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Moving from an Edwardian terraced house with a long narrow garden to a 1930's house with a 30m. long and 10 m. wide garden provided a whole different challenge.
The garden sloped up from the house and had been terraced by previous owners, with a mix of concrete paving, york stone and lawns areas but little else. A number of mature trees had previously been felled but luckily a mature pear tree and a couple of plum trees were spared.
Stephen's Garden
The old york stone terrace was lifted and the stone sold on ebay to a reclaimation company for several hundred pounds, providing useful funds for the next stage of the landscaping.
The existing summerhouse was moved to a central position to provide symmetry to the pool area.
New railway sleeper raised beds were installed to retain.some of the topsoil removed from the upper garden level where the swimming pool was to be installed and to form the terraced levels.
To create interest and to provide additional space, the terrace at living room level had a curved sleeper wall built, providing ample room for the table tennis table and evening entertaining.
The immitation stone paving here will be replaced by decking to tie in with the living room flooring.
The idea of a swimming pool sounded great at the time - until we realised that it would entail excavating 50 tonnes of earth by hand as there is no side access to the garden.
All the earth and materials had to be wheelbarrowed through the kitchen and out into skips. Three of us managed to complete the excavation work over a period of about 10 days.
Copyright 2011
During the work, we discovered an underground soakway that had to be diverted to allow for the deep end of the pool to be fully excavated.
Next , the pool base was concreted, the brick steps leading up to this area built and a shallow water feature constructed.
Here are the steps up to the lawn and the upper terrace, sited here to catch the late afternnon sun
To keep costs down and reduce the construction time, the pool was built using steel panels bolted together with a drop in liner. The kit was supplied by Christal Pools who have been manufacturing pools since the 1960's.
After reading the lengthy installation manual, making sure all the levels were perfect using a water level, the panels were constructed and the liner installed.
The pool took over 2 days to fill with a hose running constantly.
A Yew hedge was planted in front of the swimming pool to provide privacy
Whilst the pool was filling, the space between the steel panels and surrounding earth needed to be back filled with a weak sand/cement mix.
A willing helper (after a substantial bribe!) agreed to fill the buckets with sand to speed the process up.
As soon as the pool was filled, trusty helper was first in the pool!
Terracotta style tiles were laid to form the pool surround with sandstone paving laid for the steps and part of the remaining area. Decking is laid in front of the summerhouse.
The pool water is heated via a heat pump - an efficient way of keeping the temperature up during the spring to autumn months.
Taken during summer 2010, this is a view from the lower deck - a little over 2 years after the landscaping work began.
LINKS
![Minchenden Crescent Garden July 2011 002 [800x600]](/communities/4/004/008/445/484/images/4551342712_411x273.jpg)
July 2011 - the garden is maturing well. The Yew hedge planted to screen the pool area is growing at a pace.
There are one or two planted areas that need re-thinking in the autumn or spring time.
A double row of sandstone setts were laid earlier this year to provide a mowing edge and definition to the lawn.
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