Large new outdoor c&s project
Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 5:31 pm
My lockdown project 
The old fella next door died last year and his tumble-down old 20s built house eventually came up for sale. To cut a long story short we decided to buy it, mainly to preserve our tranquil bubble and save it being developed/new build/family from Hell etc.
The house was demolished and I asked for the rubble to be kept and spread over the footprint of the house and a couple of metres to the side. The whole site slopes southwest and in places on the upper slope the rubble is 4ft deep. So what I now have, in effect, is a large, open, sunny slope that - with all that masonry - is going to absolutely bake in summer. High lime content, prefect drainage. To say I am excited by the prospects is an understatement
I had some potted plants, also - having massively overplanted my existing garden - had loads of plants to transplant. I decided to plant multiples of things I know do well here so have a more limited palette of plants but planting on a bigger scale. I have so far planted/transplanted 40 cacti, 26 agaves, 12 yuccas, 10 nolina and a whole load of Mediterranean type plants. Plus a few experimentals, of course. I am keeping the hard landscaping to a minimum because a/ I like the challenge of letting the plants provide the structure and b/ I haven't got much money left
Away from the slope, clearing the neglected and massively overgrown site has been incredibly hard work but huge fun and very rewarding. We have found all kinds of original walls/paths etc including lovely old sundial that hadn't seen the light of day for decades. Dead trees and shrubs, self sown hollies, layered privet, a 40ft Russian vine, brambles as thick as my thumb. You couldn't walk around it at first.
I'll probably show updates of various things depending upon how they get on a grow. But already the first few things seem to revel in the extra light and warmth.
The old fella next door died last year and his tumble-down old 20s built house eventually came up for sale. To cut a long story short we decided to buy it, mainly to preserve our tranquil bubble and save it being developed/new build/family from Hell etc.The house was demolished and I asked for the rubble to be kept and spread over the footprint of the house and a couple of metres to the side. The whole site slopes southwest and in places on the upper slope the rubble is 4ft deep. So what I now have, in effect, is a large, open, sunny slope that - with all that masonry - is going to absolutely bake in summer. High lime content, prefect drainage. To say I am excited by the prospects is an understatement
I had some potted plants, also - having massively overplanted my existing garden - had loads of plants to transplant. I decided to plant multiples of things I know do well here so have a more limited palette of plants but planting on a bigger scale. I have so far planted/transplanted 40 cacti, 26 agaves, 12 yuccas, 10 nolina and a whole load of Mediterranean type plants. Plus a few experimentals, of course. I am keeping the hard landscaping to a minimum because a/ I like the challenge of letting the plants provide the structure and b/ I haven't got much money left
Away from the slope, clearing the neglected and massively overgrown site has been incredibly hard work but huge fun and very rewarding. We have found all kinds of original walls/paths etc including lovely old sundial that hadn't seen the light of day for decades. Dead trees and shrubs, self sown hollies, layered privet, a 40ft Russian vine, brambles as thick as my thumb. You couldn't walk around it at first.
I'll probably show updates of various things depending upon how they get on a grow. But already the first few things seem to revel in the extra light and warmth.
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