# 20vKarlos Does a bit in the Garden



## 20vKarlos (Aug 8, 2009)

Hello all

Whilst there hasn't been much happening with the Octavia project and we've all had varying degrees of lockdown and self isolation over the past 18 months, I've been cracking on with the garden project that we have been meaning to do for 8+ years, but never got around to doing it as we were always out of the house on days off etc…

So at home over lockdown I got on with the task.

The requirements from SWMBO…

Must have a deck big enough for our BBQ and a picnic bench. 
Some grass for the kids to play on.
A place for the trampoline.

If there is one thing you need to know about me, it's that I rather despise DIY.
I overthink EVERYTHING!
I cannot focus on one thing at a time, I just can't! 
So in my mind I knew exactly what I wanted to create, but in practice, that would be another thing. 
I was certain I could do the job, but the execution at times would almost certainly involve a fair amount of 'Winging-it!':lol:

The neglected garden looked like this to start with.










The Apple tree needed removing as it was very badly diseased and we just couldn't rectify the problem with it, so it had to come out.

I then gave the grass a quick tidy up and then set about moving the shed to the top of the garden.
The shed required cutting down to fit on the slab, but I intend on building a new shed in the future anyway.



















To say the garden was a mess would be an understatement.

The next step, was building the trampoline so that the children could play in the garden through lockdown. It fit perfectly in the old shed space too which was a bonus and gave me the confirmation I needed for "My Plan"

I needed to sort the bottom corner for it to be a better place for the children to bounce around



















Then it was time to remove the tree stump.



















With "My Plan" still stored in my brain at this point, I told my wife that I'd be making some noise that afternoon, as I was going to rotorvate our garden.

A delivery from the local tool hire store and a few hours of work, we had this…




























You'll see why I left the soil here a little later :thumb:

I called a mate of mine for some advice on how to fix a joist to the wall outside our door as I had a few concerns about the brickwork. 
He popped over and after a brief chat, offered to order the wood for me. 
The wood arrived, and unbeknownst to me, he planned to come and help me build the deck, so showed up 20 minutes later. "I'll meet you in the back garden" he says!

Inspectors, doing their bit :thumb:










By the end of that day, we had the structure built and it was then left to me to continue the next morning… sure enough, the next morning he arrives again "You didn't think I'd leave you to do the rest did you?"… we'll, yes I did actually, as that's exactly what we discussed yesterday :lol: :lol:

So we got the remainder done and that evening it was beautiful out.

I was so appreciative for the help as I'd probably have taken a week pondering on it all before starting it :lol:

Whilst my wife was very surprised that he had arrived to help with the decking, she knew it was a perfect time to buy a picnic table.

It just so happened that our local pier entertainment company had lost the renewal for the following season, so they were selling all 200 of their picnic benches… PERFECT!

We can go and chose the best out of 200 :lol: :thumb:










We left the groundwork's here in September 2020 as we had a few other expenses to sort and this weather came in without much of a warning! Even before winterising the trampoline :doh:










I'll leave it there for now and I'll update you all on how things have progressed in 2021. :thumb:

Many thanks for reading

All the best

Karlos


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## vsideboy (Sep 1, 2006)

Nice work pal.



20vKarlos said:


>


Looks like you've just lifted the stuff out of your garden and put it into your neighbours garden haha.


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## 20vKarlos (Aug 8, 2009)

vsideboy said:


> Nice work pal.
> 
> Looks like you've just lifted the stuff out of your garden and put it into your neighbours garden haha.


:lol::lol:

We won't talk much about their garden, the lady next door is blind and her son doesn't give a monkey's that there is dog poo everywhere and in this lovely warm weather we have at the moment, we have a lovely smell when a breeze comes through!

A few of her family members come round and help every now and then, but its always the same. the poor dog gets hardly ever walked too. I've tried to help out, but I get stone walled each time.

Another update to come later


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## 20vKarlos (Aug 8, 2009)

So the decking had been down for 5 months and we enjoyed a few cold evenings over the winter, out on the deck, but come February, I was itching to get back into the garden and crack on.

