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| Skip Arrives |
Work began on the garden in early April, and everybody (me, Andrew the client and Garry the landscaper) were very relaxed and lots of aspects of the job were discussed, but never the weather . We were in, or so we thought, a prolonged period of very dry weather and the newspaers were full of doom and gloom about hosepipe bans and record droughts.
Bear in mind that the plan was to finish the garden by the end of April which would give everybody plenty of time to prepare for Andrew's birthday on the 19th May to be held in the new garden. Even relaxing weekends away had been booked for May.
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| Turf Stripped |
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| Digger Arrives ! |
The first couple of days went to plan and the garden was partly cleared and skips, diggers and dumpers put in place ready for the big offensive (there were often references to the 1st World War trenchs during the next few weeks).
But then the rains came............
Garry Woods the landscaper said after a few days of torrential rain that walking around the garden in the mud was "like walking around with crates on each foot". It was painful to watch as the rain would stop just for say 20 minutes and then it was back in the shed, and impossible and very frustrating to work.
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| The Trenchs |
To quote the Met office:
April already wettest in a century
30 04 2012
This
April is the wettest in the UK in records which date back to 1910, according to early Met Office figures up to the 29
th of the month.
Further rain is to come overnight tonight as outbreaks of heavy and possibly thundery rain affect southern England and Wales, so final rainfall figures for the month will change.
However, the UK has already seen 121.8mm of rain so far – significantly more than the 69.6mm you would normally expect for the month and beating the previous record of 120.3mm set in 2000.
It really was a tough build for everybody and Andrew was naturally worried about the garden being anywhere near ready for his party.
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| Work Carrys On |
April became May and the terrible weather continued although there was at least now the odd dry day which allowed some work to get completed. Fortunately the garden is on a slope away from the house so the combination of the slope and wind meant that the garden could dry out quite quickly.
Anyway everybody was determined to try and get the garden ready for the party and the lawn and meadow mat finally was laid in the week of the party and I did the planting on the day of the party ! Very " Ground Force" !
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| Working in the Rain |
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| Get the Plants ! |
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| A Bit of Sunshine |
Of course since the turf was laid and the plants planted- there has not been a drop of rain and Andrew has had to water 24 hors non- stop ! Ho hum
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| Pressures On, Party less than a Week away |
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| Turf goes Down |
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| Planting ! |
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| Sideway finished |
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| Electrics In |
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| Meadow Grass In |
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| Decking Down |
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| Night time |
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| Path Lights |
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| Fit for a Party |
