Throughout this project a lot of materials have been removed from the garden. Thankfully access through the garage has been good. We began by drawing out areas for the patio and pathway.

Millboard was delivered for the decking – of which there will be three different areas. Two decked areas will be on opposite sides of a porcelain patio, with a third decked area looking out onto a large wildlife pond.

We got a digger in to help with the landscaping, lots of paving had to be ripped up, the pathway was dug out with it, as well as the pond, and a lot of bamboo was removed from the edges of the garden.

The pathway will be constructed of a hoggin – a self binding gravel. This is a durable, stable, compactable groundcover for a pathway. It is permeable, allowing rain to go through. The natural, buff look of the mixture of clay, sand and gravel is attractive and hard wearing. It is often used in public spaces, parks, woodland trails and national trust properties.

A whole lot of soil was removed, many, many trips to the recycling centre were made! The pond beginning to take shape, really made the garden design start to come to life.

The pond was dug with shelving, however we experienced a lot of rain not long after this, so once the water subsided, the pond was lined with sand. The path was lined with broken paving, later to be filled with stone dust, 14mm to dust and hoggin.

Whilst the pond and pathway were being constructed, millboard decked areas and the porcelain patio were worked on. The different materials in the same hue really work well together.

Sleepers were inserted to create borders either wide of the patio. We are looking forward to planting this up at the end of the project.

The porcelain was pointed with Easy Joint paving grout. This really is as easy as it sounds and was a pleasure on a sunny autumn day.

We also removed old fence panels and replaced with new during this job, they will define the borders against the newly structured garden.

Once the patio area was completed and the pathway was almost there, the pond was lined and filled. It looked so beautiful, we wanted to jump right in.

We can just imagine sitting on the new decking overlooking the pond next summer with a glass of wine in hand. This garden is going to have a real wow factor!

One of the final things of the week was preparing the ground at the bottom of the garden and laying large stepping stones. These will work their way from a new shed towards a log store and compost bays. Come back next week and see this Bristol garden completed…