"New Builds"

I guess anyone who works these new build estate places knows the score.... this one is 24 years old and has much more garden than all the latest ones going up round here. The place was built on where a garage/factory had been and I reckon the builders dug the foundations and chucked the “* ” out on to the old garage floor, then plonked grass on top with spaces left open for flower beds - then some blokes turned up with a load of downright unfriendly Berberis julianae and put them along side some of the paths – not the best things if not pruned regularly with secateurs and they're too close to the paths and eyesight to machine cut. (I sound disgruntled but I'm quite happy when I'm there)

We've been trying to work these gardens for five years.... but with the time we're allotted we haven't found time enough to really improve things as much as we'd like. However, after a crappy winter we owed them two days.... there was a sorry looking standard rose in this spot which I've wanted to dig out for ages – I hadn't decided what to replace it with - but finding this concrete 15” down the options might be limited, it's a metre wide and I've never noticed it being waterlogged.... has anyone any suggestions on what I should do – or what I could plant? - do I have to hire a pneumatic drill?

Replies

David Grimes August 7, 2010 at 2:18pm

Hi Pete
it could be a old piling foundation support
if this is th case can be metres down
do you know if houses were built on pile foundations
Bigyin August 7, 2010 at 10:17pm

That's what I thought. Could be a covered tank or well (or anything really). I'd either get the property owner to get it surveyed or just backfill with soil and put something "pretty" in it.

Pro Gard said:
I wonder if thats been layed as a cap over something....... best avoid i rekon
PRO

Lara Hurley August 8, 2010 at 8:35pm

Sounds a lot like our own garden - built about 25 years ago on what was 'Dirty Dick's Transport Cafe'. We have got round most of the issues - compaction, poor drainage, heavy clay, broken glass - by putting in raised beds in the worst areas and by using a lot of organic matter to improve the soil. Could you put raised beds in or is this beyond the budget etc.? Magnolias are very robust when it comes to poor soils and might survive - a wee 'stellata' wouldn't look out of place in a front garden.
pete August 17, 2010 at 6:09pm

Thanks for the replies folks... the hole and concrete are a metre wide but I was assuming the slab extends all across this area and is what was the old factory floor. But I won't try and crack it.

My first thought was of a bottomless round wooden planter which would hopefully provide enough leg room for anything that'll fit here. Stellata's a nice idea but don't you think it might be a bit big here? Cotinus can be graceful and I could shape that each year but I'd like to cheer this corner up with something flowering... Osmanthus delavayi I like but it's so slow I've never looked after an established one, or quite know what it does – maybe I'll forget the pot and go for Big Yin's 'something pretty'