An insight to the daily life of a garden design and landscaping build up on a rear garden located in Cullompton, Exeter, Devon.

Day 7

View previous day here

Coffee.

Laying blockwork

Laying block work

Using a Marshalltown bricklaying trowel I apply the 4;1 ratio mortar to the top face of the plumb 225mm wide 7 Newton concrete blockwork, the thickness of the mortar bed on which each block is installed shall be 12-15mm.

For brickwork the bed and uniform perpend thickness will be 10mm.

Laying on the mortar

Laying on the mortar

I construct the two ends of the landscape rear garden feature wall, these are known as quions. Two courses of concrete blockworks are constructed on top of each other, staggering the blocks by means of two hall blocks on the next two courses insures this bond is locked together giving maximum strength to the overall bonding.

My mortar is creamy and easy to use, I'm not breaking by wrist trying to take a trowel full each time.

Plumb block wall

As I build by quion I insure the block work is level and plumb, by taking care constructing both quoins means I can use brick pins and a string line and run the block work in quickly, the larger the run the quicker you become as the preparation of the plumb quions allows you to use the spirit level less.

However, I do like to check my work every 20 / 30 blocks... habit or ocd.. I don't know.

Final sub base levelling

Sub base levelling

As I run the blockwork in, one member of the team sets the laser level receiving eye at the top of raised paving level from the datum, four road pins are installed on each corner of the Marshalls fairstone caramel cream raised seating area.

The two pins next to the open footings are set to 75mm below finished paving level, allowing 50mm full mortar bed and 25mm for the Marshalls high quality paving slab product.

Yes, we know the patio paving is 22mm thick !!.

The level for the two pins at the point of the step are adjust to allow a very slight run off for the surface water, I cant have my clients wine glass sliding off the glass top black rattan table can I?

You'll note that all levels are marked TOP OF TAPE for all string-line work.

Any person that walks through my string lines and snaps them are in debt to me by £10....

Final wacker compaction

Final wacker compaction

The raised seating area now has two consolidated layers of 50mm hardcore sub base stone material and each layers has a minimum of three passes of the wacker compactor plate to each layer.

This sub base is ready for patio paving, just not yet, I have footings, block work, lighting, beadwork, scratch coat, top render and two coats of very dark graphite to paint first.

Clean site, fill up water butts, cover walling with Hessian, etc, and clean tools.

Tomorrows blog:

Landscaping on a Marshalls kitchen garden

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Intelligent Gardening replied to Marc Ollerenshaw's discussion Insurance
"NFU are very exensive but are very good when it comes to making a claim apparently... but hopefully never have to. I was looking for a combined policy to cover all insurances but according to my broker there isnt one so I end up paying a broker fee…"
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Peter sellers replied to Duncan Neville's discussion Instant hedging
"Agree with you Graham, we have a client with a long run of Laurel which we only cut once a year mid june and have done for over 20 years, the client is fussy with a capital F ! It's a superb evergreen hedge which is bomb proof.
As to this so called…"
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Graham Taylor replied to Duncan Neville's discussion Instant hedging
"Disagree there!  I maintain a site with a couple of of large laurel hedges and one cut in July suffices and keeps it looking nice.  Agree.... looks nasty immediately after cutting but quickly perks up so you don't notice the cut leaves.  Pretty much…"
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Duncan Neville replied to Duncan Neville's discussion Instant hedging
"Thanks Tim"
Tuesday
Duncan Neville replied to Duncan Neville's discussion Instant hedging
"Wow,  that's impressive !  Thanks"
Tuesday
Duncan Neville replied to Duncan Neville's discussion Instant hedging
"That's pretty much my thinking, but I am seeing them more and more. Mostly at expensive new builds. Mostly people with very limited gardening experience wanting an immediate finished product. "
Tuesday
Kevin Harden replied to Duncan Neville's discussion Instant hedging
"Elveden Brochure Edition 3 (EMAIL).pdf
I hope this helps, if anyone has any hedging requirements, we are happy to help.
Regards,  Kev"
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Tim Bucknall replied to Duncan Neville's discussion Instant hedging
"Yes 5' actual instant shaped hedging is very expensive, but if that's what he wants he'll have to pay for it.  A good compromise is use individual plants- you could use 1.5m, but 1.8 or 2m plants would probably be bushier, and by trimming to height…"
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Tim Bucknall replied to Duncan Neville's discussion Instant hedging
"He needs instant 5' hedge."
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Anthony Toop replied to Duncan Neville's discussion Instant hedging
"Agree, nothing worse than driving past a new Cherry Laurel hedge planted too close to boundaries or buildings, and thinking they'll regret that decision in a few years time!
If a client really wants Laurel, i atleast try to push them towards the…"
Saturday
Kevin Harden replied to Duncan Neville's discussion Instant hedging
"Hi NevilleI would be happy to help and chat with you when you are free Elveden Brochure Edition 3 (EMAIL) copy.pdf
kevin.harden@elveden.com"
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