Category: Gardens and Outbuildings

As part of the initial walk around the garden, I came across a concrete slab held down by a large stone. Checking this area out, it was apparent that a large stone wall led off to the right of it (you can see the end of it in the picture above).

Having limited experience of “serious” gardening you wonder about cutting something back but exploring the overgrowth, their was a lot of dead branches so I thought I had little to lose by cutting in back. That way I could both inspect the wall and plan it as a feature in the garden as well as allowing fresh growth to establish itself over the next few years.

Coming to the house with no gardening tools, a trip to B&Q and an online shop with Amazon kitted me out with a good set of starter tools and soon I was ready to attack the wall with a sturdy set of secateurs and a jab saw.

The weather this weekend was set to be cold on Saturday but my logic was I may as well be cold in the garden doing stuff, than cold in the house! Plus being sat behind a desk all week, its good to get out at the weekend so armed with my tools, a warm hat, gloves and a pair of strong boots, I set about cutting it back.

Its quite surprising how long it took, as I had to systematically trim back the smaller branches to get to the thicker older structure but in the end I think it looks much better.

What was interesting during this exercise was what was found at the base of the wall, namely a number of cut pieces of drain pipe. These were about 4 inch in diameter and around 18 inches long with a number of them pushed into a couple of brick spaces at the base of the wall. I can only assume that a natural habitat had been created for wildlife but having had a problem with rats in a previous house I wanted to keep an eye on the garden before encouraging wildlife! I suspect due to the rural nature and no regular food present (such as duck food as in my previous garden) it is more likely to be field mice than rats and maybe next year I will get my garden night camera back out and see whats going on out there.

The next challenge will be dealing with the garden waste. I have a number of options. The first is to use it as the start of a compost heap. I have never started one from a heap before so am reading up on that. Obviously the next option will be to bag it up and take it to the tip in the garden waste section. Not a problem I have the Landrover as my workhorse and the tip is 10 minutes away but the other option is just to cut it up, bag it and put it in the workshop to use as kindling for when the log burner is fitted.

Once that was all done, all what was left was to give the other part of the garden a good rake over with the new leaf rake to leave it looking a bit tidier, ready for when the weather gets a bit more mild.

I’m hoping to spend a few hours out there next weekend, at present the forecast says 11 deg with a 20% chance of showers.

Whilst a bit chilly, this weekend I felt I had spent enough time on the inside of the house and to be honest, everything I currently do seems to involve deconstructing things and I think I have enough to put back together so a spell outside was probably good for me (and the house)!

And I’m glad I did, as it was lovely just to explore the garden, start to clear back all of the dead ferns, pick up the covering of leaves and cut back a lot of overgrowth.

My plan this year is to really let the established garden come through and see what is already there, then for 2022 I can build on that. My only caveat is I want to start to establish the meadow flower garden and start to segregate the lawn into the 3 zones and get the flowers established in the mid section.

I am keen to start growing my own veg again and I am wondering if an area at the top of the garden which looks like it was previously used as a fire pit could be a good site. At the moment I have just used it as a dumping ground for all of the cleared debris so another option could be for 12 months just to have it establish as an open compost heap. I have never done one of those before (having a plastic compost bin that ended up attracting rats previously) so I’m not 100% sure on that yet. I will need to read up on these a bit more I think, but it would be nice to have my own eco friendly compost heap as opposed to having a mass produced plastic one and if I can establish it in the area where the veg will be grown next year I should be able to just dig it in where it lies.

One little find as I was clearing back a section was this creation. I am going to cut back a bit more next weekend and try and establish what the structure is. I am intrigued.

The last part of my planning jigsaw will be to tidy up under the tree in the centre of garden and establish this as a feature. Once again, I think the plan this year will be to see what is already established there and add some wild flowers then next year set about a more planned landscaping.

After ripping the flooring up in the dining room last weekend, another trip to the household recycling centre was needed. Now the Land Rover (Stanley) was back from getting the brakes seen to, this weekend started with a bit of time out in the garden loading everything up. Whilst I was in my “outdoor clothes” it was a chance to open up the doors of the upper floor of the workshop and look at the facilities, asses the floor viability (as this had been pointed out on the survey) and also see what had been left behind.

I also wanted to start to visualise the garden and start to plan any spring activities that I might need to do. At present I would like to start the foundation of a traditional “wild meadow”. The garden is adjacent to the main walking path up to mountains and during the Summer I anticipate a lot of people walking past. I don’t want to be known as the new bloke who bought the house and now has a scruffy garden!

So lets start with the workshop. Well the good news is that after switching on the light switch the lights came on and whilst I have an electrician coming out soon to provide a new power feed and distribution board out to the workshop I have a temporary set of lights. I also plugged in the extension lead running to the downstairs workshops and the fused spur upstairs via an extension lead provided power downstairs. As I do not know the viability of these items I will only use them if I absolutely have to but its good to know they are there and am looking forward to the new feed being ran in soon.

The next task was to check out the floor. The survey did highlight this as needing attention and the words actually used were for the whole building was”semi derelict” and an indicative cost of £15,000 was put in the report to sort out a number of issues, these being the roof, the upper floor, the electrics, the lower doors, the upper doors and the lower door lintel.

