Extreme Gardening - Sunday 16 September

Kitting up

Many people wanted to take part in this, as it sounded so much fun. In the end, for safety reasons we chose our experienced and qualified climbers, Steve, Robin and Becky. And though they all remained incredibly cheerful, it was cold and poured with rain, so maybe the fun aspect was somewhat diluted.

Getting started

Having seen the complexity of the climbing skills needed, on top of the dangers of stanley knives in operation near security ropes (very counter-intuitive for climbers), this was definitely the right decision.

Sowing seed

The retaining bank north of Terrace D was seeded as a meadow last spring as it is the plant roots which will really hold the soil in place long term rather than the green matting. Some of the soil washed out within a few weeks taking the seeds with them and leaving bare patches. We thought we would try and reseed the bare bits this September, by cutting small slits in the upper matting and spreading a mix of seed and sand behind and then repegging.

The bare bit

Becky said, 'This was a great new experience. I have never tried to garden from a rope before.' However in some areas all the soil has gone, which is useful to know as something else will need to be done there, and we could only have found out in this way.




 Kate

  www.lancastercohousing.org.uk

 Vertical Gardening Continued, Steve: 

To add to Kate's blog I have added a couple of photos taken hanging off the rope. From the big grin on her face it's obvious Becky just loves dangling from ropes in the pouring rain!

Hopefully the reseeding will take effect before the winter weather draws in. I suppose we will have to wait until spring to see how effective it was.

The first (few hundred) blocks

Quick update on progress on site over the last week or so...

Blockwork has started on Terrace A, although we are now waiting for the lintels which will bridge over the service entries and the engineering bricks to arrive on site.  Finished floor levels will be three courses of engineering bricks above the top of the blockwork as seen here.

The common garden area to terrace A is small but has a lovely outlook

See the extra wide cavity, which for those of you in the know, will give a wall U-value of between 0.10 and 0.12

The Common House blockwork is ready to go. Note that the front of building 2 has now been pulled down to make way for the Children's room, toilets, laundry and guest rooms.  The floor will be lowered to provide level access

Meanwhile at terrace D the building platform is being levelled.  A report on the safety of the rock face to the right is pending - we plan to leave it looking as natural as possible

And at Heron Bank, the pile of rubble just gets bigger and bigger.










Jon

http://www.lancastercohousing.org.uk/