Blood, sweat and tears...: May 2008

The final crit has just been put back a week, any luck they might forget about it. The past three years has been a breeze compared with the past few weeks, so much so I have forgotten to up date this blog.

Here are some examples of the work I have been doing until 2-3am each morning!

Area A, the first detailed area chosen for me from my 1:200 plan. This is a 1:50 'blown up' image from my original 1:200 plan. This is the most intense area for 'hard' landscaping. It has two raised walkways, a 4M high cascade, a bridge and the edge of a large lake. Together with three different surfaces I guess I have my work cut out doing this area.

A cross section of my bridge showing details of the balustrade I want to have. This would also be for the other raised decks like the promenade.

Here I have drawn the top section of the cascade with the walk towards the bridge behind it. At the entrance the weir is at your feet level. As you move towards the bridge the path descends until it becomes a wall next to you.

Area B chosen from the 1:200 detailed plan. This is the 'beach garden' I have designed. To the bottom of the picture is the Outdoor Classroom and educational 'dipping' pool. This is the big challenge for me with planting. The whole park has a theme of being the sea within the park. Here I want to develop the style of sea-side garden to its limits. I had a vision of what I wanted, something of a cross between Derek Jarman's garden and the rugged sand dunes of the Pacific Rim, but I guess I need to use more than two plants so it might not end up looking like either!

A cross section of the in-land groynes I have designed for the Beach Garden. They allow me to bank the soil one side, just like on the beach. This provides welcome shelter for plants and humans alike. It also lets the sea-side hardy plants to show off on the banking. A shame health and safety requires me to add a fence on top... The groynes are made from sandstone filled gabions and sandstone based pre-cast concrete posts. Cor-Ten banding around the top will give a quick impression of the rusting steel found around the real groyne posts.

Not forgetting the path details, here's my section showing the expansion joint in the main pathway. Here I have specified 65mm thick sawn sandstone pavers with smaller matching setts to break the pattern at the joins.

All for now, have a dead line to hit for my web-site tomorrow, let alone remembering it's my wife's birthday... and our anniversary the next day. Guess they both get put on hold for another year, or maybe not.