The weather the last few weeks has allowed me to assess the roof and it is solid, stable, and does not leak but on close inspection from inside a number of batons are broken but the main joists appear to be fine. At some point when I really decide what I am going to use this area for, it will probably be a roof off and full refurbishment but that no longer is on the critical list.

The next main thing to check was the floor. Once again a good inspection from the lower workshops indicates good strong supports with no signs of rotting etc. The next step was to gently walk the upper floor and check for any signs of instabiity. There were a smalll number of places where wider boards were placed on top of a couple of narrow boards and on lifting these it was apparent that whilst not dangerous the original boards did need some attention and the covering board was in place to mitigate this and spread the load. As the upper workshop is not going to be used this year, once again this can be taken off the critical list.

The inside of the upper floor gave signs of its previous use and it was obviously an “old school” workshop as opening a number of the drawers on the benches presented me with a selection of hand tools such as manual drills etc.

Another corner of the workshop provided a different surprise in the form of what appears to be a gear box and bell housing. The number plate up on the wall was traced back to a Vauxhall Ventora which appears to be an attempt at a Muscle Car.

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At present, the area is just going to be used for storage. Once the bulk of the main house is done and the weather outside is better I can have a better look around but it was good to do an initial assesment.

Please feel free to comment on this article as to how you would use this area. I look forward to reading your thoughts !

So what about the garden?

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Well my vision at the moment is to create the garden in three areas as follows:

• Area 1 – Lower section in front of the triple garage doors have as short cut grass
• Area 2 – Upper section in front of the single door that open into the workshop have as short cut grass
• Area 3 – The middle area from the start of the tree and then parallel to the long workshop wall, allow to grow as long grass (meadow like) but within it plant groups of wild flowers to mimic a more natural look. Through the middle cut a single path the width of a lawn mower to allow an easy walk to the upper level

Once again, this is a point where I would love to hear your views. What would you do with this blank canvas??

I’m certainly looking forward to the nice weather kicking in, one of the attractions of this property was the potential in the garden and the workshops and whilst I am sure in the first year I will start to put my stamp on it, this is going to be an evolving and very active part of the blog.

As planned, a day off from painting today…

As it was a Sunday, it started with a quick walk up to the newsagents to buy a Sunday Paper. Now I have never really been a “paper person” but my new found circumstances are making a lot of changes in my life so I thought “well why not”. I have no allegiance to any cover so I’m slowly going through the new stand alternating what I consider “highbrow” with tabloid.

Anyway, the walk up allowed me to have a quick look at the famous Blaenau Ffestiniog Railway and hopefully when these restrictions lift I can get to appreciate its history a bit more.

Once I got back to the house, a quick coffee then out into the workshops. Basically my part of the property has the old stable block and the previous ownerships have left it as a two story building with the garden contoured up to allow easy access to the upper level. Todays challenge was more about downstairs which is split into a single garage, an original stone partition wall then a double garage but with two doors. The structural survey had highlighted a number of jobs here, mainly the lintel over the double door has a crack in it the doors needing replacing and the roof will need work at some point! From what I can see and as per the report, the beams supporting the upper floor are good but the floor boards will need attention at some point as they are very uneven and made up of very irregular boards.

My main aim today was to unpack all of my workshop equipment into a basic layout so when the electrician comes, I have a rough plan for lighting and sockets. I also wanted to take a good look at the floor to see what I was working with. Whilst it is water tight, I am going to have outdoor lights and sockets fitted within the workshop as well as a separate fused distribution board.

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I am very please with the workshop space as it will allow me to work on repairing and restoring motorcycles which is one of my interests as well as hopefully giving me a space to build part of the kitchen from scratch and also construct new wooden garage doors. I want to move away from the modern up and overs and go back to something more period for the stable block but giving a level of security needed.

Once everything was starting to get laid out, broom in hand I started to sweep out the thick layer of dust and perished lino. Once this was shoveled up, what was visible appears to be the original floor. From what I can see, there are three distinct textures with the front being a form of slate / stone, then a draining channel and the rear of the garage being a mixture of cobbles and patterned impression.

The final good find was buried at the back of the garage and appears to be an original door. I think I am probably going to struggle to date it but if possible I would like to incorporate it back into the house, maybe as the entrance into the rear courtyard or into the new garage doors (maybe a permanent non moveable framework on the right hand door with this door embedded within it?)

All in all it has been a great start to the New Year and three really productive days. Back to the day job tomorrow and then back onto the lounge next weekend I suspect.

A new place always brings a sense of excitement and nothing matches that as seeing the seasons change. Ive tagged this under the “Gardens” section but really it is going to track the general changing seasons here as Glan Gors.

So moving in during the winter was always going to be interesting. As well as the usual worries about a new place i.e. does the heating work! you are not aware of just how hard the winter is? Is it very cold ? do you get a lot of snow? and are the high winds so loud it makes you feel like the roof is coming off and you end up sleeping on the sofa in the lounge the first time it happens (yep that was the first winter in my last place).

So I’ve been here about 4 weeks now and so far I’ve had 3 lots of snow.

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Luckily, since moving to North Wales from Bristol, snow has been a regular feature so I’ve always kept a 4×4 as part of my available cars. A little Suzuki Jimny served me well for a good 10 years but when that gave up I treated myself to an old S3 Landrover. A great little work horse if not a little bit thirsty as a petrol!

I’m looking forward to the Spring coming and getting chance to see what already exists in the garden.

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