plant, out came the bandsaw and I cut up several strips of wood. These were painted yellow for the Aconites and Red for the Anemones and once dry, the strips were cut into 2 inch pegs. That took most of the morning.

After lunch, I began planting sticks, trying to randomly scatter them amongst the other plants, filling in gaps and open areas. I started in the open area at the top of the wood.



These spread around from the open area to the tree that supports the trailcam; which is just to the left, out of shot on this image.

 

The camera tree is on the right here and the open area to the left, which hasn't seen anything planted here until now, has now been planted with several Anemones. Aconites will follow and also, clumps of Daisy Pomponettes once they grow a bit longer in their pots.



This is the to the left of that open area, leading up to the pond. With a Wild privet in the centre and Snowdrops and Bluebells to the front, there is limited space here, so I just plan on Aconites here.

 

As the path turns towards the rear exit of the wood, both sides have been planted. In time, I'm sure they will spread, but for now, I'm sticking to the areas nearest to the path and in the most open, unplanted areas.



These are the last areas inside the most enclosed part of the wood. From here, the path exits the more covered area, towards the newly worked Thyme area.

 

The last two pictures are of the Thyme area. It's not so obvious in the first picture, but the sloped earth area is mostly full of pegs, marking bulb locations. These pegs will not only help with the positioning when it comes time to plant the Aconites, but it also shows me where to focus the watering.



Looking back the other way, the pegs are more obvious. On the right of the path is a mix of Anemones and markers for the Aconites. On the left where the Thyme is planted, I've added a few Anemones, mixed amongst them. I still need to add a bit more Thyme to the right edge of the path, but need the cuttings which are currently in pots, need to root a bit first. These will help to bind the soil together and prevent watering and rain from eroding the earth bank.