Groundworks begin

The top third of our back garden is currently unusable as a garden. It's been covered in building rubble since we moved in. The guy who rented the house before us was a builder of sorts and dumped all his crap up there. We're going to be putting the garden building up there for us to use during the build and we need it levelled and cleared of rubble. As we were prepping for the party yesterday, James' friend who drives diggers and does groundworks turned up. He was due in a few weeks to clear the area and he wanted to do the work the next day (today). It's always good when a workman wants to do work early! 

It meant after the party yesterday we had a burn up of some leylandii cuttings and moved the wood that needs cutting for the wood pile. It's hard to see from the photos, but one side had brick sized rubble and the rest was covered to a depth of about 4 inches of gravel. It looks a whole lot tidier than usual, we'd strimmed the weeds back for the party!

Gravel to be removed

So today he started on clearing the back of rubbish, getting out a giant tree stump and digging a trench for services. It was like watching a master at work, he used the digger arm like it was a third arm. It was done so much quicker than if we'd have tried to do it. He used the rubble to make a hard, level base for the concrete slab to be laid and what was left was put in a huge hole and covered with top soil, genius.

Trench for services

Ground cleared of building rubble and covered with topsoil

Base created using rubble, compacted with the digger and ready for a concrete slab.