Hard Lanscaping my Garden

[wizer]

Thought i'd post this here to get your opinions. Currently we have a tiny garden that slopes steeply away from the house. Last year I built a prety substantial deck which means we can now use the garden instead of it being a dog toilet. This year I would like to finish the job by re-laying the lawn and making a couple of platforms at the top and bottom for planters. Here is how it looks currently.

I want the platforms to be substantial, so am thinking of using concrete to achieve this look:

When laying the concrete slabs, is it as easy as digging a trench and filling it with concrete? Or does it call for formers to be created out of timber? I was thinking of using bags of postcrete.

Any views apprecieated.

 

[Chris Knight]

Tom,

Seems like a lot of concrete for no particular benefit. How about simply levelling the areas where you want planters and - if you don't want planters to stand directly on grass - spreading some brown pea gravel along the levelled bits for example?

 

[RogerS]

I agree with Chris but would also suggest that you get some weedsuppressing membrane to lay on top of the soil first before putting the gravel down. You might also like to think about putting a dose of Roundup first to kill off anything underneath.

 

[wizer]

The top level of concrete isn't really nescessary I agree. The bottom of the slope carries on under the fence and just drops away even steeper. The reason I wanted it to be concrete was that I'd maybe like to have some raised beds or possibly a fish pond on there. By raised I mean quite substantial waist/bottom height. It's possible a shed could appear there after /if my garage is built. What about using sleepers as the base?

 

[OLD]

Why not go for slabs as you have not finalized your design slabs can be altered a 100mm slab of ready mixed concrete can not, also any ground movements can be sorted with slabs .
they will have to be properly laid lots of info on web etc.
The sleepers could be used to construct your raised beds and the shed will be fine on slabs
Fish pond remove slabs dig line finish edge job done.

 

[wizer]

super, that's my easter weekend sorted.

Thanks guys.

 

[jasonB]

Nothing wrong with concret but postcrete will cost a fortune and in that large a volume I would be worried about the heat buildup as it went off causing weakening of the concrete. Also postcrete has quite small aggregate which won't help.

If you must use premixed then just plane concrete mix will do but loose balast and bagged cement will work out much cheaper. You could also put in a layer of mesh to be on the safe side, whats the soil and what sort of area are you talking about.

Here's a few pics of my pondwith a 9" reinforced conc base. I'm not responsible for the high quality joinery on the ladder :shock:

Jason

 

[wizer]

Cheers Jason, the soil at the top of the slope was terrible, well to be fair it wasn't soil, it was rubble with grass growing on it. It took a couple of weekends and three of us to dig it out and level it. I have a horrible feeling that the hump at the bottom of the garden is that shape because the previous owner dumped a load of concrete down there. I'll soon find out. I think I agree that it's not nescessary at this point to use concrete. As long as I get it level and neat then I can add the concrete base later if needed. I'd love to do the pond thing but, with a wedding coming up, it's not financially viable right now.

 

[Neomorph]

I did something similar last year but forgot to take into account something important... WATER!

My hard landscaping caused all the water on my garden to try to get to the lowest point which was next doors drive. I tried to put in a gravel drain next to the fence which then feeds to the main drain but I must have missed somewhere. That's actually one of the things I've got to do this summer.

The weed suppression fabric is a must if you are putting gravel down. I put a couple of inches of sand on the ground before I laid the fabric down just to help prevent it tearing and to level it easier. Unfortunately this ended up being a water soak which helped divert the water next door lol.

 

[PowerTool]

Quite agree with John - my first thought when looking at you plan was where the water was all going to go (Unless you're in one of those hosepipe-ban areas :wink: )

Andrew