drunkenfool
Member
Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
User status: Offline
|
Finally, a nice enough day to do some work outside, and I stayed in last night so I was up and about at half 8 which is unheard of for me on a saturday  The pond and garden has been neglected over the winter cos its just been too cold, plus ive been back at uni, but I got back on with it today. I wasnt really intending to though, it just kinda happened, so I dont have a proper "Before" photo
Started off by laying down the anti-weed matting where I wanted the path to go.
put a few stones down
im doing the path in the ligher stone, and the bit between the pond and the planted area in blue slate. Im also going to do the raised bit with the plants in with the slate too, but I didn't have enough today.
I also chopped down the big tree that was between the two ponds, the garden looks loads bigger now, plus it means I wont get anywhere near as many leaves in the pond next autumn 
View from the upstairs dining room window (upside down house )
I also removed al the weeds and plants that I didnt want from the bit between the two ponds, turned over all the soil with added compost and planted new plants that i bought today. Ed (Superlite Ltd) gave me a hand too, and dug up some realllly shitty earth near the top pond, to bring the shape of the planted bit between to more of a square side so it will be easier to fit the decking eventually.
I also tidied up the netting around the pond and cleared the garden generally, so its looking a bit better. Getting there slowly!!
Its been a really nice day to do it though, better than being stuck inside Plus all the words I found when i was digging, I fed to the koi and they seemed to love them
|
Doug
Member
Registered: 8th Oct 03
User status: Offline
|
Getting there
Going to be amazing in the summer when its all finsihed, BBQ's at yours!
|
drunkenfool
Member
Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
User status: Offline
|
spent another 2 hours on it today, done some more planting and tidying, then me and ed (superlite) made 2 trips to the beach and stole a shit load of stones to go in the stream. If the weather is good on wed then im gonna spend the afternoon on it again too. I really can';t wait till summer now, its gonna be so nice in the evenings having BBQs and stuff
|
drunkenfool
Member
Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
User status: Offline
|
Bit more progress...
Lay more of the patio too
And this is the kitchen I am hopefully getting...
|
Cosmo
Member
Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: Im the real one!
User status: Offline
|
loving that kitchen, where is that from?
|
drunkenfool
Member
Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
User status: Offline
|
MFI. Im expecting a call back from them today to see if they can come measure up and give us a quote on sunday when my mum is in aber (as its her house and her money ) Ive got the new bathroom furniture too stored away in the spare room now, just need to get the walk in shower cubicle and the thermostatic shower. Im gonna do the floor in the kitchen with the same tiles i used in the dining room (i bought them all at the same time when they were on offer), and not sure which worktop to go with it yet. You can just see it on the right of that pic, but it also has blue LEDs under the cupboards in teh metal strip, it looks well smart 
|
Superlite Ltd.
Member
Registered: 9th Jan 07
User status: Offline
|
Matt im bored!
Been studying today???
Get any plants in post????
|
drunkenfool
Member
Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
User status: Offline
|
Got the plants this morning mate and puit them in the top pond after potting them, they are all quite small though so will take a while to get established. that's half the fun tho i guess! I spent the morning in the garden reading one of the spanish novels i got to read, and then went to the beach with Irma and Anna for a while this afternoon. Im going swimming with Marky now to try and get fit
|
Ally
Member
Registered: 2nd Jul 03
Location: Pontypool Drives: a Skoda
User status: Offline
|
Matt have you seen our garden? Any ideas on how to encoorperate some kind of pond/water garden into as our garden is terrible (concrete for a third, with steps up leading to a grassed bit then concretede parking spot) also somthing thats fairly cheap to do!
|
drunkenfool
Member
Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
User status: Offline
|
No I haven't Ally, send me some pics over on msn if u want and ill see if i can help out. Just got back from the swimming pool and im absolutely shagged!
|
drunkenfool
Member
Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
User status: Offline
|
Started attacking the other side of the pond now, it was a stepped bank with lots of different height bits marked off with wooden posts, and all overgrown. We've dug out loads of earth again to flatten some of it off so its now usable garden space, its starting to look better already, and the garden looks bigger The plan is to put the same slate chippings down, and put a bench there overlooking the pond. Only thing is im not quite sure what to do about the bank yet. need some sort of a wall so im thinking maybe bricks but not 100% positive yet. The earth we dug up was put around the top pond, trying to make the whole area level ready for the decking to go down up there
|
drunkenfool
Member
Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
User status: Offline
|
Just seen the original pics too, im pleased with the difference so far!
|
drunkenfool
Member
Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
User status: Offline
|
Updating this again in case anyone is reading it, plus its handy to just send the link to my mum or dad if they wanna see how ive been getting on
Sorted out one of the flower beds today next to the patio. It was just an overgrown area before, so took up the weeds and plants that I didnt want, dug it back about 8" away from the patio to build a small wall, planted the new plants through holes in the anti-weed matting, and then stone chips on top. Looks so much better
This was mid way though
Then finished...