I was completely winging it! "The Plan" was still in my mind, I had only given my wife a birds eye view pencil drawing of "The Plan" and she was happy with my abilities that only a 4 year old could do with a pencil! So she signed it off! :lol:

***Please note*** 
The four foot fencing running down one side of the garden is not square. This will become more apparent the further we get into the build pictures :thumb:

I figured that for the best possible chance at symmetry, I should put one long board down each side and one at the point of which I wanted the flower bed to be and then I could build from there. I had to put the board down at the bottom too, as I needed to support the long sides temporarily.
The long board along the top would give me a 'fill to here' level for the soil and it would continue all the way around the grass section, which I was rather happy about. 
So I had to dig the top section out slightly, so that the lengths would sit level, and then fixed them in place at the deck.




























It made sense to continue with the flower bed, so that I could have the entire area mapped out and then I could dig my holes, cut my lengths of fence post, get them all where I wanted them, and then get friendly with the postcrete!


















































































For some reason I got the urge to "have a look" at the fence out the front. It was leaning over slightly and it was driving me crazy every time I pulled up outside the house…

So and hour later, my wife comes to the door…
"I thought you were just going to be looking at the fence!" She says… 
I'd removed all of the limestone and put that on the concrete pathway in front of the house, I'd bagged up the weed blocking liner thingy and the fence was cut out.

The reason she came to the door, was because she heard me trying to smash the postcrete out of this hole, so that I could fit a new post for the new fence. :lol: :lol:

I just couldn't help myself… Do any of you recall me telling you previously, that I just cannot focus on one thing at a time? :wall:

The other reason I wanted to re-do the fence, was because the dog next door jumps up at that broken pittance of a fence that's just leaning up against the wall, so I wanted to put up my own fence, to block it from jumping up/barking at our children.



















The culprit! This thing took me nearly 3 hours to remove and even then I don't think it was completely out!










Here I am, in desperate need of a haircut!
Fun fact, This was the longest my hair had ever been.










As you will see below, I thought I was running straight for the first seven lengths that I'd fixed on as I had the bottom string line setup first, but whilst I was hammering the nails in, it became apparent that the nail was pulling the wood down slightly.

I wasn't prepared to remove them at this point, as I knew if I'd snapped the pieces whilst trying to remove them, then I probably wouldn't have enough wood left to rectify my mistake.










The eagle eyed among you, will notice that I have a hinge bracket on the post.

A little more on that later.

Many thanks for reading


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## AndyA4TDI (May 7, 2012)

Proper grafting, looks great, well done mate. :thumb:


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## vsideboy (Sep 1, 2006)

What the devil is going on? You explain in the first post that you and DIY do not go together, then you're showing us pictures of 500 projects you've done in the past year haha.

Well done mate.


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## BrummyPete (Jun 10, 2010)

Grat work mate 

Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk


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## Soul boy 68 (Sep 8, 2013)

Your garden is taking shape very nicely. :thumb:


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## sworrall (Apr 26, 2007)

looking great!


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## 20vKarlos (Aug 8, 2009)

AndyA4TDI said:


> Proper grafting, looks great, well done mate. :thumb:


Thank You :thumb:


vsideboy said:


> What the devil is going on? You explain in the first post that you and DIY do not go together, then you're showing us pictures of 500 projects you've done in the past year haha.
> 
> Well done mate.


:lol: This tickled me quite a bit... I'm not scared to get involved, I just hate the idea of messing it all up and I really don't like doing projects inside the house... no doubt though, I'll be given a list of things to do inside the house at some point.

I think it boils down to confidence in my own ability. I just don't have any, and looking at what's been achieved to date is pretty rewarding 



BrummyPete said:


> Grat work mate


Thank you Pete



Soul boy 68 said:


> Your garden is taking shape very nicely. :thumb:





sworrall said:


> looking great!


Thanks guys 

I'll start writing the next segment shortly and I should have an update later this evening, one the little ones are in bed :thumb:

Thanks again all


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## Andyblue (Jun 20, 2017)

That’s coming along nicely :thumb: 

New deck looks good and whole garden should look really nice once finished …


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## 20vKarlos (Aug 8, 2009)

Well here we go again…

So after fitting the fence in the front garden, I had LOADS of limestone that needed putting somewhere or I was going to give it away free on Marketplace.

That then got me thinking… "I wonder if I can purchase some wood on marketplace?" 
Sure enough, I picked up quite a few bits of wood from a local carpenter. He had no use for them and I gave him a small sum for a large amount of wood. 
It was now my job to sift through it all and determine what I could use and where to put it… Back to 'winging it' we go :lol:

So, I got the main box section all buttoned up first, that then enabled me to collect a load of soil.

