So, we were sick of looking at the abundance stock of weeds, nettles and general unwanted greenery in the back garden.
The dogs longed to be outside in something respectful and the wife purely wanted something soothing on the eye and easy to maintain.
It began.......decking was 1st on the agenda, with back breaking digging, weeding and hard graft on my 1 week holiday in summer 2010.
The idea was layed out on paper so that I could get the approval from the "boss" (wife).
The back decking was already constructed and had been in place now for a number of years just gathering nettles through the decking board gaps.
This, at the time was going to house one of those cheap zip-up gro-houses you get from Argos or Netto, little was I to know at the time that I would expand to a glass greenhouse.
Digging commenced on the 1st weekend of the weeks holiday I had from work and I couldn't have picked a hotter day to start! The weather was blisteringly hot!
Part of the garden was cleared
away and levelled as best I could in readiness for the decking base.
As the first decking boards went into place things were starting to take shape. The transformation from derelict overgrown weed haven into a mini "ground-force" project was slowly emerging.
I was careful to ensure that there was a very gentle slope towards one side of the decking to allow rainwater to drain off easily. Also it was very important to ensure there was a small gap between the nearest decking board to the conservatory wall in order to allow for the wood to contract and expand.
1st time ever for me constructing something like this but I was determined to have a finished end result.
After a couple of days the decking base and posts were secured in place and ready for the side fence rails to be attached.
At last the finished decking. Nothing really special, but a nice area to step out onto from the conservatory and somewhere where we can sit and have a drink without wading through the undergrowth.
There was still alot of work to do to the rest of the garden but for now we could start placing planters and pots on the decking to get a sense of what colours we had been missing out on.
May 2011
Nearly 1 year on and phase 2 of the garden redesign. The flowers on the new decking were growing well and the strawberries were starting to flower.
The plan was to totally blitz the rest of the garden weeds and get to the stage where the weeds could be kept under control with the use of black ground netting. After a couple of days back breaking digging and weeding in the still uncharacteristic hot weather in May, the ground was clear from weeds and nettles and down to the bare minimum.
Before the ground netting could be put into place, the borders raised flower and vegetable beds had to be constructed and put into place. These were constructed using treated decking boards and strong corner posts to make both 2-tier and 3-tier raised beds which would eventually be filled with a mixture of top grade top soil mixed with nutrient rich compost.A total of 4 raised beds were needed. 1 for flowers and the other 3 all for vegetables.
The raised beds were pretty easy to build to be honest and once I'd gotten into a routine they were built -up pretty quickly.The "bleeding heart" plant you can see at the rear of the back corner raised bed had to be moved from it's original position as it was in the way of the vegatable raised bed.
It was carefully dug out and the roots preserved as best I could before replanting in the final position. Only time will tell if it survives. The folage seemed to remain ok whereas the flowers died after a few days. I'm hopeing it was down to the initial shock of moving locations.Ground Meshing & Stones
Once the first 2 raised beds were located in place and compost/soil mix added, I was able to gauge how much wood was needed for the next 2 raised beds and calculate the amount of stones needed to cover the whole area.
I decided to lay down the floor meshing next before building the next 2 raised beds, just to give a sense of progress and keep me motivated.
Just a tip for when you go out and by the black floor meshing....go to the cheaper shops like Netto, Aldi, Lidl or Pound Stretcher and you'll see a huge difference in price compared to those at B & Q or Focus or Homebase..ALOT OF DIFFERENCE!
2 rolls of black meshing used in total which wasn't too bad. The wood etc was just to keep it all in place as the wind was starting to pick-up.
Wickes had a great offer on a 3/4 tonne bag of 20mm stone which was just the right colour for what we wanted. This was ordered and after 2 days it was delivered to the front of the house. Wheel barrow and shovel out and about 50 trips later the stones were transported onto the black meshing and raked into place. Stepping stones were used between the new decking and the older decking and then a few others placed around the garden just to place planters on them eventually.
