Newbie woodwork project - advice - where to begin?

[Orchard]

Thanks, feel free to drop me a PM with some pictures although I expect it will be a couple months yet before I get one!

Hahaha, I wasn't really trying to sell it to you (although I would be open to bushcraft trading), I've got kit here that, providing you can transport your wood, that you could possibly use to get you going mate.
Check out 'Terry Howell' online too mate, they're a builders merchant that I use for carcass, but i'm sure they may do stuff that you'll need and had quite keen prices last time I checked, and delivered for a nominal fee

 

[davidpingu]

Yes the black line across the bottom of the drawing is the back of the house so the porch area is at the end of the garden, the unpaved area in the first picture.

Good point about the planters location, hadn't even thought of that. Just dug out my compass and the rear of the house faces south east.

If I put the planters where I planned too they'd be up against the North East wall so they would be open to light from the South West side.

From experience, the garden is well bathed by Sun from early on but tends to lose direct sunlight by mid afternoon.

Im not sure how I could make the thorny hedges work on the one side of the property unless they are planted within the garden but then I'm loosing floor space. Still I guess it could be worth it. At the back of the property there's a bit of grass the other side of the wall so I guess I could plant them outside there.

The main idea of the fence is more privacy and to discourage the opportunist and to make it more difficult for someone to transport large items, I.e. an expensive stove over the fence!

For further reference: The first picture is taken from the back of the house, the second picture is the left hand side wall where the gate is (see plan) third and 4th pictures are the right hand side wall. Hope that helps to build up a better mental picture

 

[davidpingu]

Nice one, Thank you very much mate

 

[British Red]

A climbing rose only needs a small hole into the ground - if you look where your barbecue is, there are some small sections of slab against the wall, if you lift one of those up, dig out any sand and rubble, fill the hole with compost and plant away. You plant two or three roses (one at each end and one in the middle), attach a piece of vertical trellis for the rose to climb up the wall and then trellis all along the top of the wall and they will spread. just plant them between your planters. Will be much cheaper and more effective than fencing. The best bet may be to lift and remove a single line of paving slabs and have your veg beds made over proper earth with roses in beteween (or whatever thorny climber you like - blackberries work well!). I bet those slabs are laid loosely on sand and the and is just on packed hardcore.

 

[davidpingu]

Great, thanks Red.

So with the left hand wall being close to 6ft anyway, if you were in my shoes would you just plant the dog rose or similar on that wall and fence the back where the wall sits much lower?

The only thing I tend to find with our soil here is its very clay. I had planned on my planters being on legs for ease of doing the work, like these but without the price tag!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Selections-...0737209&sr=8-2&keywords=wooden+trough+planter

 

[British Red]

I would just add a 2' high load of trellis to the top of the left wall and not bother with a fence there David - easy enough to secure to the brickwork with rawl plugs. Haven't thought about the back wall yet - can you take some close ups along that wall as its a weird old mix of fence types and brick!

Planters raised up work really well - especially if you include some moisture retaining gel in your planting mix. I think thats quite a fancy one - for drainage, an inch off the floor is fine and there are much easier ways to achieve that - but if you like the look of the "cattle trough", why not?

 

[davidpingu]

I'll go with that. It's already becoming much more affordable!

A few more pictures. Firstly the back wall:





Here's that left hand wall from the outside:



And the back wall from outside:





Bearing in mind, whatever goes along this rear wall will be the back wall of the undercover decking so I'd be looking at running it floor to roof

Dave

 

[British Red]

That wall is a fugly mess huh?

The easiest way to deal with that would be to take down - and burn - all the existing woodwork, then build the back wooden "wall" of your undercover decking right up against the brick wall. I would be tempted to use 4x4 (100mm) pressure treated uprights sunk into the ground and then basically you will have to frame it in as a shed with a pitched roof if you want it undercover.

 

[davidpingu]

It sure is ugly. Like I said, a bit embarrassed to post pictures really but at least I'm looking at sorting it.

That sounds along the lines of what I was thinking. Just clear corrugated plastic for the roof and feather boarding the back but horizontally like you would a shed?

Not decided on the floor yet. Decking is probably the cheapest method but I am tempted by some nice flag stones.

Couple more questions. Am I better pitching the roof down in to the yard so the wind can't get under it as much and secondly is dog rose something I can easily buy or is it purely wild?

Thanks for all the advice,

Dave

 

[British Red]

You can buy all manner of roses that would suit - dog roses certainly and also climbing and rambling roses. There are specialist hedging roses too.

Lots of ways to pitch a roof - it depends a lot on prevailing wind conditions - needs a bit of thinking about for sure. Mothing to be embarassed about - you should have seen this place when we started working on it!

 

[S.C.M.]

Hmm... I have to admit that I'm not good at all with aesthetics... I tend to think "eh, it's ok" so the fact that I reckon it certainly needs work should say something okenest:
I reckon that with a nice climbing plant up there, it'll look much nicer (more than with a fence, to be honest) but the actual wall could possibly be improved by a good pressure-washing, get rid of the white streaks and maybe even the black algae/moss/stuff from the bricks, so that even if the plants don't cover it, it'll look a bit better than the current white and black scheme.

 

[drliamski]

You can always paint the walls?
Also check out metpost brackets to go on top of the wall.