Backyard Project: Gravel from a Quarry for the Paths

We are at the stage in the Backyard Project where we need gravel to make the paths. It is a stage I am more than ready for. With the construction in its last stages, I want things tidied up. I know having the paths in place will make a big difference to the look of the place.

While using my 3 different length sticks I have gone around marking out the edges of the paths.

Here is the engineer pacing out the paths and doing gravel quantities calculations.

We visited the first quarry but they are very short on stock and didn't have what we wanted.

We visited a much bigger quarry with a greater variety of gravel. 

It is all about the size of the rocks, measured as an average: 3/8ths crushed or 1/2" washed etc. There are many different types of gravel to serve different purposes.

This quarry recycles concrete and drywall from construction sites mixing it in with freshly quarried rock to make special mixes for the roading contractors. We found out the roading contractors are very busy this month and this quarry has a contract to have a certain amount of a specific type of gravel for the roading contractors to come and pick up anytime.

Old asphalt crushed and re mixed for reuse.

For me, it was all about the sound the gravel made when I walked on it. I stomped on a lot of different piles.

We found what we were looking for and went to the weigh office to place the order. The deliveries are scheduled for 3 days time. Whoo hoo.

Backyard Project: Soil Building, Shelf Building, Glass Installation

Now that Josh has moved in place the big rocks that define one boundary of the garden bed, I have started soil building. I am using the lasagne method of laying down a thick cardboard base, soaking it well then adding layers of 'green' and 'brown'.

But first I dug out all of the rocks and stones in the garden bed area. All of these came out of that one small bed.

This bed is west of the walk way to the pergola. I'm not sure what I will plant here but I don't need to do the research just yet because the soil building will take a while.

Meanwhile, Josh has painted the doors for the Garden Sheds. I like the clever way he has held the doors while painting them.

AND he has started the footings for the shelving in the sheds.

Whoopee, the Excalabor guys are back.

The sheets of glass were carried on the side of the truck with little cork spacers to stop the panes from touching and to absorb the travel vibration.

This safety glass has been cut to size then all of the edges ground smooth and rounded.

It took quite a while for all of the stickers to be taken off, the cork squares to be pulled off then all of it polished spotless before being installed.

Meanwhile, back at the Garden Shed site, Josh has set up several workstations for constructing shelving.

Taylor has come back. He has carried lots of loads of coarse gravel up to the site and is now levelling the base frames for the cabinets.

The first lot of shelves have been built. These are to hold small tools where they will be kept dry. This is the Power Tool Shed.

In the same location in the other shed, the Garden Shed, Josh has built a frame to hold gardening tools upright. 

Inside the 2 dry sheds, we are leaving all of the plywood unfinished so there is no maintenance in the future. It will take on the patina of a place well used.

Backyard Project: Soffits, Gutters, Downspouts and Fascias

Cutting metal soffit panels to size for the garden Sheds.

Soffits protect the ends of the rafter beams from the rain without which the beams would rot out.

We have gone with vented soffit rather than a solid material with vents. Either way ventilating the space above is important to prevent moisture build up which would result in moulds growing and wood decay. In this rainy climate, moisture management is critical for the lifespan of the building. This is looking good with no exposed wood and a tight fit.

Another team has installed all of the caps on the end walls. I wasn't sure about the flat metal. If I had been home at the time I would have asked to see what the corrugated metal looked like. But it is done.

Fascia metal has been attached covering the exposed wood.

This interesting truck arrived in the driveway. I knew what it did because I had watched it at work when my Green shed was being built. That is a big roll of flat metal.

The metal comes off the roll and is fed into this forming machine. It can be programmed to make differently shaped gutters/eavestroughs.

 The Mighty Exteriors crew arrived.

Here is the crew to make the downspouts. I like his plastic cowboy hard hat. It makes his tool belt look like a gun holster. He had steel-toed cowboy boots on too.

'A downspout, waterspout, downpipe, drain spout, roof drain pipe, leader, or rone (Scotland) is a pipe for carrying rainwater from a rain gutter.' (Wiki). And these are the tools needed to make them fit the gutter/eaves trough.

