Notes from a hillside garden: Pt. 2
…my very own boyband, a Hollywood staircase, oh and a hell of a lot of water!
In part one I told you all about the beginnings of our hanging gardens in the middle of The Surrey Hills. In this chapter I’ll be delving into the trials and tribulations of soil engineering, the great British weather and the consolation of hot muscly builders!
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The mammoth task of soil excavation and remodelling started in October 2013. It took the best part of a day just to get the two diggers and a mini dumper truck to the top of the garden. A channel had to be cut through the hillside and scaffold planks were used as tracks for the wheels. To say it was precarious at times would be a huge understatement. On more than one occasion, the dumper truck slipped, flinging the young man driving it into the air as the truck’s wheels skidded and slid down the hill. It was terrifying to watch. That night I did just check our position on site insurance. Just in case.
The plan was to start at the top and gradually remove, or reposition the soil as they went. The top layers were almost pure sand, but beneath that was a mix of loam and clay. At one point it was possible to see a cross section of our garden, a vertical history of the soil deposited there over centuries. That was before the rain started though.
It rained in biblical proportions every single day of the project, making it almost impossible to work the soil. But, our trusty builders marched on, bless them. We did indeed have a river running through it all the way from the top of the hillside down to the back door of the house, where fortunately, it took a diversion around the building. The sheer force of the water gushing around the side of the house, picking up gravel and clay soil as it went, created a mini tsunami. The torrent had to go somewhere and it was heading straight for our front door. Fortunately, our lovely builders had created a trough around it in advance, which meant the water was diverted down the side of the temporary steps to the newly created driveway and the road beyond. That evening over copious amounts of alcohol, we discussed the high possibility that we may have to build an ark.
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