Rain Rain Go Away

There is one subject that’s been on everyone’s lips this year. The weather, and in particular, the rain. The relentless rain.

It makes my blood boil when trawling the various ‘Red Tops’ and social media sites and I see people attacking this beautiful country of ours just because it’s raining.

Yes its summer, yes we’ve had record breaking rainfall and flooding and all the things associated, but who really suffers?

Are you suffering just because you haven’t got your usual tan?

Are you suffering because you can’t have a bbq every evening?

Are you suffering because your camping trip might be slightly damp?

My answer to all these questions is a big, fat NO!

Do you want to know who does suffer? I’ll tell you, Gardeners.

My brother and I run our own Landscaping and Gardening business. We both have a mortgage, we both have bills to pay and we both have families to support.

You see the reason why gardeners, in particular sole trading gardeners suffer most is because quite simply if it rains we cant work and if we cant work we don’t get paid and if we don’t get paid then neither does the mortgage and if the mortgage doesn’t get paid……I don’t even want to think about that!

We’re not exactly well paid to start with as we can’t command the same rates as most other trades due to being undervalued as Alan Titchmarsh quite rightly stated, so having rain stop play so often can be a worry.

Not only that, we are in a seasonal business. We work long hours in summer to make up for the shorter hours in winter. Summer rain has a massive effect on this.

The one positive I can say for this year is that we had a relatively decent winter unlike a few years ago when the ice forced us to down tools for well over a month.

There will be gardeners out there who say just get a raincoat and plod on through and I’ve even had clients who come out with comments like “don’t be soft and get your raincoat on.” (Easy to say from your plush, dry living room I might add!), but we are purists and like to do things properly.

If it’s tipping it down with rain we can’t mow the lawn. Some will say you can, but if it’s sodden and your mower is heavy it will inevitably turn into a mud bath and create lovely areas for weeds to grow. Wet grass takes at least double the time to cut and heavy rain doesn’t do your mower any good.

We can’t dig or tread on the borders for obvious reasons so that rules out pruning and weeding. We can’t use any sort of weed killers, lawn feeds, fungicides etc

Personally our main work consists of landscaping. The list of things we can’t do in the rain is longer than gardening tasks!!

No laying patios, definitely no pointing, no walling, no laying turf.

The only thing we could possibly do is erect fencing, but you try and fill every day of every week with fencing jobs!!

I’ve missed out one important factor and that is simply ITS NOT VERY NICE AT ALL WORKING IN HEAVY RAIN!

So next time your moaning because your weekend bbq plans have been ruined, spare a thought for my brother and I sitting in our van, looking glum and soaked to the bone because all we want to do is work.

Out With the Old

This is a job we undertook for the father of a friend. The property was a sizeable new build with a reasonable large garden on the outskirts of York.

After several meetings and discussions and designs and re-designs the client decided on a fairly simple layout of two large curved patios connected with paths.

The old patios were square and finished in a concrete paver. For added interest and a contrast to the square edges of the house we decided to curve the new patio and use real stone.

With large jobs like this there can be an awful lot of barrowing of materials!! Especially if there has been a new driveway installed, which the delivery trucks are not allowed on!!

Drains sometimes need to be modified for ease of laying the new pavers. In this case the rodding point needed to be raised and we decided to change circular drain tops to square tops.

More materials being delivered!!!

Its always wise to start laying pavers with the right angle of a building if you can. This eliminates the need for a builders triangle as you can set your string line off the lie of the house wall.

When laying curves we always lay over and then cut the final curve at the very end. This gives a smoother, straighter cut than trying to cut each individually and match to the next.

Curved steps keep the theme consistant and look lovely.

Cutting the curve.

We always edge our patios with brick. The contrast of materials looks fantastic and they give the eye a finishing boundry.

The planting areas will bush out in no time. We used flowering shrubs as the clients brief for planting was low maintenence. These will need trimming once or twice a year and not much else.

The finished job

Let us teach you a thing or two

This was a job we undertook for a friend of Toms. He had already received a quote, but wanted a second opinion. There was no way we could get near their initial quote (and could only presume they had seriously underestimated the job ahead) and infact estimated double this, however the client chose us, which was a nice feeling.

The garden was a new build garden and was on a fairly steep slope. It had yellow concrete pavers outside the patio doors and leading up to the garage. Initially the client wanted a small patio at the bottom to match the existing pavers, but we managed to talk him into spending a little more and go for real stone, which is far superior in every way. The stone we would use would be Indian stone from the Fossil Mint quarrey.

 

As ever the job started with an excavation task.

We decided that the area was not big enough and access wasnt easy enough to warrant hiring a mini digger so we excavated ten tonnes of topsoil with spades and barrows!!

New build gardens are known for being a dumping ground for rubble, but we were extremely lucky and happy to find nothing but topsoil, which we decided to save for more up-cycling.

 

For a bit of interest the client wanted the patio to curve down at one end and join the side path. This gave us something to think about as we had a sloping curve to retain.

 

We had serious drainage issues to work with on this job. We could not lay the patio towards the retainer wall as we had decided to build this from timber sleepers so we decided to lay towards the house and install drainage channels.

  

Unfortunately the drainage pipe had been put behind the waste pipe so a little diversion was built.