I spent three full days going back and forth to different locations with the trailer in tow, filling up the car and trailer and it was exhausting! 
I must have saved somewhere between £600-£800 by not ordering in soil and just picking it up free in the local area. 
At one point I had exhausted two towns and had to look further afield :lol:

I got the hole mostly filled but I wanted to order some 'sandy loam' for the top surface soil as we were growing from seed and its great for that, so I left a slight gap at the top.

I then started on the bottom section of the garden on the right hand side. Still completely winging it, in fact, I was winging this bit that much, I took photo's gave one of them a few lines and sent it to my wife and said "Do you want a bench here"
I was simply making it all up as I went along :lol:

So I continued and we got this far…




























I back filled where needed and also put some of the remaining soil in the flower beds to bulk them out a bit. 
Then covered over the soil with the remaining weed preventing thingy stuff and then set about moving the limestone.
































































I made a couple of steps and this was the best I could think of at the time, so I fastened them to the wall and filled them in. 
I have to say, I am rather happy with them, especially as they took about 30 minutes to cut install and fill.



















It was then time for the final hurdle, what do I do with this little section… Well I've got a deck… I'll have some grass shortly… Why not fill this section with concrete?

NO NO NO… I'm not good a mixing the curry sauce! Let alone the concrete!!!

Did I say I was winging this… yep… well, Im guessing you know what's coming!!

I ordered ballast, I also found half a bulk bag for £10 on market place, so I took the trailer and collected it. 
Tried to order cement, couldn't get hold of it. In the end I was having to buy them 3 or 4 bags at a time from different locations. It was crazy.
I then rented a cement mixer :lol:

Also, the shingle that you saw way back in photo 5 on the initial post was bagged up so that I could use it around the sides of the garden to smarten things up later. Little did I realise at that point, that some nutcase would rip out all of the limestone from his front garden and then have to use both…

I used the shingle as a base for the concrete, Rented a compacting machine for an hour and whacked them in place. As we walked on them during the concrete pour, they lifted slightly but I reckon it did a good enough job.



















The first pour! :thumb:





































We then laid the Sandy loam, levelled it as best as possible, threw seeds and then waited…. and waited….. then we waited A little bit more, until we had patches :lol:










Thanks again all for reading this far.

There has been further progress throughout the months and I will taken a few more photos tomorrow so that you can all see where we are at today.

There's still plenty to do, but I now have 'some' grass :lol:

Thanks again all


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## vsideboy (Sep 1, 2006)

Thanks for writing it all up mate, you've got to be pleased with the end result. Done a good (if not fully whinged) job eh.


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## 20vKarlos (Aug 8, 2009)

Andyblue said:


> That's coming along nicely :thumb:
> 
> New deck looks good and whole garden should look really nice once finished …





vsideboy said:


> Thanks for writing it all up mate, you've got to be pleased with the end result. Done a good (if not fully whinged) job eh.


Thanks guys, really appreciate the feedback.

I think the best thing I've learnt throughout the process is to just believe in myself a little more.


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## Soul boy 68 (Sep 8, 2013)

Garden is looking better with each post. :thumb:


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## 20vKarlos (Aug 8, 2009)

Soul boy 68 said:


> Garden is looking better with each post. :thumb:


Thank you mate

I've just been out to water the grass and flowers and grabbed a few photos to get you guys up to date with it all

I'll post that update shortly :thumb:


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## 20vKarlos (Aug 8, 2009)

Sorry for such a late update this evening guys, I've had a rather busy one.

After my wife was finished putting the new flowers in, the deck needed washing down, so once I'd done that I thought I'd take a few pictures.

A few new flowers and a the first pot of strawberries on the deck.




























I will be putting another step on the concrete soon and it'll be filled with the limestone like the others










I'm not sure I like the cordylines, that's why they're at the bottom of the garden. 
My wife likes them though, so I've got to tread carefully with them :lol:




























Lavender in this little space. 
Next year I think I'll have a few herbs here










The end result of the bench










Things that are left to do.

Some will have seen the post that's sticking out of the deck. I will be making a small fence along the top of the deck to make it safer for our 18month old daughter. And also a privacy screen by the shed as that'll be my BBQ area.

The shed will be replaced, but it'll do for a while. When it gets replaced, I'm thinking about building it out of breeze blocks but I'll cross the bridge as it arrives.

The small square by the rear gate… I am going to concrete a small ramp here as eventually I'd like to have the ability to bring a motorcycle into the back garden.

