8 Denby Lane
Heaton Chapel
empty house (2009) ◊ moving in (2009) ◊ winter (2009) ◊ furnished (2010) ◊ gardening (2010) ◊ decorating (2010) ◊ decorating (2010 to 2014) ◊ gardening (2011 & 2012) ◊ landscaping (2012 & 2013) ◊ gardening (2013 & 2014)
Landscaping (2012)
Having decorated three of the four bedrooms, and with the rest of the house's decor being in good shape when we moved in, our attention in our third winter here turned to the back garden. Here is how it looked when we moved in.
This shot in particular shows a couple of the reasons for why we wanted to have the paving re-laid. Firstly, the dip in the flags in the bottom right corner, which had subsided over the years due to the underlying drain. Secondly, there was little clearance between the kitchen doors and the rose bushes in the flower bed.
In January 2012, we commissioned Kevin, our gardener, and his builder mate to do the work. I never did manage to get the full set of "before" photos from Kevin. They made very good progress and this was the situation once the flags had been lifted, the boundaries re-cut (unfortunately eating into the lawn, but it had to be done) and the wall laid down. It looked a lot more spacious.
And looking back the other way.
This was the view through to the back of the garden. We decided to go for stones all the way to the shed.
Near the greenhouse the path had been widened, which would hopefully be a bit less treacherous (the paving stones on the raised section would be lethal in the rain).
Quite a mess was forming by the side of the house. A skip was going to be needed.
One slight hitch was the self-removal of the garage door, which flapped in the wind and eventually wrenched itself off. The wood was not what it was and its weakness was its, um, weakness. This did, however, enable a power cable to be run from the garage to the greenhouse (purely for propagation purposes) while we patiently waited for the new door to be delivered and fitted.
A week later and, despite the slightly frosty conditions, good progress was being made. The deeper kitchen door step would be much more practical, especially with the young Daisy on the scene.
And back the other way. Looking good.
For all the increasing aesthetic pleasure of the back, the side still looked like somewhat of a dump. One for the future, perhaps.
A fortnight later, after a cold snap delayed things, it was all done.
Up the side.
Behind the greenhouse.
And looking the other way. It would perhaps never be this clean again.
We were very happy with the results.
The contrast between the paving at the back and the side (see above) prompted us to hire Kevin to return in January 2013. So, to remind you, this is what it looked like. Both higgledy and piggledy, they were clearly in need of a revamp.
Work was soon well underway.
Progress was again swift.
Before long it was complete. The two perpendicular bricks are a trademan's trick.
And here it is in all its glory once it had all dried. You also get a shot of our wonderful array of wheelie bins. Not to mention our shiny not-so-new-any-more outhouse double door.
It was all good. Looking out to the front, there is still the matter of the front paving stones to think about, but we were in no rush for those (mainly because we didn't spend that much time at the front and there were no pressing reasons).
And that's that. The landscaping segment is over. Hope you enjoyed it.
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