The work in the garden continued over the last week. We’ve almost wrapped up the project.

We’re back in the back of the garden for another installment. This one is even more plant-filled thanks to the new fern bed installed after we removed a smaller dead tree.

We finished off the last installment with the mortar on the retaining wall hardening, and the soil requiring some more levelling. After removing some more bricks and glass from the soil and general tidying, we laid down the weed-proof membrane as a base for the bark chipping play surface.

I bought two rolls of 15x1m weed proof membrane and we managed to cover the whole area with one roll including a reasonable overlap. We started with five 70L bags of bark chippings which were advertised as suitable for play areas which covered much of the area, then topped it up with another four bags. These things always take more than you think.

The next step was to start on the mud kitchen. After pulling up the rotting decking earlier in the year we had a lot of wood laying around. That seemed like the perfect place to start for making Evie’s mud kitchen. First I sawed the boards to the same length with the mitre saw and then reinforced the area for the sink and cut out a circle with my jigsaw. One of our stainless steel mixing bowls has been sacrificed to the cause but it’s well worth it.

We’re almost finished with this project, and it has been quite the transformation. From dump to secret hideaway playground. The next phase is going to involve some wall and fence painting, and perhaps a mystery additional step to add a fun way to get into the treehouse.