Seabrae Garden 2021¶
INDEX
Footpath in Disrepair
Footpath Works
Slowdown
WIP
Patio Footpath
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2021¶
Preview¶
Footpath in Disrepair¶
17.May.2021
The house featured a footpath around the right side (facing from the street) of the house. As it was in some disrepair, we had it worked on a few years back. Sadly, rain and poor design rather quickly took the footpath back to a state of disrepair:
Only barely visible in the image (because of the weeds) the retaining timber was broken, of which a portion was actually sticking up: this was a bit of a hazard:
W have a 'Hill's Hoist' at the back of the house. Walking on the footpath to peg washing caused it to deteriorate: we ended up with a total disaster:
The design was not up to the challenge, resulting in sagging retaining timber:
The worst part was that the pumice-gravel would stick to my shoes, which tracked into the house, risking scratching our bamboo flooring.
Footpath Works¶
10.Jun.2021
The project began with tearing out the rotten timber and sifted out the pumice-like gravel, rescuing what could be saved of the original river-rock:
then raked down the crusher-dust under this rock-gravel mix. This stuff was contaminated with dirt, which is a perfect medium for growing weeds. The evidence lay in the front garden bed area that weeds would not grow if the river-rock was deep enough (weeds need water, growth medium and light to grow) so removing this dirty crusher dust was a crucial first step.
The replacement timber was essentially treated fence posts: these were painted with two coats of Timber Protecta (to prevent rot) prior to placement. To prevent any sagging from the river-rock weight and walking, a sort of angle-cut support 2x8 pieces (also Timber-Protecta-coated) were screwed to the bottom of each retaining timber, as in the image:
The reason I thought it a good idea to attach those short, base 2 x 8 pieces diagonally was in order to have a maximum of rock-holding capacity the attached retaining timber erect (to prevent the inevitable sagging with time and usage). We'll see if it works, longterm.
At the corner of the house, the retaining timber lengths are joined together with long stove bolts. Most of the lengths are arranged edge-to-edge and held together with metal plates on the inside of the timber:
so that on the outside of the retaining timber, all that is visible are bolts:
As is clearly noticable, I purchased the timber from a rather dodgy mob in Cleveland, who refused to let me select the better pieces. They delivered - I don't have a ute - and I reckon they expressly chose the dodgier pieces. Anyway, never mind, I made do. They will remain nameless (rhymes with "Bill") : buyer beware, nevertheless.
A lot of that timber had sappy knots and other defects, some which were so bad I had to trim them off before I painted them with three coats of Timber Protecta. The remaining timber still had some warping wich made the edge-joins less than perfect. I reckon with time this slight problem will become less noticable.
Slowdown¶
11.Jun.2021
I can totally tell I'm approaching 70. Progress is slow... much slower than I'd like, but oh well.
I might, at this juncture, go a bit into what I am trying to accomplish, and why. Here's an idea what the footpath is meant to look like when it's done:
And here is what it looked like a year ago:
The main challenge with the use of crusher-dust and pumice-gravel was that weeds would pretty much grow right through, and ultimately take over the footpath. As soon as dust accumulates in the pumice-gravel, it sinks down to the crusher-dust level, giving what should be an inert mineral base into a substrate for weed growth. Additionally, the person that Julia had engaged to redo the footpaths thought putting down cardboard - as in: container boxes - under the gravel as a weed deterrent was a good idea (it wasn't: cardboard breaks down quickly, and weeds aren't picky what they grow in) and chose that horrid pumic-gravel to cover the existing river-rock. I've been trying to filter out the river-rock to reuse it: not a trival task. I have been able to demonstrate that if the river-rock layer is deep enough, weeds will not grow:
whereas, that pumice-gravel, even with river-rock underneath it and weedmat, allowed weeds to grow. I'm all for weeds, but do want to control where they grow. We tried spraying with a vinegar/salt/dish-soap mixture to control the weeds - we have bees, so we're not about to use a off-the-shelf herbicide - and as for the most part it works easily as well as the toxic stuff, it is not a long-term solution.
WIP¶
04.Jul.2021
Here's where things ended up in June/July (other projects were demanding my attention):
And so things stayed for nine months or so. Work (like, at the hospital) sort-of gets in the way.
Patio Footpath¶
06.Sep.2021
I have neglected these pages for the past months as projects piled up and updating pages took less and less priority. However, circumstances have changed, which have resulted in forcing me to put physical work on hold... in order to heal.
Long story short: my twenty-five year old brain was dictating utter nonsense to my now seventy year old body, the one with bulging L5-S1 discs and degenerative processes, and because I pushed myself, I am now paying the price. I've developed a bad sciatica for which even a CT-guided nerve-root injection hasn't sort-of done much yet (well, it's early days). End result: forced rest.