We enjoy doing things; learning new skills, as well as teaching and sharing our knowledge.
This time we tried to build a garden wall.
The wall...
We went to a one day bricklaying course at Norfolk School of Gardening www.norfolkschoolofgardening.co.uk to gain some hands-on experience. Inspired, we decided to give it a go. We bough a DIY book and prepared all the materials needed for the first 10 metres of 'the wall'. Well, the whole length of the new wall is around 50 metres but let's test our abilities first. And we don't like rushing these kind of things anyway.
We wanted the wall to look 'victorian' to compliment our house, so we sourced a handmade 'soft' bricks and therefore used a traditional lime mortar technique.
Mark also used this opportunity for an excuse to buy some new toys, as the boys do... like a cement mixer and a site level.
We measured and prepared the foundations together and on one rainy morning a concrete lorry mixer arrived, and by lunchtime the foundations where in place.
A few weeks later Mark started with dry bonding, mixed the first ever lime mortar and went... Brick by brick, brick by brick... and on and on he went :). To make this story short, we are absolutely delighted with the look of the wall which triggered an idea of a new design of hide-away garden. But that's for another time... also, another 40 metres to go.
... and we couldn't leave this post without a few pictures ;)
Next time - Upcycling ;)
Cheerio
Miriam & Mark