EDIT - perspective looks a bit weird in the last pic, but the flowebed is raised about 8" from the height of the patio even though it doesnt really look like it. Plus I found a pic of it before i started
[Edited on 11-04-2007 by drunkenfool]
|
Marc
Member
Registered: 11th Aug 02
Location: York
User status: Offline
|
Like the pond and fish 
|
drunkenfool
Member
Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
User status: Offline
|
Tried to get some pics of it lit up at night but they didnt come out that well 
Still got more work to do, bridge to go over the stream should be here this week too and im gonna fit a few lights under that to light up the stream better, and still waiting for the slate chippings to come back in stock to finish off the other side. Then i need to build a retaining wall for the solid face of earth, and probably face it wtih bamboo, but thats gonna have to wait till after lectures finish now!
If you cant quite make out what it is, the red light is on the left hand side of the pond lighting up the stone wall, the green light is underwater in the pond facing the other way, and the acer is to the right of the stream
[Edited on 24-04-2007 by drunkenfool]
|
Greg_M
Member
Registered: 2nd Sep 03
Location: Grantham, Lincolnshire
User status: Offline
|
quote:
Originally posted by drunkenfool
Had fun getting the bench down the alleyway and stairs
how is there feet under the bench?
[Edited on 25-04-2007 by Greg_M]
|
drunkenfool
Member
Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
User status: Offline
|
I forgot about that. Magic
|
corsaaa_16v
Member
Registered: 8th Feb 06
User status: Offline
|
quality mate
|
drunkenfool
Member
Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
User status: Offline
|
Went back to Hereford to get the second filter which came with £70 of vouchers for fish or dry goods, so i got one more koi, a butterfly koi, and a sturgeon
Im gonna sell a few of the smaller koi eventually as some my sister chose and im not fussed if they stay in the pond or not. I now have two Nexus Eazy Pod filters though which should cope
|
drunkenfool
Member
Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
User status: Offline
|
Well the weather has started to pick up again so I've finally made some more progress on the house. I was away in Spain for a year as you may know, but when I got back to the house the garden was a complete mess, the 2 guys living there hadn't done ANYTHING in a whole year, the pond had about 18" of water left in it which was so dark you still couldnt see any fish and at least 3 of them died (  ), and it was generally a complete state. After clearing up all that mess, i was able to make a bit more progress.
The other side of the pond has been cleared and levelled, and more slate chippings have been put down.
Also finished the stone walling around the top pond which wasnt finished before, and put in another little stream from there going up to the waterfall and the filters. Looks so much better than two big black plastic pipes that were lay across the lawn before
I bought myself an angle grinder last week too so have also finally strted to finish the patio properly, it makes such a big difference  I will be finishing this off this afternoon I think...
I can't remember if there are any photos of the whole garden itself from before, but basically it was incredibly overgrown (it was even mentioned on the survey that was carried out before we bought the property). We have cut down quite a few trees, 5 very large ones that were pretty much dead already, we hired a stump grinder and removed all the stumps to below ground level and a chipper to get rid of all of the branches. It's opened up the garden loads and it looks twice the size! So we';re now in the middle of putting up a proper fence (started yesterday) and then the plan is to reseed the lawn.
We were going to rotovate and returf it, but we're moving out in about 6 weeks so its just not worth the extra money now.
Anyway, I thoiught id put the pics up in case people were interested. I'll prob do one or two more updates of it nearing completion before I leave!
|
16vKarlos
Member
Registered: 27th Oct 07
User status: Offline
|
What happened with this?
was excellent
|
drunkenfool
Member
Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
User status: Offline
|
We got it all finished about a day before I moved out of the house, and it has been rented out since then. Current plans are to sell the house in the next few months so I will be going back to Aberystwyth to check it all over and probably to tidy the garden etc before it goes on the market, so I will try to get some pics if I can.
We are currently renovating the lounge at my mums house too so I will do a tiny progress thread of that one too if anyone is interested
|
16vKarlos
Member
Registered: 27th Oct 07
User status: Offline
|
im interested lol.. love home projects..
Homes under the hammer style lol
|
Marc
Member
Registered: 11th Aug 02
Location: York
User status: Offline
|
That all looks great.
I too love house/garden stuff lol 
|
FruitBooTeR
Member
Registered: 18th Jan 07
Location: Wolverhampton Drives: S15
User status: Offline
|
Would you say a bottom drain is needed in koi ponds of your size / just a bit bigger as ive looked at both ponds youve done and you didint include one in the build..
|
