Stoned

After two winters of paddling through a sea of mud, we finally decided to get the yard stoned.  This will be a particularly welcome improvement for Kim's clients who needed wellies to get from their cars to the treatment room.

The underlying soils are impermeable so when it rains hard the yard turns into a river draining out through the gate to a gully in the road.   The plan was therefore to scrape off all the loose soil and stone and shape the formation will a fall towards the gate to prevent ponding.  The yard was then to be surfaced with 2" to 3" of single sized stone to allow it drain down to the formation.

This was going to be a major civil engineering operation so we employed Peter Thomas and his JCB for the job.  (Peter had previously helped extend the duct to the treatment room, see previous post on the installation of the first half...).

Peter carefully shaped the formation and the stone and soil was stockpiled out of sight for another day...  Next a layer of geotextile fabric was laid to stop future weed growth and stop the stone sinking into the underlying soil.

We thought that 16 tonnes of stone would probably be enough which arrived in a very large truck from G D Harries.  This covered about half the yard so another truck was ordered.  This proved ample and we now have a small surplus for other projects.  

For the first few times it rained hard we were out watching the runoff emerge through the base of the stone onto the road like a small spring (as planned!).  Now we have to sort out the path to the house where the paving stones across the grass turn into a series of puddles.