The first task was to plan out what we wanted. As the garden was quite large, and south facing we thought we would make the most of this with 2 large patios at opposite ends of the garden. As we kept Budgies in the aviary we wanted to make sure this was on a concrete base (it was on the lawn at the moment) and also to incorporate a rabbit pen area so they could roam about a little during the day.
The plan was that we would construct a raised bed, using all of the soil that was dug out for widening the paths and making the patios. This would need a small wall building in order to retain all the soil. The wall needed a footing and so we marked out its length and then created a concrete trench with which to build the wall on.
Once the trench was ready and the concrete in, whilst this dried we dug out the patios and filled in with the soil behind the trench. The next stage a day or so later was to build the wall. Queue dad, with his wall building skills!
Once the wall was in place and set we could set to work getting the remaining soil dug out for the patios and paths and getting this soil behind the newly constructed wall. To build the main patio, we put down some pieces of wood so we could determine a level for the patio and then dug down deep enough to be able to fill with hardcore and lay the flags on top and be at the same level as the lawn.
More materials were needed and a delivery from the local builders merchants arrived. Happily the lorry could drop the materials over the wall straight into the garden. We then got to work adding the hardcore, flattening this out ready for the flags.
Now we could lay the flags to get the patio’s in place and finally the garden was starting to look a whole lot better.
Next came a long wait until the next school holiday before we could continue with the work. The next phase consisted of getting the Rabbit pen sorted, the Aviary concreted and the shed erected.
We started with creating a concrete base for the rabbit pen, next to the existing Aviary. We created some wooden pieces to hold in the concrete and create a level and then added some hardcore so we didn’t need too much concrete. Then in went the mix which was levelled off. This was all after the posts for the fencing where added.
While the rabbits were evicted from their home I managed to get some lovely shots on them in the garden roaming around while we carried on working. They must have wondered what on earth was going on!
Once the concrete had set we could then build the new Rabbit hutch and apply the fence around the outside to make sure they couldn’t escape. However this didn’t work and we have to put a trellis roof over the corner to stop them jumping out!
That was pretty much it, apart from some final touches, adding some plants in the raised bed, a trellis to the back wall so that we could add some climbing plants.
A few weeks later came the final phase. This was concreting under the aviary and building the new shed base and erecting the shed on top. Some tidying up and we were almost there!
And that was it, a lot of hard work but a wonderful result at the end!
This post was written after this blog was first published. It was added to record this specific event and was back-dated to the event time/date.