Make sure you have placed a decent layer of black weed meshing under the gravel stones otherwise you'll be surprised at how the weeds return!!I need to remove some gravel stones near the side of the back decking and place some more black meshing down as the weeds have started to grow through.
I've laid down a decent thickness of gravel stone so that it can withstand people walking over it and not leaving areas of stones that have sunk into the ground.The dogs tend to run around sometimes and leave small holes in the gravel which we get used to and simply use your foot to cover them back over.
June 2011 - New Greenhouse
Once the back garden had progressed and was nearing completion, the rear decking was looking somewhat bare, so I quite fancied buying one of the small, cheap, polythene potting "shed".
Our local "Home Bargain" store was selling what I wanted for £29.99, so I took advantage along with some un-heated propogaters and small planting pots. Bought a selection of vegatable seeds (lettuce, beetroot, carrots, radish and onions) and started to venture into the home produce world.
After studying various books, internet forums and "Youtube" videos it became aparent that the cheap propogater "module cells" were not allowing the water to drain and causing stagnation thus killing the sppeds. That and the super high temperatures within the polythene (32DegC) due to lack of through ventilation put an end to 2 weeks of waiting!
Not put-off by this, I was determined to prove to myself that I could sucessfully start to grow vegatables so I replaced the cheap propogaters with decent vented hard plastic type and started again. This time I was watering the seed trays from the bottom so that the soil could absorb what and when it needed. I started to ensure that the front small zipped door was left open on hot days (which at the time was every day for 3 weeks!!).
After a mere 1 week the radishes started to germinate, shortly followed by the lettuce. What a thrill seeing this for the first time and it was this that made me get the "gardening bug".
That moment I was wanting to plant more and by the time I got to the 1st stage of "pricking out" and potting up I realised I had very little space.
The decission was made to look for a proper glass greenhouse. The location would have to be onto the old existing decking at the corner of the garden and I needed a 5ft3 x 6ft3 glass greenhouse which would maximise the space I had and allow a bit of space around 3 sides.
I found a company based in London that could manufacture the exact size I wanted along with side louvres and aut top window opener. The instructions were fairly decent and once I'd studied them for a while they were very easy to follow. The manufactured alluminium pieces were number stamped so that they could be identified with ease in relation to the instructions. Recommendation within the instructions were for 2 people over 2-3 days.
I built it on my own in under 2 days!
The decking was cut for the 4 corner 3 inch alluminium legs on the base plinth so that it could drop down and secure to the base. 
The horticultural glass went in very easily once I had ensured that the base was perfectly square and the aluminium frame was precisely assembled. Handy little "z" & "c" clips secured each glass piece. Plenty of supplied insulation stip gave a nice firm aluminium to glass seal.
Side manual louvred windows to allow cross flow ventilation to the roof auto window opener. The roof auto window opener (no electric required) was a piston filled with a type of wax that expanded and contracted depending upon the internal temperature of the greenhouse. This in turn, connected to the window opener, allowed it to be opened and closed.Nearly End of July 2011
So just over a month from construction and having some absolutely fantastic results growing the following:-
- Lettuce (Red & Green)
- Tomatoes
- Cucumber
- Radish
- Chillies
- Peppers
- Onions (red, normal and spring)
- Carrots (Normall and Jamie Oliver Purples)
- Herbs (Mint, Sage, Thyme, Mint and Chives)
- Peas
- Delphinium
- Stock
- Hollyhock
Cucumber July 2011
Tomatoes doing great....started flowering now and lots of trusses!
Stock and hollyhocks far right. Lettuce and "Jamie Oliver" purple carrots in middle and you can just see the delphiniums, bottom left.Alot of the garden raised flower beds were changed into vegatable beds with some containing majority of good grade top soil mixed with a small amount of compost and others that had majority compost and a small amount of good grade top soil.
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