Don't bury your dead cats in plastic bags... kids!
The decomposition process still happens, however the byproducts have nowhere to go... meaning when the unsuspecting people who buy your house, decide to dig up the garden, they unwittingly come across your non biodegradable pet grave... they have to dispose of a very stinky, drippy, vomit inducing bag of goo which infected the street for hours...
Sorry for the graphic description but I am really not sure any words can truly describe it. Ironically, whilst digging, Scott repeatedly made jokes about finding a dead body... well at least it wasn't quite like he was implying but still!
Shall I post the photo of said bag? Maybe I shouldn't, I have already delighted my instagram friends with that beauty...
Anyway, onto what I am actually here to talk about, we have finally done more work to our garden! When we replaced the wall with a fence 4 years ago, we decided we would also get rid of the brick planters and extra weird annoying bit and put in sleepers (like my veg border) and extend our patio. It's taken a while to get round to it!
I forgot to take any before photos so here is some random ones from years ago to give an idea of what it looked like before.
The border where that big bush is in the photo is where the decomposed cat was found! Yummy!
Really bad photos but you get the idea!
We chose the hottest weekend (Easter weekend) to dig out a 6ft skip worth of brick, soil and concrete! To be honest though, when I say we, I really mean Scott and Andy as I had my hands full making sure Pippa wasn't 'too helpful' or didn't die...
The original idea was that we wouldn't have any type of border down by the patio. However, upon excavation, we found loads of concrete, much of which had to be forced out but in this spot along the fence, there was so much that we decided it wasn't worth digging out. The other side of our fence in the road and it is as high as the bottom of the fence panel so it is likely that a lot of the concrete is part of the road foundations. Best left alone I think! This meant that we made a nice border here instead which we then extended up along the fence to my veg border. I have wanted a border along there for a long time but for a few reasons, never got round to it. I really like the way the two borders at different levels tie the garden together. Once all planted it'll look lush hopefully!
I have put canes all over the planters for now to stop the cats crapping in them, it's somewhat worked... reduced it anyway if not completely stopped them! I Have moved a few existing plants around and planted them so far but I am hoping Scott might take me plant shopping this weekend to get some more. I would like a climbing rose and maybe another sort of climber, plus some smaller plants to fill in the gaps. In the autumn I will plant some bulbs in there too ready for next spring. I'm thinking snow drops would look lovely!!
There is obviously other work still to do too. We couldn't be bothered to replace the whole patio (although maybe we should have) so at the moment the new slabs stick out like a sore thumb compared to the old. So does the new concrete step compared to the path. We are going to bleach and pressure wash them which will help, but the main thing which will make them blend in will be time! Like the wood looks all new and bright now, it wont be long until it goes the lovely silver colour of my veg border and it'll all blend in and not look so mismatched!
The last thing to sort is the man hole cover which gives access to the sewer. At the moment it sits lover than the patio. Previously it was covered by a bit of plastic and gravel dumped on top. Andy isn't very keen to do anything about it. His solution is to put a storage shed on top of it and forget about it... However, Richard said he wouldn't mind helping us take the old one out, raise it and put a new cover on which can then blend into the patio. I much prefer this idea! Not sure when we will do it though, maybe for now we should move Pippa's sand pit and forget about it for a while!! A Bit like our house decorating skills, many jobs left not quite finished!!
Sorry for the graphic description but I am really not sure any words can truly describe it. Ironically, whilst digging, Scott repeatedly made jokes about finding a dead body... well at least it wasn't quite like he was implying but still!
Shall I post the photo of said bag? Maybe I shouldn't, I have already delighted my instagram friends with that beauty...
Anyway, onto what I am actually here to talk about, we have finally done more work to our garden! When we replaced the wall with a fence 4 years ago, we decided we would also get rid of the brick planters and extra weird annoying bit and put in sleepers (like my veg border) and extend our patio. It's taken a while to get round to it!
I forgot to take any before photos so here is some random ones from years ago to give an idea of what it looked like before.
The border where that big bush is in the photo is where the decomposed cat was found! Yummy!
Really bad photos but you get the idea!
We chose the hottest weekend (Easter weekend) to dig out a 6ft skip worth of brick, soil and concrete! To be honest though, when I say we, I really mean Scott and Andy as I had my hands full making sure Pippa wasn't 'too helpful' or didn't die...
The original idea was that we wouldn't have any type of border down by the patio. However, upon excavation, we found loads of concrete, much of which had to be forced out but in this spot along the fence, there was so much that we decided it wasn't worth digging out. The other side of our fence in the road and it is as high as the bottom of the fence panel so it is likely that a lot of the concrete is part of the road foundations. Best left alone I think! This meant that we made a nice border here instead which we then extended up along the fence to my veg border. I have wanted a border along there for a long time but for a few reasons, never got round to it. I really like the way the two borders at different levels tie the garden together. Once all planted it'll look lush hopefully!
I have put canes all over the planters for now to stop the cats crapping in them, it's somewhat worked... reduced it anyway if not completely stopped them! I Have moved a few existing plants around and planted them so far but I am hoping Scott might take me plant shopping this weekend to get some more. I would like a climbing rose and maybe another sort of climber, plus some smaller plants to fill in the gaps. In the autumn I will plant some bulbs in there too ready for next spring. I'm thinking snow drops would look lovely!!
There is obviously other work still to do too. We couldn't be bothered to replace the whole patio (although maybe we should have) so at the moment the new slabs stick out like a sore thumb compared to the old. So does the new concrete step compared to the path. We are going to bleach and pressure wash them which will help, but the main thing which will make them blend in will be time! Like the wood looks all new and bright now, it wont be long until it goes the lovely silver colour of my veg border and it'll all blend in and not look so mismatched!
The last thing to sort is the man hole cover which gives access to the sewer. At the moment it sits lover than the patio. Previously it was covered by a bit of plastic and gravel dumped on top. Andy isn't very keen to do anything about it. His solution is to put a storage shed on top of it and forget about it... However, Richard said he wouldn't mind helping us take the old one out, raise it and put a new cover on which can then blend into the patio. I much prefer this idea! Not sure when we will do it though, maybe for now we should move Pippa's sand pit and forget about it for a while!! A Bit like our house decorating skills, many jobs left not quite finished!!
Comments
Post a Comment