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

View previous day here.

Day 5

Coffee.

Mixing Concrete

Mixing concrete

Whilst one member of the team sets about mixing the concrete, 5;1 ratio, for the feature walling and outdoor kitchen area, the other moves 5 tons of building sand from the front garden to the rear, this is covered as I dont want the sand soaking wet when I start the block work walling on Monday.

Mixing concrete near the property can incur small splashes of mortar on the walling or surrounding areas. The heavy rain a couple of days ago also left alot of splash backs from the sub grade.

My ethos is very simple, Your property and your landscaping garden build will be treated as if it were my own.

Cleaning the clients property

Cleaning the property

I'm religiously clean at all times so there's no unsightly marks of any kind left on the property or any of my tools, each day cleaning will occur. No client past or present has or will walk onto my project and trip over stray materials or put their foot on a piece of wood which hasn't been de-nailed. etc

Yes we do make a mess, of course we do, I have to pull your gardens, landscape projects to pieces, its a controlled mess if that makes sense.

Levelling concrete

Levelling concrete

 The 360 degree laser level has been set to top of concrete, the laser makes life so much easier, years ago this concrete levellling would have been done by means of a spirit level and plastic float.

Tamping Concrete

Tamping concrete

Once my concrete has been levelled I tamp the area, this tamping motion does not need to be a hard tamp causing concrete to be splashed every where, I hardly bring the base of the tamp off the concrete, this will cause a wave motion in the wet concrete and therefore give me a consistant level across the entire area.

Remember, the more you play with concrete the wetter it becomes.... when finishing concrete or power floating this could be the difference between going home at 8.00 pm or 4.00 am, all because the fat was brought to the surface, get it in, level it, tamp it and leave it alone.

The levelling and tamping of concrete will save me time once block works commence, theres nothing worse than bumping up or grinding down the first couple of courses of block work.

I believe firmly that if the groundworks are correct then so the landscaping build project will run smoothly, after all the entire landscaping works comes up off the groundworks.

Colour coded ducting

Colour coded ducting spurs

The colour coded ducting spurs are wrapped each end with plastic so theres no chance of sub base, concrete or any other material falling into the duct and causing me problems once its time to feed the electric cable inside.

The ducting spurs will be connected to the main line of the ducting at a later date.

The simple colour coding will assist the electrician.

Consolidating the sub base

Consolidating the sub base

I'm running the wacker plate over the sub base as the weekend is virtually upon us, this is whats known as sealing the sub base, Ok, so we all know it wont seal a pourous sub base its just a common trade practice.

Concrete blocks loaded out

Blocks loaded out

In order to have a flying start for Monday we have loaded out 200 blocks, All the block stacks have a covering, have you tried to lay wet concrete blocks, it's not a good practice when the mortar is oozing out every where.

Tomorrows blog:

Block work building a garden feature wall

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Andrew Steele is now a member of Landscape Juice Network
11 hours ago
Gary Bashford replied to john newton's discussion Which mulching mower to choose
"We use and supply Grin mowers, by far the best dedicated mulchers we have used in build and cut quality.
Please feel free to give me a call for prices and more info, we are able to offer discounts to LJN members; 07894 10787."
yesterday
Fusion Media posted a blog post
Dennis has unveiled its latest advancement in sustainable technology: the Multi Charger Hub. This new product significantly enhances the efficiency and convenience of charging their acclaimed E-Series battery-powered mowers.The E-Series, known for…
Tuesday
Dougie replied to Dougie's discussion Honda 537 HRX
"Thanks for the tip looks like a decent machine think i might need to build a ramp to get it in and out the van "
Tuesday
Peter sellers replied to Dougie's discussion Honda 537 HRX
"Dougie, top tip run the back wheels on setting number 3 and don't alter this adjust the height of cut on the front wheels. We generally use 2 or 1.5 it collects/mulches much better with the back wheels set 1 setting higher than the front. Hope you…"
Tuesday
Honey Badger replied to john newton's discussion Which mulching mower to choose
"I second hrx 537 hy"
Tuesday
Dougie replied to Dougie's discussion Honda 537 HRX
"I have just received my hrx 537 looks a lot bigger than my older machine  look forward to trying it out"
Tuesday
Honey Badger replied to Dougie's discussion Honda 537 HRX
"Lawnflite, kaaz and weilbang are clones of old honda models. Just saying."
Tuesday
Honey Badger replied to Dougie's discussion Honda 537 HRX
"I love my hrx537 "
Tuesday
Mark Wilkinson replied to Dougie's discussion Honda 537 HRX
"Likewise ✅"
Tuesday
Mark Wilkinson replied to Richard Harding's discussion Lawn cut prices 2025
"Interesting."
Tuesday
Mark Wilkinson replied to Nigel McDonald's discussion waste carriers licence
"Good call!!
Just renewed mine actually."
Tuesday
Mark Wilkinson replied to Dougie's discussion Honda 537 HRX
"Honda are absolutely brilliant at making motorcycles but very poor at making mowers compared to Hayter Pro which are far superior in the dry but is like mowing seaweed in the wet compared to a Lawnflite Pro which beats them both in the wet.…"
Tuesday
Nigel McDonald posted a discussion
Good day all,The waste carriers licence.I have just upgraded my registration from local authority to Gov.uk. To be honest my local authority could well have been out of date.As someone who only transports his own waste its free, so well worth…
Sunday
Richard Harding replied to Dougie's discussion Honda 537 HRX
"No roller but the stone guard does lay down a half reasonable stripe, even when mulching."
Saturday
Richard Harding replied to Dougie's discussion Honda 537 HRX
"I use the 537 hrx and it's a brilliantly versatile machine. Very lightweight and easy on the user and the lawn. Collects very well, mulches very well for a combination mower too. My only gripe is that I find the drive to be a bit weak compared to my…"
Saturday
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Honda 537 HRX

Hi i am interested in getting a new mower i am  looking at the Honda 537 HRX HY and the honda  476 hrx hy does anyone have both of these machines whats the difference just the size soeed and collect the same? Thanks in advance 

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24 Replies · Reply by Dougie on Tuesday
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