Moving closer to the Tunnel

My mini gabion basket has too many sharp edges to go into the garden

I have been hard at work at the bottom of the garden clearing and levelling a patch for the polytunnel this week. It’s large enough to put a tunnel measuring 12x20’ I just need to make sure that it’s all flat and there are a couple of large tree stumps I need to remove too. It’ll be hard work and will take a day or two more but I think it will be worth it as the trees are still active and new shoots grow up to about three feet a year so would get in the way of the polytunnel plastic. After this it’s just a question of getting the tunnel.  I have been getting prices from a few different places, the cost of a tunnel has gone up by at least 150% since I bought my last one in 2000, so after that initial shock I realise there wouldn’t be much change from 700 euro..Better get saving.

Gabion Baskets

Meanwhile....I have a few different levels in the garden.  We have steps and slopes, nothing too big that would leave you out of breath walking up it though.  The front of the garden to the soon to be polytunnel probably only has a difference in height of about three feet, and this gives us the opportunity to use design to make some interesting features.  

Coming out of the back door we have about six steps to get to the lawn and to the side of this there is a soil bank funning the length of the house.  Initially it was planted up with herbaceous perennials but the dogs have taken to sitting on the soil (and plants) as staring longingly into the kitchen window hoping for a walk or food or attention or all three.  I did put up a few small posts and wire mesh last year to allow the plants to grow and get established, but the dogs flattened that ,sat on it, then peered through the window again in defiance as they pushed the bare soil onto the path.  I couldn’t win so I thought a few gabion baskets would look good along the edge.

If you are not familiar with gabion baskets, you will probably have seen large industrial ones holding up embankments on motorways.  They are steel mesh cages of varying sizes then filled with stone and tied together to make an exceptionally strong and long lasting barrier.  The idea came from medieval times when wicker gabions filled with soil were made as fortification to stop enemy’s arrows. I’d use them as a defence against the dogs.  

Landscape design Gabions

The gabions need not be industrial looking; they can be filled with decorative stone and also planted up with rockery plants that don’t need too much soil and like good drainage.  There are some really attractive designs ready made from such companies as Red Hen in Poland. Their designs are worthy of any public place and most of them are useful (you can sit on them!) having smooth edges and lovely wooden seats. Planting can be done in the centre of the gabion to soften thing even more.  Cranford stone in Donegal also have some interesting designs for the garden.  

I like the galvanised welded mesh for the gabions in preference to the woven mesh; it seems a lot stronger and neater. I ordered a sample mini cage measuring 30x30cm from Devoran Metals in Cornwall to get me started.  It’s a bit small for anything but putting a plant in it but the design allows me to see how things would look if I used larger cages of up to half a metre high with the same size mesh of about 750mm (3”) The sides of the cage are secured with spiral pieces of wire and look very tidy once in place.   

There’s just something too sharp about the sample I have though.  The health and safety in me would look for pieces of wire pointing out and would always be aware that young children (and dogs) are always running about.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to wrap my garden up in cotton wool, goodness knows the potentially dangerous places where I played as a child. It’s just that once I have seen a safety issue I would feel irresponsible not to correct it. (Once you see it you can’t unsee it!)  The only option for putting gabions in the garden would be to either buy some very expensive (but well made) landscape feature gabions, painstakingly make my own ensuring there were no sharp edges, or put up with the dogs sitting on the soil and staring at me through the window.  They do look cute when they look at me with their sad eyes so I think a decision has been made for now.