In amidst the more cottage garden look I have designed for the HoBB Gardens, there are formal stretches planned.

One such small yet grand formality has been designed for no other reason than to cover a planned flight of outside stairs from first floor level to top terrace and the newly planted White Wisteria Way.

The designs are deliberately chunky to create a feeling of ‘small’ and ‘low’. We have started work on digging the levels into the slope up to the top terrace and once this is done the lower slab for the first of two small flights of steps will be cast. After that, and literally “step by step”, we will cast concrete stairs with stone side edging and plinths to support the chunky vertical posts.

For this heavy job we have got a Baby Belle cement mixer and a neighbour has just given it a new gasket so it now works a treat.

We’re looking for a linchpin on this project so if you have many hands, or even two, and you can bring yourself along over a weekend to make lighter work of this, contact me. In the spirit of the wonderful www.wwoof.org we’ll host and work with you, no money changes hands and the Gardens will have yet another useful feature that all future visitors can share and enjoy.

As with all projects at the HoBB Gardens, they move on bit by bit so contact us to get the latest update on where we are with this grand, yet small colonnade

Waves ~~~~~~~~~~ <+))))))))>< ~~~ Grant