The trampoline won't stay forever, so something may get build down here too.

I have thrown some more seed down this evening, just to see if I can get the grass to thicken up some more as it was rather patchy in places.

Thanks again all for reading this far.

I hope you've all enjoyed it and if there is one bit of advice that I can give to you, it would be to just believe in yourself.

Lots of what I've done is not perfect, but I'm chuffed to bits that I've saved so much money by doing it myself and I've had some great help from YouTube, a few friends and most importantly my wife, she's been great.

Many thanks all


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## Andyblue (Jun 20, 2017)

You’ve done a cracking job there mate, looks soo much better and a really nice place to be in now :thumb: :thumb:


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## 20vKarlos (Aug 8, 2009)

Andyblue said:


> You've done a cracking job there mate, looks soo much better and a really nice place to be in now :thumb: :thumb:


Thank you mate  :thumb:


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## vsideboy (Sep 1, 2006)

Turn the trampoline around and just make a little bridge from the grass to the trampoline entrance haha.

Nice work mate, enjoy it.


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## WHIZZER (Oct 25, 2005)

looks great


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## 20vKarlos (Aug 8, 2009)

I just wanted to give you guys a quick update on the front garden.

We put concrete where there was previously limestone, it worked out that if bought a perfect amount of ballast and cement.

So what you can see below, is my gated fence. 
I still need to put my support wheel on the lock end, but it serves its purpose and looks reasonable enough for now.



















I will grab a few more photos once I've connected the trailer up to the car later in the month, but I am glad I tackled this job as it was actually fairly easy

Thanks for reading

Karlos


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## muzzer (Feb 13, 2011)

Looking good so far amigo


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## 20vKarlos (Aug 8, 2009)

muzzer said:


> Looking good so far amigo


Cheers pal, the weather is rubbish here at the moment so I can't get the remaining bits done, hopefully it'll all be sorted by the end of the month :thumb:


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## bigbrother (Jun 30, 2011)

Looks very good i've done very similar for my trailer, i would put some braces in the gate to stop it from sagging, i know you said that there is a wheel going on the gate but for added protection add a couple of braces you might just get away with using the bits of timber you have adjoining the two cross beams.


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## jdquinn (May 19, 2010)

Just come across this thread. I believe Anyone can do diy. It's just a matter of research and care and attention when implementing. You said in one of your posts you take ages on pondering how to do things or place things. That's planning and completely essential to a successful project. If you haven't done something before you just have to factor in a time of 3 to 5 times longer than that of a pro. Nothing to feel guilty about. Any less than this and you either have already built up skills in that area on previous projects or it's not done right.

You've done a great job and should be very happy with the results.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## 20vKarlos (Aug 8, 2009)

bigbrother said:


> Looks very good i've done very similar for my trailer, i would put some braces in the gate to stop it from sagging, i know you said that there is a wheel going on the gate but for added protection add a couple of braces you might just get away with using the bits of timber you have adjoining the two cross beams.


Thank you mate, that's exactly my next plan as regards to bracing, as it has dropped slightly, so I plan to do that before I put the support wheel on



jdquinn said:


> Just come across this thread. I believe Anyone can do diy. It's just a matter of research and care and attention when implementing. You said in one of your posts you take ages on pondering how to do things or place things. That's planning and completely essential to a successful project. If you haven't done something before you just have to factor in a time of 3 to 5 times longer than that of a pro. Nothing to feel guilty about. Any less than this and you either have already built up skills in that area on previous projects or it's not done right.
> 
> You've done a great job and should be very happy with the results.


Thank you again mate, I think you're right too, I just find that I either overthink and that gives opportunity for procrastination, or I research it until I'm confident to tackle the job. 
However, like the concreting, you find a lot of mixed information lol: pardon the pun) so I just went with a happy medium. I knew I wasn't going to use it as a house footing, so it didn't require regs etc, but it needed to handle the bouncing of the trampoline and the weight of the trailer, so that was all that mattered.

I have to say though, I am overwhelmed with the support on here, it's been a massive confidence booster as my neighbour keeps commending me for the work I've done. 
She told me that her kitchen fitter saw me building the fence and he said for someone that's never built a fence before, and doesn't really like DIY it's looking great and sturdy too.

I've e really appreciated everyone's comments, help and criticism's as this is what helps us all grow, without them I'd still be pondering on certain things.

Thanks again all


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