The PATIO

'New' patio

When our extension was done, we realized that it made a perfectly sheltered area to use as a morning or evening patio. OK, by evening, the sun is behind the hill but the walls keep any breezes off and they have heated up during the day anyway. And there are always patio heaters and barbeques that get nice and hot!
 It is easily accessible from the "boot room" via double patio doors, which makes it great for gatherings of all sorts.

Old paving (re-laid) meeting the new patio

 Paul (our son) is a very experienced landscaper and he laid the slabs very well, with exactly the correct fall and no wobbles. He even managed to lay intriguing steps to the flower garden, which lead the eye carefully up to the flowers. A straight set of steps would have been much easier, but far less inviting!

Flower garden patio (Winter 2013)

GALACTIC

Well used to making our own compost, we got the three free bins from the county council and realized we would need much more capacity to the job properly!

Fortunately, having a sloping site and a brother who is a biologist and enthusiastic builder here, we're opportunities not to be missed, so Peter built GALACTIC. Acronym for
Gravity Assisted Linear Accelerator for Compost Treatment In Carmarthenshire!

AND IT WORKS really well; here's how...

Raw green stuff is piled up on the uphill side, which gives a chance for soil to be washed or shaken out. (Soil on weeds slows the process down hugely and must be avoided!)

The first compartment (Galactic One, of course) is then loosely filled and the end boards put on! It can be piled as high as you like so long that the lawn mowings do not get compressed too much. If it is getting a bit soggy, add bunched up newspaper, ashes etc, even sawdust is good. If you want an instant activator, a bucket or sprinkle of pee is ideal, an won't make any smell!
Cover with polythene to stop it getting rain soaked.

Then wait

After a week the pile will be heating up nicely and a stick pushed in will come out steaming. (Note: If it gets to over 70 degrees C, all the weed seeds will cook and die)

Now wait another week, until the original pile is greatly lower than before.

Now get in with your fork and lightly move the contents of 1 into 2. It will fluff up a bit as you do it but that is what you want! Once done, 2 will not be overful.

Leave it another week, then refill 1 again.

Repeat these steps with all the summer and spring green waste, until 3 is full too.

Then leave 3 to overwinter after which it will be lovely brown stuff - Ready for use!

When we had any problems, they were due to heavy rain soaking in, hence the curved tin sheets on it now.
Or,  too much soil going in.

We found that galactic could take all green stuff throughout the year including lawn clippings, and reduce them all to compost. Admittedly, if there was a surfeit of cut grass, from the ride on, for example, it went into the the bottom pond on the right hand side to make grass snake habitation.

Terraces

Paul has started making terraces above the three we have already. (Where the Polytunnel is). We're doing them in decreasing length, so they make a sort of crescent shape leading up to the Smug Bench. Anyone can have one of these - it's just a normal bench but to make it smug, you just plant a Wild Service tree or two nearby. These are rare native trees, and "anyone who has one in his garden can feel smug about it!" say's our Guide to British Trees! You can’t see it in this picture, it’s just to the right.



The Extension and the Dam

Next, the big project is building the extension. We now have Planning Permission and some detailed plans have been developed by Mark Baggott (local Surveyor).

Electrical design to be done, then all can go to a QS for pricing. After that comes Building Permission and then we find a builder. Will it happen this year? I think so!!

The extension will snuggle into the bank behind the house, which therefore needed digging out. Paul's contract on the A46 has ended, so we now have Employee No.2 (Adam is No. 1) and a 3-tonne digger and a dumper here (hired).

Paul's done about 10 days so far and the results are quite impressive.

There's now a roadway through the Orchard, and a much wider gap behind the house. Not only will this allow us to dig out further, it will also be access for the builders later. There's still quite a lot to excavate, although I imagine it will only be a matter of days before that bit is done.

Those of you who are not asleep by now might be asking what we are doing with all the soil! Well, we have made a pathway across the soggy bit at the bottom of the left-hand field, that's what we fondly call the Orchid Field, although we haven't seen any orchids yet this year. Basically, if you are in the Orchard, it's below you bordered by the road. Anyway, this "pathway" rather cunningly encloses the wet area, which of course can't get its water out any more, and so is filling up!

Note the neatly weeded bed – Thanks Ju, it’s looking good!

You could call the pathway a dam, I suppose! But, spoilsports that we are, we've put a huge pipe through the dam low down, so actually there's only an inch or so more water in it than usual.



We'll let the pathway get overgrown and natural looking, then gradually raise the height of the inlet. Then, maybe, in years to come, we might do a bit of digging out. Eventually, we'll have a pond of sorts! And hopefully, the gradual raising of the level will encourage the beautiful marsh marigolds to migrate with the rising waterline.

The Wet Room

The Wet Room project is more-or-less done. It involved piping water from the second spring (in the copse top left of FR), into a pH corrector, then a filter and a UV steriliser. These bits are housed in a small enclosure attached to the back of the shed on the caravan side. This still needs finishing plaster and painting in the rather attractive Fron Rafel green that adorns the rest of the building.

Inside the shed there's a BIG boiler, with chimney poking through the wall, and this is fed from two large red gas cylinders outside.

The W-R is a white-tiled space with the usual sanitary ware, and a LARGE shower head. This delivers water at a prodigious rate (about 25 litres/minute actually) at a selectable temperature from cold to too-hot.

The RESULT is the best shower we've ever had, well worth running across the yard in your dressing gown for. (In warmer weather I might dispense with the dressing gown! Just hope Jean The Post doesn't turn up!).