More rolling

More rolling
Originally uploaded by davidjennings.

This morning the area under our window was rolled. I didn't notice if any of the surface was dug up or re-laid before the rolling — it's only when you hear a noise that you can't locate anywhere else that you look straight down.

Path re-constructed

Spreading the new surface #1
Originally uploaded by davidjennings.


Rolling the new surface
Originally uploaded by davidjennings.

A couple of days ago I asked "how many layers do they have to dig before the path can be relaid correctly?", and the answer seems to be: about half a one.

This morning some new surface material was ferried in by wheelbarrow. Then it was spread — upper photo on the left — and rolled — lower photo.

Apparently one of the problems with the original construction was that what I call the 'hover-roller' (apparently it's slightly more proper name is 'whacker') was used for the rolling, and it shouldn't be — though I noticed it was still on site today.

De-snagging

What's going on here?
Originally uploaded by davidjennings.

I couldn't work out quite what was going on here, but I think it was a construction issue, rather than a horticultural one. It involved repeated hammering on the metal plate along the edge of the tree bed.

There was more work on the path, but nothing very significant that I could see through the leaves of the tree.

Back to the path

Digger back on the path
Originally uploaded by davidjennings.

As my collection of photos of the Quaker Gardens re-development reaches three hundred, here's a bit of dejà vu.

When I went to the Quaker meeting last Sunday, I heard that there were — as I said yesterday — contractual issues with a number of aspects of the site. One is the Quiet Garden path, which apparently was not laid in line with the instructions. Some of it is being dug up again. The question is how many layers do they have to dig before the path can be relaid correctly?

So far it's a slow process with the digger scooping the surface layer into wheelbarrows that were then wheeled away by hand.

The planting seems to be more or less complete, though watering continues through the heatwave.

Glory be: some turf!

Turf
Originally uploaded by davidjennings.

I think I may have hinted before at how much I've been longing for some grass, so this is good to see.

I'm not quite sure what's being done to the concrete wall round the Meeting House Garden: as it's turned the corner, it looks as though some kind of varnish is being applied to the surface (the smell wafts upwards). I understand there remain some 'contractual issues' with this wall.

Last night someone was playing basketball on the ball court at 1.15am. There's something about the weight of a basketball, and the thud-boom of its bounce, that makes one or two people playing the game a much more disruptive sound than ten playing football.

New topsoil

New topsoil #2
Originally uploaded by davidjennings.

New topsoil was spread and brushed or raked over several of the beds today: you can see the richer brown on the right hand of this picture.

One of the guys from Coblands Landscapes has a bandaged hand (I'm told he's the Boss), and to see him picking up the uprooted plants, now sorry and dried out from the sun, with his one 'good' hand was an image of pathos.

Uprooted

Uprooted #1
Originally uploaded by davidjennings.

A handful or two of plants have been uprooted around the site. It seems to the kind of casual destruction that asks, "I wonder how easy it is to pull up these newly-planted shrubs?" and arrives at the answer, "Pretty easy, but it gets boring quickly".