Garden Part 1: Digging it all out

The part of renovation that I really enjoy is the end. Designing everything, choosing decor, adding the final flourishing touches that truly turn a space from ‘meh’ to ‘wow’.

But before we can get there, we have to do all the messy stuff. Which is what Part 1 of our garden renovation is. The thought of building a house or redoing a garden sounds glamorous but the truth of the matter is it’s anything but. It’s messy, it’s horrible, it makes you question why you’re even doing it in the first place. I just keep having to picture myself having a glass of wine on a lovely new deck, surrounded by glittering fairylights and the noise of bird song. Ahh.

BUT, as I said earlier, before we get there, things are a little less idyllic.

When the project started, I took around 60 photos of the garden pre-renovation. Here’s what we started with:

Patio with chairs and table on it that leads up a step to the back of the garden. — This is our garden as seen from the patio doors that lead into our dining room.

The side/back of our house showing part of our driveway and back garden — The carport was taken down first. The side and front of the house will eventually be block paved.

Our garden with the garage in view and the old carport still up — Our bamboo (behind the chairs) finally died, however, it was too late. Its roots had grown through the mortar in the wall.

The carport was one of the first things to go. It’s been useful over the last 2 years (a good place for Jay to work outside, even when it’s raining, a good place to put the washing out and for parcels to be left), but it’s more than outstayed its welcome. You can see how much sunshine it was blocking from the garden in the morning.

Removing it provided us with so much more light, and made the garden appear bigger.

The view of our garden with the carport gone.

On Saturday 4th May, the diggers arrived to remove over 90 tonnes of brick, soil, plants and concrete from our garden and driveway.

The raised borders were all crumbling. I guess they’d been here since the house was built (’71) so they’ve all gone. The wall at the back was unstable because the bamboo roots had begun to grow through it, so that wall came down.

Our garden with the raised borders and paving removed.

They’ve dug down quite far because the paving finished in line with where the damp proof started. The paving should be at least 6″ lower than the damp proof because droplets of rain bounce off the floor onto the brick. We’ll have to put a step down into our garden, but again, lowering it makes the whole thing feel bigger.

The mound of soil that's as tall as me that came out of our back garden.

Can you believe that all that came out of our back garden alone? It’s unbelievable how much soil and concrete has been removed.

But things got worse before they got better…

Just as the back garden was looking clear, and it stopped raining for a few days so I could walk on the dried clay, the wall got taken down.

Photo of my husband taking down the wall and putting pieces into a wheelbarrow

The wall was an additional 20 tonnes of brick that we hadn’t factored in, so a total of 110 tonnes has come out. And I thought we only had a small plot of land!

The front of our house showing where we dug a channel for the gas pipe.

Another issue we had involved a hole in the gas pipe. The pipe wasn’t buried deep enough and one of the diggers hit it by accident. We had to dig a trench (above) and waited for the gas board to come out and make sure the pipe was safe/rebury it.

Now that everything’s been dug out, the messiest part is over. In the following week, we’ll be laying 20 tonnes of hardcore down in the front and back. Jay will also be installing the drainage and building the fencing. He’s planning to do every aspect of this renovation himself, including the paving, fencing, decking. You name it, he’ll have a go!

Keep an eye on my garden renovation category for updates coming soon.