It sounds like you have a really good crew doing the work, especially with the laser leveling. Very exciting! It will be a wonderful moment the first time you walk through the door of the finished greenhouse and just look around in amazement. Dream becoming reality. Personal history in the making!

PlainJane wrote: ↑Thu May 18, 2023 6:37 am Wow, the reality is here. How exciting!

Yes, needs to happen quickly at this time of year too

Truly deluxe with the paths and all!

Yoikes! Yer ALL IN on that there, @Whwoz!

Go Big Or Go Home...and it looks like you's ain't goin' home...

The Gotch

@GoDawgs just the two of us doing the work, the experienced machine operator and yours truly on the laser pole, taking our time to do it right. Concretor will be here about 2:30 pm to check it out.

@Bower , paths and concrete slab are a must here, otherwise I will be loosing gumboots in the mud that will result.

@Cornelius_Gotchberg this is the best of both, going big at home, and it's expandable if required

Go big or go home.

This is awesome!

So will you have a concrete slab as the greenhouse floor? You wont be planting in ground?

And the footpaths? Will you woodchip them?

@Moth1992 , concrete slab inside the greenhouse and for footpaths, which will also double as drainage.

Where we live is a drained swamp, soil is silt and while if you saw it now without knowing anything of the district, you would say wonderful soil , in another couple of months it will be mud anywhere there is not grass, and in summer it does a very good imitation of concrete.

Inside the greenhouse will be raised beds, either metal sided or large wicking beds/self watering pots made out of cut down IBC totes of around 600 lt/ 150 US gallon capacity. To do anything else will see me loosing my gumboots to the mud inside the greenhouse in no time at all.

Clean Up work continued today, with the section of the veggie bed that had not been completed before COVID struck properly having all the grass removed. Will get more sandy soil to complete this area while the machine is here.
The area immediately to the west of the compost bin has served as a fence post/timber storage area for the last several years and while well located needs a solid base, so its been cleaned up in preparation for a slab. Definitely taking the bigger the better approach here.
To the east of where the single compost bin currently sits has always planned to be extra bins. Doing the framework for these on concrete strip footings, leaving the centre open for soil contact. This area has been overgrown with Kikuyu lately, so that has been stripped off and strips dug in readiness for concrete. Will not take me long to build once poured.
What they can do with machines these days is just fabulous.

Been a bit longer than I thought since I have updated this thread. All prep work with excavator basically finished, need to get everything else done before we get him back.

Concretor has placed sand in areas to be concreted, packed it all with some as topped off as water reveals low spots. Framing of pathways has been done. Aiming to start pouring concrete on Thursday

Photo one is of footpath from house to veggie bed. Will be building concrete block steps against deck.

Second is footpath along veggie bed, white PVC pipe is for drainage for apple trees.

Third photo is of pad. Had to add sand to north west corner, not yet packed

This is so very exciting!

Amazing! This will be such a game-changer.

PlainJane wrote: ↑Sat Jun 10, 2023 6:44 am Amazing! This will be such a game-changer.

Could not agree more. Being able to walk around without getting mud everywhere will be one big bonus as well. Really looking forward to this

Man....you go all out !!! This is going to be very very nice !

Yak54 wrote: ↑Sat Jun 10, 2023 12:22 pm Man....you go all out !!! This is going to be very very nice !

The purchase of the greenhouse has been the trigger to do a number of little projects that on their own were not enough to warrant getting a machine in to do. So it is get everything done at once time. That walkway along what is now the veggie bed was something I was talked out of doing many years ago, which has been an annoyance to me ever since, bringing water to the veggie bed without ripping up the driveway had only one solution, cutting into a drain elbow and feeding a length of poly hose through, particularly as it needs to be one continuous length due to ground movement opening up any joiners overtime, been there, sick of doing that and want something that is press a button for water. We are on tanks for the house and pump out of a dam for the garden. Everything else just happened do to having a good operator whom I was comfortable with doing the work.

Concretor has placed all the reinforcing mesh in the footpaths and is aiming to pour concrete on Thursday
Two uprights each side of pathway from house are holding PVC for water supply to what will be a blueberry garden just before greenhouse
Water will be pumped from dam via inch and a half black poly pipe, will run a line along each side of footpath, going under path from house so that there are no hoses for wife to trip over. She is very good a finding the slightest dip and going over

So fun to see the progress.

Awesome !

Concrete booked in for 9 am Thursday morning . Looking forward to that

First pour of concrete done yesterday and drying nicely now that we have a bit of sun and wind.
26.5 meters along the north side of existing veggie bed,
Roughly 2.5 meters towards the house
And 10 meters still to go, booked in for Wednesday next week