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.
