Friday 4 July 2014

Project Yurt....

I thought I had blogged about Project Yurt before but having looked through my posts I don't think I have. In which case I shall try to get you up to speed on my progress so far.



We have a fairly long garden and the bottom end has previously been used as a rubbish dump. The area is around 21ft wide by 20ft long, so a fair old size. I have just had a look and I don't have any "before"  photos but you can see the end of the garden in this one.


The brambles were about 2ft high and pretty evil. I took the shears to them and filled the green recycling bin in one go! Soon the garden looked like this...


That little yellow digger had a hell of a job on!! The rubbish we found was truly unbelievable. Glass by the ton, cups, cutlery, toys, various tools, bones, false nails, a tv, loads of plastic and rusty bolts. Im still amazed at what was down there. I still find bits of glass everywhere even though we went through it section by section.

We have a pretty tree which I have been told may be an ornamental Elder. It is right at the edge of the dump so I decided to plant my yellow Peony next to it to make a natural screen. I realise it will just be a bunch of sticks in the winter but it looks lovely now.


Slowly, I've dug over the whole area with some help of course. We found a big area of concrete that may have been a base for something a some point. I think at this stage we had about 5 weeks before the Yurt arrived,  fresh from Glastonbury healing fields!


We had two whole days dedicated to the garden. My Dad came over to help and so did my brother in law.  This was the result after day two. We took a branch of the neighbours tree as it was so low I kep walking into it! You can see the huge pile of house bricks we unearthed, along with the bin full of broken glass.

That is still how it looked on the day the Yurt arrived. I hadn't done anything the previous week as I was suffering with Sciatica and other pregnancy related problems. Luckily, I felt ok so had breakfast and got stuck in. The boys helped a bit and quite soon it was lunchtime. We had a quick bite then got back out there. Before Ii knew it, Big was home from school! I realised then I would need some help to meet the 6:30 deadline, so I rang my Dad for reinforcements.  I carried on digging with Big so by the time Dad arrived there wasn't too much left to do.


We levelled off an area just over 12x12ft (the size of the yurt) then began flattening it out as best we could. Chaos got in on the action and loved stamping the soil down with his big brother and Grandad!

6:30 arrived and we were ready. We cleared all our kit out of the way just as my friend arrived. Luckily,  dinner was ready at the same time so the little ones sat down to have theirs while we put the Yurt up.
It was surprisingly simple but we needed the taller guys to help pull the canvas over the roof. It took about half an hour tops which is no longer than a regular dome tent really.

So here it is...




Although this one is only on loan for a while,  I love having it and can't wait for ours to arrive in a few weeks! It has made the bottom of the garden rather special and given us some much needed extra space.

I have bought a fence and gate to paint and put up. I also have some plants and shrubs to go in. It's going to be an amazing space to relax when it's finished. I'm also toying with the idea of a fire pit for the cool Autumn evenings and a log burner to keep it snug inside for any visitors.

6 comments:

  1. Oh wow. I would LOVE a yurt in the garden!

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  2. Bagsy that's mine if you put a burner in it...can't promise I won't burn it down you know me :-p xxx

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  3. Bagsy that's mine if you put a burner in it...can't promise I won't burn it down though you know me :-p xxx

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  4. Having a yurt in the garden must be so cool! #HDYGG

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  5. Wow! Looks so nice! Its another room outside the house! I have so many ideas on what to do with extra space! #pocolo

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  6. Oh my this is gorgeous! I must admit since staying in with on break I've been toying with the idea of buying one that I can use in the garden (I am convincing myself that I need a Summer office - I know, what am I like!?)
    I must pick your brains about yours!
    Thanks ever so much so joining in - not very often we get a yurt! x

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