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.