It didn't take as long as I said in my last update that I thought it would to shift all the soil from the bottom of the garden, in fact we're about 2 weeks ahead of my very pessimistic schedule. It did, however, take more loads that I predicted: It took 13. We never loaded the truck more than was safe to drive so we may have been able to do a few less trips by overfilling it but it's more important to be comfortable than speedy. We ended up moving around 200 cubic feet of soil using spades & a wheelbarrow.
I tried to keep any nice top soil but the majority of it was clay or sand & there was plenty of rocks or rubbish scattered in there too. We found old cricket balls, astro turf, car wing mirrors & lots of vinyl tiles, as well as a bunch of material that the builders couldn't be bothered to throw away so they just buried it.
I bought two dwarf apple trees at Westonbirt treefest that I hope will grow big enough to hide a large proportion of the shed from view. I initially didn't want to plant them until after the shed had been built but my Morfar advised me that in order for them to have the best chance of surviving winter I needed to put them in the ground now. They're tiny at the moment but Andrew Howard, who sold them to us, thinks that they'll be fruiting by year 3.
It's always been an ambition of mine to plant a tree in the garden of our first home; I thought it would be such an amazing thing to watch grow as each year goes by & something nice for us to leave behind when we move on.
Next on the list is making sure that the ground is absolutely level, adding hardcore & pouring on concrete for the base. I'm not entirely sure when that will happen but as always, I'll keep you posted.
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