Decks away!

It was a wet, wet wet day at the wilderness today. The rain started and kept coming, as I went down to meet Jeff the carpenter and his uncle Merv. The balustrading oak turned up whilst I was there and we set out the sub structure of the deck on site.

We are onto stage 2 of the build and it is all looking great. The actual recycled deck boards also turned up today after a few phone calls and some shenanigans with the suppliers. So I guess I'll be in tomorrow to make sure it is all good.

www.redscapedesign.co.uk

Sunday 19/09/2010 - Is the pond full part 2!!

Is the pond full!! Yes it is. Woohoo! The pond is full of water but we have to finish buildi g the beach for the children to able to walk into the water so that they can pond dip. The first 10cm of water is where most of the fauna are found so hopefully once the pond is all finished and planted the children will be able to find newts and all sorts on their trips into the Wilderness.

www.redscapedesign.com

Saturday 18/09/2010 - Is the pond full yet?

So the Ikram Clan went down with myself to the wilderness on Saturday morning to make sure the pond was filling up and not overflowing. Well I can say that the pond and the wilderness have been a huge hit with my boys and hopefully the rest of the school community will like it as much.

The pond however was not quite full. Can we come back tomorrow, please?

www.redscapedesign.co.uk

Friday 17th Sept 2010 - The liner goes in!

The pond was contoured and the first layer of sand went down over old carpets as the ground underneath had revealed many treasures including marble posts and a big mound of concrete foundations. The carpet was laid as an extra measure to make sure that the pond liner does not get a puncture. Next layer sand; then a geotextile layer, then the Firestone EPDM liner, then the next geotextile layer. This was then topped with overturned turf in the centre of the pond and then buckets and buckets and buckets of pea gravel over the rest of the pond. Phewweee the guys have definitely worked their socks off today.

www.redscapedesign.co.uk

Wed Am - River Stones At Adrian Hall

River stones were discussed and Ken the contractor thought they might be a good way to differentiate between the shallow beach area and the deeper parts of the pond.

They look Great! They are in.

www.redscapedesign.co.uk

Contouring of the pond

Now before I go any further i have to apologise to Ken for making him a Dale instead of a Daly. He is, and has always been a Daly and as a new Numaira (as of this week in the Richmond and Twickenham Times) in the paper i know how annoying it can be to have your identity changed.

Also NSP Landscapes have been contracted to work on site but Ken has his own company which goes under the name of Healing Landscapes. So please come to www.redscapedesign.co.uk for me to design your garden and then we can get Ken at Healing Landscapes to build it.

Lovely. So, down to business, today was a big day, as they all seem to be. Kevin our Newts expert came and looked at the contouring of the pond and told us all that the shelves in the pond must not be too steep otherwise the newts spawn will fall down the slopes and never be seen again. So more a little fine tuning took place and an extra pair of hands were found on site in the form of Cameron. The pond liner also turned up this afternoon.

Jeff the Carpenter came down and we discussed at length if I had made the right choice in picking a new recycled decking product. We have had a few miscommunications with the suppliers and well frankly it was all getting a bit much. It is, I think all sorted now and we will have deck boards and carpenter on site at the same time next week.

And lastly I had to make a mad dash to Adrian Hall and Wickes to pick my favourite gravel (I know!?). I had one in mind and had been carrying round a sample from Bushy Park, which one of the gardeners there had let me have. Even the man who works in Adrian Hall looked at me in a funny way as I brought out my nappy sack full of genuine Bushy Park gravel to find a match.

www.redscapedesign.co.uk

The Diggers have been in!!!

Ken and Jimmy, Keep digging!! Timetabling Meeting with Jan Kuhn, Simon Hawkins (BCTV) and Anna Doeser (Hounslow Project Officer BCTV ) and Me, Humaira Ikram.

Well the diggers have been in! The contouring has taken place and is looking good.

Here above are Ken and Jimmy checking the levels of the new pond and making adjustments.

It is looking great, well I thought it was until my child came in and said "Oh mum, you've ruined it!!" Lets hope it looks better soon.

The other thing that happened today was a meeting with the British Conservation Trust Volunteers (BCTV) to discuss a timetable for the future. Which includes; when we will be planting bluebells, planting hedging, the planting up the pond, and the new trees. As well as all the ongoing maintenance and bringing the place back to what it was and more.

It was a great meeting with people who can help us get the most out of the Wilderness.

Shingle has been bought today and hedging has been discussed at length with the hedging company too.

www.redscapedesign.co.uk

Newts Moving Day

Kids and Newts

So today was a bit of a rush. Yesterday we had the idea that children from the school should be involved in the newts move and then we thought that maybe the local press would be interested.

So of course, this then had to be co-ordinated and somehow it worked!

all of the above came along at the same time. The kids, newts, toads and journalist from the Richmond and Twickenham Times all were together. The kids had a great time looking at the wildlife and we adults (thank you Lindsay for helping and holding and catching newts) remembered why we were involved in the hours and hours of work that it has taken to get even to this stage.

So the pond has been drained, the newts and toads have been moved to their temporary accomodation. Marking out should happen tomorrow with diggers on site Friday/Mon to contour the pond.

All in all a very successful if hectic day.

www.redscapedesign.co.uk

Newts Ahoy!!!

The newts were supposed to be rehoused today and work has been going ahead with contractors in wellies and waterproofs as the water is still deep and the newts need to be extracted from the remnants of the pond.

Hopefully tomorrow we will have some children in from the school to help rehouse the newts to their new and temporary home. Lets hope there are actually 200 newts in the pond because today only 2 were found and that could be a bit boring for the kids tomorrow.

Lets hope for good weather and and no stumbling by the pond.

Work has Started!!

Contractors readying the site by breaking and removing old concrete around the pond

So the Wilderness is going full steam ahead.

Since the beginning of the summer there have been many meetings with school governor Matt Morey and the contractors, NSP Landscapes, including a 9am meeting to discuss the works on Bank Holiday Monday!!! Yes Really!!

Here is a picture of Ken Dale from NSP Landscapes below.

The deconstruction of the pond started on Tuesday 31st of August and will be going on all this week.

Picture of Ken Dale, the contractor

The newts will be moved to their new temporary home in the next few days and then the new pond will be created next week.

I had a bit of a moral dilemma with the decking to go around the pond. Should we go for hardwood that takes a long time to grow and is taking resources or should we go for new fangled but recycled deck boards made out of plastics and ash from factories (using really unusable waste)?!! Would they look as good?

I liked the recycled boards and so did Ken the contractor and Jeff the Carpenter. It is supposed to be not as slippery as wood and easily maintained. Lets hope it's all true!

The other exciting thing i did today was ride into Bushy Park to look at the pea shingle they have in the streams in the woodland gardens. I spoke to a gardener called Michael Sales who was very interesting. He had worked in the city and given up trading in exotic places like Singapore and Tokyo to become a gardener in Bushy Park. And he managed to tell me where I could source some pea shingle in exactly the right colour.

Do you think I need to get out more?

Spoke to Simon from the BCTV about living hedges, Jeff about deck delivery dates, Matt about what deck to order and Ken about finding a man with a digger.

All in all a very productive day for the wilderness.