Malcolm Smith's Family History Archive

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Dwellings of

Malcolm  Archbald  SMITH

[Ref. S.1]

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Biography

Purchase

Refurbishment

Garden layout

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Before Malcolm and Brenda had married, Malcolm has managed to get some work done in the garden, but much remained to be done in between other jobs.

There had been a central path from the front door to a gate to the road, but Malcolm later grassed over that in favour of using the driveway for access. A hedge of alternate Griselinia and Purple Berberis was planted along the front bounday to act both as a screen and deterrent to animals and children.

The back garden rose upwards from the cottage so Malcolm dug the bank back and created a rockery. It was not very imaginative so he rebuilt it with a low stone wall set on bricks laid honeycomb to allow moisture to seep through.

Another essential job was to lay a path around the cottage. Malcolm would have liked either brick or stone slab paving but The easiest and quickest method was to lay concrete on hardcore all the way round. The concrete would also act to hold the cottage walls in place as they had no foundation. Malcolm and Brenda were married by the time this was done and they had their friends Dave and Flo' staying for the weekend. A decorative surface could have been laid over at a later date. Dave worked with Malcolm so was familiar with building work. They hired a mixer which the wives kept loading whilst the boys barrowed and laid the concrete. Once that was finished, Malcolm laid a brick edging at the front and side of the cottage. He took particular care to get a nice curved line at the front so he drew a plan beforehand then marked it out until it was just right.

At last Malcolm had time to construct a pond in the front garden. With all the ground water, he did think all he needed to do was dig a hole then let it fill up. However, the location he chose was a bit drier so he made the pond with a butyl liner and laid stone slabs over the top edge to keep destructive sunlight off.

All the while, Malcolm was developing the garden, starting with the vegetable patch, but also setting out areas for different types of planting. To Malcolm, an herbaceous border was an essential for a cottage then also a Clematis to climb up the front of the building. A border was created at the front of the cottage for summer bedding plants and a raised Rose bed was put alongside the drive. Heather and spring bulbs were planted around the base of the Monkey Puzzle tree. Two shrubberies were created with a variety of flowering bushes. Malcolm and Brenda purchased the majority of their plants from Guy's Nursery in Ringwood and became well known there.

In 1971, mains drainage was brought to the village so the cottage was connected which made the existing cesspit redundant. As it was a bit obtrusive in the front lawn, Malcolm demolished it and filled it in. His friend Dave assisted whilst staying one weekend.