Major ground works PT 1

After a rough couple of years with fairly major ill health scares, we have finally come round to recognising that there are some jobs we can no longer do with ease, and are finally employing people to do the hard work we used to be able to do. 

And some jobs, that we paid for many years ago, need re doing. 

One of these was the gravel drive. We had this done by an excellent local contractor more than 12 years ago

We have never used any chemicals on this place, so we don't spray weeds. We kept the weeds out of the gravel drive for many years by hand weeding, flame weeding and raking, but over the last few years it's got weedier and weedier, until, quite frankly, it looked an eyesore as you drove into the garden. 

So, we employed an another excellent local contractor to come and remove and redo the gravel drive, laying down heavyweight geotextile, then a crushed, compacted stone layer, then top gravel. 

What a difference! It looks fabulous! Mat and Luke, who did this work during the hottest week of the year so far, were amazing.

They are coming back to do more groundworks in a few weeks, so watch this space. 

Diggers, toads and half a weasel

So, it is all finally happening :) After a phone call yesterday asking if we minded the work being done a month early (erm, no!) the patio work will commence tomorrow.

The mini digger has arrived and tomorrow ( weather permitting) the  work will start on our patio.

The patio is in a dreadful state and is effectively no longer usable. It has sunk and is uneven and weedy.

It is a bit of an eyesore, to be honest and I will be so happy when it all looks good again

We spent some time today lifting slabs and digging out a few plants which we wanted to keep; an unusual coloured Buddlia and some Winter Jasmine. I have potted them up along with a load more Tree Peonies and a lot of Lilies which we dug out of the side bed.

We found quite a few Toads, both large and small, hiding under the slabs so we carefully moved them to safety.

 
We couldn't do much for this, though  - we found it over by the JCB. Tabitha Weasel Killer strikes again!

Finally! The ground is dry enough to drive the JCB over it withour sinking in!

Let the digging begin :-)