Garden update
Apr. 29th, 2014 11:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mekyriaI have been away from the itnernet, except for posting pictures and short movies on facebook about the garden progress. E. and I took extra days off so we could work in the garden. It included electric chainsaws, heavy machinery, tree trunks and a lot of digging.
Before Easter, we cut down the beech hedge because it had grown too big. There is a fireescape in the back that people use quite often, and the path to our garage on the other side that we'd also like to use for parking our car. The beech had to go!
On the second day of Easter we travelled to the south, where my aunt and uncle live. My uncle is retired and a big fan of chopping wood with other retired folks. He offered to give us wood for a wood storage shed and to our suprise, he also started to put the sides and roof together. He even gave us old roof tiles. It was a very pleasant visit, and I noticed that having a house and a garden to talk about certainly smooths the conversations with my family. We returned home with a trailer full of wood behind our 23 year old Nissan:
When we cut down the beach, we had an abeel tree in the middle that was too big to handle with a hand saw. We also noticed that digging out the tree trunks would take forever, not to mention break both our backs. But wait! thanks to the internet we found a company that rents out heavy equipment. We ordered a tree trunk grinder and a machine that would reduce all the branches from the beech trees into slivers of compost for the garden. They brought the machines over to our hous on Thursday. Yes, this is our driveway, with the beech trunks and abeel on the right. The rest of our garden is towards the left of the machines.
We cut down the abeel on Friday which was easier because the thing was rotting from the inside. If we hadn't taken it down, it probably would have fallen down sooner or later. We are close to our neighbors house so I am glad that we did it in a controlled manner. Man, a tree is heavy! We cut it down into smaller pieces so we can put it in the woodshed when it is finished.
It was time to get the tree trunk grinder into action. But first we dug out the pavement surrounding the tree trunks, so we wouldn't break the blade. You guessed it, another couple of hours spend on lifting and moving heavy stuff around. However, the tree trunk grinder is a gift from heaven. The chopping machine took way more time then we anitcipated, and we are happy with having a lot of stuff to use in the garden we decided to bring the rest of the garden stuff to the local waste processor.
We needed fences to put up in the place of the former beech hedge and we got a fairly good deal at the local harware store (Karwei). We paid 425 euro for six fence panels, the wooden poles, the foundation pieces for the poles, and the screws and bolts. Turns out putting up fences requires a great deal of attention to detail, such as how to level out the fence both horizontal and vertical.We made a start and worked our way towards the street.
After a full day work on Sunday we finished the fences. I put small bits of ivy underneath the raster, covered with shredded pieces of beech. The idea is that the ivy will grow and cover the rasters in time, creating a green fence. We want to put extra climbing plants in there with flowers, creating extra color and scent. The scent of the purple climbing plant on the other side of the path is amazing, we;ll definitely keep that one!
The cat on the right is from our nextdoor neighbor. She was fascinated by the process and did a regular check up with our work.
The sand and stones for the terrace will be delivered on May 1th, and in the meantime we still have a wood shack to build and more time to clear. Our deadline is May 24th, as both our parents are coming over to meet eachother for the first time.
Before Easter, we cut down the beech hedge because it had grown too big. There is a fireescape in the back that people use quite often, and the path to our garage on the other side that we'd also like to use for parking our car. The beech had to go!
On the second day of Easter we travelled to the south, where my aunt and uncle live. My uncle is retired and a big fan of chopping wood with other retired folks. He offered to give us wood for a wood storage shed and to our suprise, he also started to put the sides and roof together. He even gave us old roof tiles. It was a very pleasant visit, and I noticed that having a house and a garden to talk about certainly smooths the conversations with my family. We returned home with a trailer full of wood behind our 23 year old Nissan:
When we cut down the beach, we had an abeel tree in the middle that was too big to handle with a hand saw. We also noticed that digging out the tree trunks would take forever, not to mention break both our backs. But wait! thanks to the internet we found a company that rents out heavy equipment. We ordered a tree trunk grinder and a machine that would reduce all the branches from the beech trees into slivers of compost for the garden. They brought the machines over to our hous on Thursday. Yes, this is our driveway, with the beech trunks and abeel on the right. The rest of our garden is towards the left of the machines.
We cut down the abeel on Friday which was easier because the thing was rotting from the inside. If we hadn't taken it down, it probably would have fallen down sooner or later. We are close to our neighbors house so I am glad that we did it in a controlled manner. Man, a tree is heavy! We cut it down into smaller pieces so we can put it in the woodshed when it is finished.
It was time to get the tree trunk grinder into action. But first we dug out the pavement surrounding the tree trunks, so we wouldn't break the blade. You guessed it, another couple of hours spend on lifting and moving heavy stuff around. However, the tree trunk grinder is a gift from heaven. The chopping machine took way more time then we anitcipated, and we are happy with having a lot of stuff to use in the garden we decided to bring the rest of the garden stuff to the local waste processor.
We needed fences to put up in the place of the former beech hedge and we got a fairly good deal at the local harware store (Karwei). We paid 425 euro for six fence panels, the wooden poles, the foundation pieces for the poles, and the screws and bolts. Turns out putting up fences requires a great deal of attention to detail, such as how to level out the fence both horizontal and vertical.We made a start and worked our way towards the street.
After a full day work on Sunday we finished the fences. I put small bits of ivy underneath the raster, covered with shredded pieces of beech. The idea is that the ivy will grow and cover the rasters in time, creating a green fence. We want to put extra climbing plants in there with flowers, creating extra color and scent. The scent of the purple climbing plant on the other side of the path is amazing, we;ll definitely keep that one!
The cat on the right is from our nextdoor neighbor. She was fascinated by the process and did a regular check up with our work.
The sand and stones for the terrace will be delivered on May 1th, and in the meantime we still have a wood shack to build and more time to clear. Our deadline is May 24th, as both our parents are coming over to meet eachother for the first time.