The next job was to erect the retainer wall. The client had requested vertical sleepers rather than laying them horizontally. We also had to think about fitting in with the slopes and curves of the garden.

Luckily Tom is a keen carpenter and works regularly with timber.

The slopes were cut with a chainsaw then neatened up with some planing and finished with a good sanding.

 

When you cut treated timber is is almost always never treated fully through so if it is in contact with moisture the cut ends need to be preserved.

 

The client wanted sleeper steps with gravel tread. Timber can become very slippy after time so the gravel ensures a non-slip surface.

 

When putting a patio at the bottom of a slope it is imperative that you install drainage. It needs to be put at the back of the retainer wall and surrounded by a good layer of gravel and ideally lead to existing drains.

 In this case the drainage channel also came in useful for hiding the lighting wires.

 

The weather can ruin certain landscaping jobs such as pointing, not to mention set us back days.

On this job we decided to combat this and beat the rain!!

 

Unfortunately the company we bought the sleepers from sent us sleepers made from two different types of timber. We only noticed this once it rained and by that time it was way too late to change them. We decided instead to paint them using a lovely dark oak from the Ronseal Woodland Range.

As you can see the client had a mid-job idea of wanting lighting. He bought the lights and we installed them. It was a simple job of drilling through the sleepers and fixing the cable back to the house.

The Finished Patio

Patio Area

This was a job we did for a mother and daughter living in Harrogate. They knew what they wanted, but found it difficult getting their ideas down on paper. After a few meetings and a few drawings we had our design.

 

As with most jobs we had a clearence job to start with and for the second time in as many months we came accross hibernating frogs and mice who all needed re-homing.

After all the site prep and levels had been done the weather struck again!!!

 

The garden also become home to a very handsome chap whom Barbera, our client, named Phil.

 

We try as much as possible to re-use any materials that may have otherwise gone into the skip. We call this up-cycling and is just our little way of trying to preserve the planet a little while longer. On this job it was saving and re-using top soil from the lower level into the walls. Working around such things can be tricky, but organising your job well makes things easier.

 

We decided to concentrate on the upper area first for ease.

As you can see from the pictures so far the job has slightly changed from the original design. This happens often as we are constantly liasing with our clients and adding things and cutting things out as we go along.

 

The outlines for the upper patio are in place ready for a few days of brick laying.

 

As you can see we incorporated some lighting into the walls. A qualified electrician was brought in to do the wiring. The internals of the wall will be filled with soil and planted up by the client.

Some steps, a lower patio area, a new flower bed and gravel path later and the job is finished.

 

  

A message from the client

Hello Tom and Nick!

Had to email you to tell you that Maddie & Charlie and BOTH still talking about you!! Charlie can now say Tom as well as Nick so the air was resounding with both your names for most of the day as Maddie was convinced that you were both coming over later to share her chocolate crispy cakes!

If you are ever in Harrogate do call round for a cuppa and to enjoy the fruits of your labour as Mum has now planted into the walls and the border and it's all looking fabulous! (Especially on a Tues or Thurs as that's when the kids are here and boy did you two make an impression on them!)

Thanks again for all your hard work, so pleased!

Babs x

 

Side Note

 

Ife ever you are in need of a personal PA service for all your needs done hesitate to contact leaveitotb

 

www.leaveitotb.com 

Re-positioning a Pond

This was a job we did for a friends mother who wanted the current pond in the same place, but raising up so it was level with the surrounding surfaces as it was sunken.  With the arrival of a new granddaughter and another to follow this made sense so as to minimise the dangers of having a pond with young children around.

Firstly we needed to dig up all the surrounding plants for dividing and re-planting around the new pond. Lifting and dividing should be done in late autumn or early spring when the plant is dormant.  It is a fantastic way of getting more plants for free, (plant swaps are a good way of getting new plants for free).

The fish were taken out using a net and put in a tub of the pond water ready for re-housing in the new pond. It was drained off with a length of hose using a syphoning method.  This takes a little time, but is much cheaper than hiring a pump.

Unfortunately working on a pond in winter means disturbing hibernating pond life such as frogs and toads.

Unfortunately the frogs kept coming and we ended up with a box full of about 40!  A trip to the local French restaurant followed! (joke!!)

As we are compassionate people we built the frogs a temporary home to house them until their new home is ready.

The empty area.

The area has been banked up using rubble and then packing with topsoil.

We used empty bulk bags to form a protective layer for the liner to rest on.  The most common way to do this is to form the edges with sand, which we did under the bags.

The liner is in and an island has been put in the middle for the frogs to bask on in the sun.  Plenty of liner is needed as it gets pulled in when being filled with water.  You don't want to be left with not enough so over compensate.

The pond is re-filled and as we wanted to re-house the fish straight away we used a product that gets rid of the chlorine from tap water so it is safe for them to breathe.

The edges of the pond need covering to hide the pond liner and make it look natural.  Here we have used stone, but you can use most other things such as pavers.  There needs to be areas for pond life and any mammals such as hedgehogs to get out if they need/want to.  When using stone with high edges be sure to leave the occasional gap.

Here we have created a rockery as its looks lovely on the slope and also helps to keep the earth banked up.  We built a waterfall in the corner for some extra interest and it creates a very relaxing falling water sound.  The plants are re-planted and if you look very closely you can see the fish have been re-housed.  The frogs were too, but they scarpered quick sharp!!