| We have now moved house. There are no plans at the moment for a pond (hmmm... maybe next year).... but, I did have visions of something involving railway sleepers. Sniffing around on the internet I decided to buy from here. I kept the price down by picking up myself.I couldn't fit them in the back of a Nissan Micra so I borrowed a truck from work. What I chose were the "new pine" sleepers. By putting down on paper some sort of design I bought 25 of them. The shape and design did change as I went on , but as long as I didn't use more than 25 it would be ok. A reason for using pine was that they weigh approx' 50kg compared to 100kg for oak or the original real mc coy sleeper. splits, rivets, bolts and all.... I had to take my wifes dickey back into consideration here ;} |
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Let's get started.....Basically I wanted to raise the garden by 6 inches or so. Then another raised corner decking affair. All I did was to lay out the sleepers in the sort of shape I was after. When I was happy about the shape I marked out with bamboo canes... removed the sleepers back into the middle of the garden. I then dug a shallow channel approx' 5" wide 2"deep all the way around the marked area. Each timber was metal bracketed to the previous so just in case the ground wasn't firm in any particular point it wouldn't sink. |
The decked areaThis wasn't how it was originally planned, but it worked ok.... I'm happy with it. Part of the plan was to go all around the gravveled walking area with block paving. That didn't happen, so I had lots of spare blocks. Now, I'm sure this must be quite unique. As you can see I have used them to make a small "wall" around the deck. They are laid dry ( at the moment anyway).. then lengths of decking on the top.. my son says it looks stupid... I say it looks great. It was easy and didn't cost a fortune in wood, and I used up all them surplus blocks. |
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Ugly neighbours garage and back wall.What an eyesore....... Simple and quick was what I was after here. The garage was screened using 2 rolls of twiggy stuff from the garden centre. The back wall is quite high so have broken it up by planting 2 ivy's which should eventually cover the wall . A couple of pot planted Conifers. In a few weeks timen I will be considering putting in a (good selection here) garden shed to store my lawn care equipment. |
The cost.25 sleepers... 500 gbp 3 ton topsoil... 90 gbp 5 ton gravel... 156 gbp 30 mtrs turf... 72 gbp Decking... 140 gbp Fencing/Posts... 40 gbp Block paving... 40 gbp Screening/plants. 120 gbp brackets/misc'... 40 gbp |
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