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Patio and pond project at my old home

19 comments


This blog shows the redesign of a garden at my home in 1989.

I bought a house with a large garden but the view of it was blocked by a garage. I decided to knock it down, convert the garage into a pond and lay a patio.

This was the first pond and patio I designed and built and lead several years later to me doing occasional garden design and landscaping work.

The first photo shows the rear of the house with the garage which was blocking the light and view of the rear garden.

Below – The garage is nearly down to the level I wanted and I’ve made a start on building the patio which was a big job because the ground level varied by as much as 2 feet and had to be built up to create a level surface.

Below – Part of the patio base done

Below – patio slabs laid

Below – Retaining wall built

Below – Project planted and finished

Below – another shot of the finished project

Below – Me in 1989 the year I completed this project. I knocked the garage down to a height of about 2 feet and put slabs along the top. I put quite a bit of the rubble inside the pond to create different levels and cemented over this to give a smooth finish. I then used a liner to waterproof the pond.

Below – A shot taken from my bedroom window showing the garage with the roof removed. It only took me and a friend 1 day to knock down the garage. You can see already how the view of the garden is opening up.

below – Finished project. Taken from my bedroom window

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Comments

 

What a transformation. It looked great after all your work.

18 Nov, 2010

 

Really good blog on before and after, love it, really like that pond idea too. Not surprised that you went into garden design and planning after that, it was a good way to go for you.

19 Nov, 2010

 

Looks like you have plenty of garden of your own to take care of Anchorman. I wonder has the king fisher been back. On autumnwatch they said it is juvenile Kingfishers that go to garden ponds as they are chased out of parents territory.

19 Nov, 2010

bjs
Bjs
 

Just shows what can be done witha little imagination and a lot of hard work.very good blog

19 Nov, 2010

 

Wow. Fantastic stuff again Anchorman, not sure about the beard though. LOL

19 Nov, 2010

 

Have to agree what a difference it made knocking it down and even better making a pond, well done it looks brill.

19 Nov, 2010

 

this is a lovely piece of garden design etc. excellent work there anchorman.
i love my pond and wouldnt be without it.

19 Nov, 2010

 

Marvellous idea A/man, looks like a lot of hard work went into that and well worth it!

19 Nov, 2010

 

I've been doing a quick estimate in my head about how long this project took and I'd guess 40-50 hours work over 4 weeks.

19 Nov, 2010

 

You can be proud of your efforts Anchorman, far more satisfying than paying for the job to be done.

19 Nov, 2010

 

It was a big job and a big challenge. The main problem was that from one end of the patio to the other the land sloped nearly 3 feet. I had also never laid bricks or slabs before so it was quite a learning process. I tackled it in 4 hour chunks as I was working full time on my nursery and most of the work was done in the evenings or week ends.

It was one of my most satisfying projects

19 Nov, 2010

 

A very interesting blog, AM! You certainly transformed that old garage into something both nice to look at & a very practical, useful space. Well done! :-))

20 Nov, 2010

 

:^)

20 Nov, 2010

 

looks fab and would love a big garden like this to, well done

24 Nov, 2010

 

Thanks Sanbaz. Unfortunately the above property had to be sold when my ex decided to leave many years ago so my current garden is about a third the size. It's still a third of an acre though so not bad considering.

24 Nov, 2010

 

thats a shame A`man, with you talent im sure whatever size garden it would look just as lovely.

24 Nov, 2010

 

It was a huge wrench to leave that place because not only was I leaving a garden I'd put many hours into but it meant giving up being a plant nurseryman as the nursery was on site. It took me nearly 10 years after leaving there to get the money together to buy a small place with enough land to have a very small nursery.

To be honest now I'm a full time gardener I wouldn't want a huge garden of my own.My own garden is designed very much with low maintenance in mind .See photos in my GoY photo section and there is a blog about my current garden.

My current third of an acre is divided up with roughly a quarter being cultivated garden, a quatter used as a plant nursery and the remainder is left as awild area where I can encourage wild life and have a huge compost heap( 2o feet by 20 feet) and a similar sized area for a bonfire to get rid of all the stuff I bring back from my customers gardens.

24 Nov, 2010

 

Sounds pretty good now for you, an excellent project - its not easy working with a sloping garden, ours does too..in many ways a gentle slope is worse that a sharp one

24 Nov, 2010

 

yes A,man iv seen your blogs and love you work on your garden and others you have done, so all your hard work has paid off and you can look at it and know its all yours :o)

24 Nov, 2010

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