When you say heavy clay Adrian does your ground go from sponge like in the wet winter months to hard as concrete in the summer like our clay here does?
I cannot imagine anything of any great weight not shifting in those conditions.
It is currently 29 Mar 2024, 03:03
AJB Temple wrote:Yes Andy. In the area I am thinking of, it is sodden in winter and in a normal summer will dry out so that the ground cracks. But the other issue is don't want to put another lot of concrete in the ground. It's quite a way from the house and to put concrete there I would have to pump it. In addition I would like to incorporate it into our Japanese garden layout and have water beneath the building.
The relevant spot is surrounded by very large mature trees as well. I do not want to damage them with root cutting etc.
My idea is to use stone pads. I can get these in from behind the trees using a service path I have there. These can be set around a pool and rill, and build the workshop above it. We already have 5 ponds in the garden, all made by me, and I would use this as a new, filtered, Koi pond. (We have fish already).
This may just be dreaming, but I have been thinking about it for quite a long time. The existing Koi pond is too small, and the other ponds don't have bottom drains or lend themselves to the kind of filtration I would like.
Not sure what building regs aspect would be. Might need to be two buildings. That is OK as one can house the filtration etc and be a garden store.
Andyp wrote:Real Pilsner beer from Plzen. Great stuff and nothing like the American Budweiser.
AJB Temple wrote:If you are creating elements of a Japanese garden Rob, don't forget that the essential core is always a pine. Usually a Japanese black pine (Pinus thunbergii) is usually regarded as essential, though can be grown as Niwaki (in the ground) and in horizontal form if you want, or as Bonsai (pot). Evergreen of course.
AJB Temple wrote:
Palmatums (and other acer types) grow very well here, and are easily pruned, but now and again they react very badly to pruning. I think we have about 40 various acers in the Japanese styled part of the garden some of which are now quite dramatic, but I pruned one near the wildlife pond last year and suffered a lot of die back. I am no bonsai expert (just a novice) though I have tried off and on for many years. The trouble with maples is they need to be grown in the ground first to bring the trunks on, and then potted, unless you have a lifetime available. Cheap and easy bonsai to make from scratch though. We are fortunate in that we have a couple of mature pines close enough to the Japanese area to be incorporated within it.
Cherries unfortunately are not very long lived. The Cherry Ingram garden (now a nursing home) is not far from us (10 miles at most) but most of the Japanese stock he saved for posterity has now sadly died in that garden. Cherries are devils for getting diseased if you prune them apparently. We had seven mature flowering cherries of various sizes, and one died suddenly 2 years ago for no reason that I could readily see. Awkward things.
AJB Temple wrote:Feel free to come and have a look if you are ever in Kent.
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