Garden design, garden planning, garden layout, planting plants and planting schemes

A DAY IN THE LIFE… of a landscaper (Days 2 – 6)

posted in advice category on 2009-01-06

With the weather very much on our side, we had by Day 6 managed to complete the site clearance and removed all waste and debris, mixed on-site and poured the Patio foundations, constructed the perimeter retaining walls for patios and planting pits/trapped planting beds, completed the Inner Wall aspect of the Raised Platform for the Victorian Summerhouse, installed the Acco Drains and associated pipe work for Run-off and extended the wall venting, completed the hoisting in of over 35 ton of sand, gravel, hardcore, almost 5 ton of cement in 25kg bags, 100+ m2 of Sandstone paving, several hundred solid concrete blocks.

With a few minutes before 4.00pm on Day 6, we had managed to hoist most of raw material requirements into the garden and removed most of the waste, and at 5 minutes to 4.00pm, the mechanical digger was finally hoisted off site.

We already knew we would have a challenging project, both in terms of construction planning but also design. Our spirits remained high that we could make good progress, but we were nonetheless conscious of how vulnerable progress might be if the weather was to change.

Perhaps because we have accumulated so much experience of designing and building challenging landscaping assignments, it never fails to impress not only ourselves but something which is frequently noted and commented upon by our clients. It does seem our infectious enthusiasm to tackle the task in hand head-on and our gritty determination to succeed in getting the job done is rarely missed by our clients.

Pic 1 Site Clearance resumes

Pic 2 Site clearance progresses

Pic 3 Site cleared and initial grading completed

Pic 4 Foundations for Patio Retaining Walls

Pic 5 More Foundations works

Pic 6 Foundation Walls and venting pipe work

Pic 7 Retaining Walls for Planting Pits

Pic 8 Acco Drains and pipe work

Pic 9 More Building materials arrive

Pic 10 Retaining Walls completed and hardcore backfilling gets underway

Pic 11 Backfilling and compaction of Hardcore almost completed

Pic 12 Inside Block work of Raised Platform for Summerhouse

Pic 13 Sandstone Paving materials

Pic 14 Removal of mechanical digger

It is only on very rare occasions, that the weather might manage to hinder our progress, but so far in this project, Mother Nature has shown us great favour. But will our luck hold out?

…to be continued.