Our Completed Garden Reveal!
This post has been a LONG time coming. Our garden renovation, can you believe it, was a whole year ago last summer. Not only was last summer one of the rainiest on record, but the rain really delayed us in more ways than one, meaning I’ve only just got the space fully ship shape and ready for revealing now!
So, what exactly did we do to the space? We:
Removed nearly 100 TONNES of debris
When we started the project, we had no idea how much of the current garden would need to be removed. We took out brick walls, raised borders, soil, paving slabs, carports and a LOT of concrete.
For some reason, the drive was made up of a mixture of plants, paving stones and concrete that was six inches thick in places. WHY? I have no idea, but it required a pneumatic drill to crack it all and allow it to be taken away.
I mean, look how thick some of those slabs are. This took the best part of two days to crack and remove, leaving us with something resembling more of a driveway:
Safe to say there was a lot more to be removed than we originally thought. Particularly in the back of the garden, the paving slabs were above the damp proof course, which is obviously calling for a damp problem. We had to dig down over 6 inches to make sure the new paving would be underneath the damp course.
Added new fencing (front and back)
For the driveway, we wanted simple fencing and a tarmac’d drive that would be super easy to maintain. The fencing at the front is smaller panels and at the back, we went for 6ft panels.
Had a LOT of hardcore delivered
Because we’d dug so much out, obviously this needs to be replaced. Front and back, we installed a lot of hardcore that was wackered down, providing a good base for the paving and tarmac.
Installed decking and paving
Once all the hardcore was in place, it was time for the exciting stuff – decking and paving.
Got our furniture
I love our garden furniture, and it gets so many compliments. The chairs, especially, have a sort of mid-century shape, and I adore the copper effects on the arms. It matches our fire pit perfectly.
Painted the fencing
As soon as the fencing was in, I knew I wanted to paint it grey. We used Johnstone’s garden paint in colour Steel Smoke. It took me around 24 hours (not continuously) to paint all the fencing. SOOOO many people told me to spray it but I was paranoid about ruining the new decking and also spraying our neighbour’s conservatory.
So I hand painted it with a tiny paintbrush, making sure to keep my concrete posts paint free too. I’m a perfectionist, and is there anything worse than paint splatters everywhere?
Cleaned our patio tiles
As you saw above, our patio tiles were filthy from all the renovation work, so we gave them a good clean. Cleaning your outdoor tiles can be an easy job, if you have the right equipment. The main thing is to give them a good brush to remove any debris and then use a jetwash to wipe away the remaining dirt.
The Finished Space!
Now this finally brings me to our finished garden space. I’m sure many of you know and have seen on my Instagram that we’ve sold our house and are due to move into the next renovation project this month (July 2020). So unfortunately, I haven’t been able to paint the garage, build the planters I wanted, etc. But I think the garden looks great considering.
It’s a small space but it’s low maintenance, lovely to sit in and works for us. Knowing we’d be selling the house, we also wanted to keep the garden plain and simple and low maintenance.