A downspout is fitted up into the end of every slightly down-sloping gutter. The crew also went around the house and put downspouts where we had water chains that weren't working very well. Living under trees the building's roofs catch a lot of  'litter fall, plant litter, leaf litter, tree litter, soil litter, or duff, and dead plant material, such as leaves, bark, needles, twigs, and cladodes; that has fallen' (Wiki)  that block the entrance to the chains causing the gutters to over flow. Ron has yet to find the perfect system to stop the gutters filling with litter.

Another crew arrives, the same one that installed the covers for the end walls, and installs fascia panels to cover the roof bearing beams.

A lot of different crews with specialised equipment and tools are needed to make a building water tight. We have all read the stories or know of someone who was unfortunate enough to have bought a leaky building or condo. 'The leaky condo crisis, also known as the leaky condo syndrome and rotten condo crisis, is an ongoing construction, financial, and legal crisis in Canada...it is the most extensive and most costly reconstruction of housing stock in Canadian history (Wiki).

'Build it tight, vent it right' is a building industry saying/motto.

Pattern Language #175 Greenhouse - an essential garden design element

 Excalabor Glass & Aluminium has finally arrived after taking a number of weeks to make aluminium railings and to cut safety glass for the Propagation Room and Roof Top.

Installing the Roof Top railing posts

"...to keep a garden alive, it is almost essential that there be a "workshop" - a kind of halfway house between the garden and the house itself, where seedlings grow, and where, in temperate climates, plants can grow in spite of the cold." Pattern Language, p. 813

Levels and string lines

"Imagine a simple greenhouse, attached to a living room, turned to the winter sun, and filled with shelves of flowers and vegetables. It has an entrance from the house - so you can go into it and use it in the winter without going outdoors. And it has an entrance from the garden - so you can use it as a workshop while you are out in the garden and not have to walk through the house." Pattern Language, p. 813.

 The aluminium frame for the south-facing wall for the Propagation Room. Josh is working on the waterproof lining for the propagation table.

I have followed the guidelines for this pattern in that I can walk from my office (see the glass behind Josh) into the Propagation Room and I can walk from there out to the garden (see the entrance on the left). This is also how I get from my office to the Green Shed - my studio. There will be no door there so it is not going to be the usual hot humid greenhouse. In this seasonal rainforest climate when it rains so often 8 to 9 months of the year mildew and moulds are a problem if there is not enough ventilation hence the open entrance and the east wall of holey metal.

Top and bottom railing in place on the Roof Top.

The room faces south and will catch the low winter sun. The glass will stop the rain and so prevent frost from reaching the plants.

The guys have gone to get the big sheets of glass off the truck.

I will be using the room to grow cuttings until they are ready to transplant out to the garden beds. I  won't have the types of plants in pots that need overwintering in the greenhouse. That involves too much heavy work in the fall.

Glass installed on the west side of the Propagation Room.

"For someone who has not experienced a greenhouse as an extension of the house, it may be hard to recognise how fundamental it becomes. It is a world unto itself, as definite and wonderful as fire or water, and it provides an experience which can hardly be matched by any other pattern." Pattern Langauge, p. 813.

Glass installed on the south side of the Propagation Room.

This is the theory and the plan. We are looking forward to seeing how it works in practice this winter.

Backyard Project: Garden Sheds, Garden Beds and Rock Edges

The cladding on the 2 sheds is coming along. This is the south wall.

Interior north wall

Interior south wall where my potting counter will be built.

West wall with its 2 windows. Glimpses of this wall can be seen from the road.

Outside north wall. The drainage chain will be replaced with a downspout.

I am in my studio cutting up lengths of garden cloth...

...while Taylor is carrying buckets of drainage gravel up from the back driveway to the new Lower Patio bed area  (used to be the hot tub).

Taylor is placing the gravel on top of the drainage filter cloth...

...then wrapping the cloth around the gravel making a drainage sock. The filter fabric keeps soil out of the gravel so it will continue to drain water away.

As soon as Taylor had finished I added a thick layer of recycled paper then a layer of wood as the beginning of the soil making process. I am looking forward to planting these beds but I will have to hold back until the soil organisms have done their job.

Taylor then moved on to continue making the rock edge of the new garden bed. Didn't he make a nice curve using the blasted rock? I think he has discovered another talent - stone masonry.

I gave him my shortest path stick to use as a guide when placing the rocks.

Taylor was able to work with me for the morning and we got so much done.

I like it when several areas of the Backyard Project are being worked on at the same time. It feels productive.