Joinery Products - Cedar Gates

Further to my post on Friday, I will be bringing you some more pictures of the various products we are now able to offer via our joinery.

Orchard Priory is delighted to be able to create garden joinery products ourselves as it means that we can maintain control over the material that we use, the construction methods employed and the all round quality of the final product offered.

Above you can see a beautiful cedar driveway gate. This is one of a pair (the other is behind it) which we hope to install within the next couple of weeks, I will look to show you some images of the gates once they have been fitted.

Joinery Products - Made by our own fair hands!

Orchard Priory are now able to provide a range of products for your grounds and garden, from gates to planters, screens to trellising to garden furniture.

We now fabricate these pieces ourselves so that our clients can enjoy beautiful, handcrafted and often bespoke designs.

The image above shows a venetian style, louvered garden screen which, installed in the correct location, will provide some welcome shade, beautiful shadows and a stylish, contemporary look.

Lyminge - Picture Framed!

The Orchard Priory landscaping team are really making progress at the project in Lyminge.

The picture above shows the rear garden patio with a 'picture frame' edge now in place and ready for pointing.

Work is continuing all around the house with preparation for the new driveway, a raised vegetable bed, steps to the back door and up to the patio from the lawn.

Hopefully tomorrow I will have some further images to show you.

Easter Monday at the Aldington Point to Point

Welcome back, we hope you had a good Easter and enjoyed the long weekend.

As advised last week, Easter Monday saw Orchard Priory at the Aldington Point to Point as Gold Sponsors of the event.

We were in attendance within the sponsors hospitality tent where we had some of our designs (and photographs of our gardens) for any interested parties to have a look at.  We had a good day at the event and would like to thank the organisers and the representatives from Foxwood Maclean, the main event sponsors, for their welcome, assistance and hospitality.

The photo above shows Ross Gandon, owner and managing director of Orchard Priory, with our table in the sponsors' tent.

See you at the Aldington Point to Point?

Well, that's it. It is Good Friday tomorrow.

We hope the weather does not interfere with whatever plans you have and that you enjoy the long weekend.

If you do attend the Aldington Point to Point on Easter Monday then please do come and say hello. You will find us in the Sponsors Tent.

A Very Happy Easter from all the team at Orchard Priory.

Lyminge - You cant get in the way of progress

We continue to make good progress with this project as the image above shows. This picture was taken first thing this morning before our site team started work and shows the progress made on the patio over the course of yesterday.

We would envisage the patio paving being completed today while work is also due to be started on the front of the property.

Lyminge - Laying the paving

Wednesday morning is upon us and our landscaping team on site in Lyminge are right on schedule. The image above shows site manager, Mark Prentice, laying the paving for this new rear garden patio.

You can see the cobble edging in place, this will strengthen the edge of the patio and also provide the riser for steps down to the lawn.  The foundation material has been laid enabling the paving to be installed.

Lyminge - Preparing the groundworks for the patio

As you can see from the picture above, we have started the groundworks for the rear patio at our latest job in Lyminge.  Once the groundworks are complete, we will be installing a cobble edging and the foundation materials prior to laying the paving stones themselves.

Tomorrow, we hope to be able to show you the first of the paving going down so please do come back to see if progress on site matches our aspirations for this project.

Our latest Job - Lyminge

Today sees the start of another new project for Orchard Priory.  This latest job is in Lyminge, Kent and, while not a complete garden re-design, it does involve the installation of a new rear patio and utility side garden, a new in/out driveway to the front of the property to replace the existing single entrance drive and some new planting.

We are looking forward to showing you our progress over the next few weeks.

Sandwich - The finished mixed media wall

As we approach the end of our small project in Sandwich, we are pleased to be able show you the finished mixed media wall. As you can see, the wall includes various bricks, clay tiles and flint and is finished with a soldier course coping of yellow stock bricks.

We have jet cleaned the existing paving and re-laid an area of paving around the wall for a complete finish.

A Day at the Races!

Orchard Priory is delighted to announce that we will be attending East Kent's 'Aldington Point to Point' on Monday 1st April.

We will be at this popular horse racing event as Gold Sponsors so why not stop by the main tent to say hello?

To view the google map for the location please click  here.  For more information about the event please visit the Point to Point Racing Company website here.

Also, look out for us in the Race Day Programme!

Sandwich - In Just a Short Time...

The first day of work at our new Sandwich project has seen the team stripping out the old decked seating area.

The top picture above shows a view of the decking prior to removal while the lower image shows the garden at the end of the first day. You can see from this shot that all the decking has been removed and the materials are on site for the building of the new wall.

Garden Makeover in Sandwich

We have today started work on a small garden makeover in Sandwich, Kent.

The picture above shows a decked seating area which we will be replacing with a mixed media wall with raised gravel flowerbeds.

Demolition has started as you can see with Mark Prentice, our site manager, breaking down the decking for removal from the site.

We will be jet washing the paving prior to the building of the replacement wall.

The project will also involve the installation of a bespoke made chicken coop and lattice style trellis panels.

Old Wives Lees - ... as this project nears completion

Our time at Old Wives Lees is nearly done with only a few minor jobs remaining. We expect to finish here shortly although we will be returning within a few weeks to install gates and fencing to the property.

The picture above shows the 2-Bay Oak Car Barn which has now been clad with Oak.

As you can see from the picture, there is still a heavy frost on the ground. This combined with the very cold wind has made for a chilly time on site but at least today the sun is shining!

It's Snow Joke!

Well, the weather here in East Kent was fun yesterday (Monday March 11th). While our team on site at Old Wives Lees were cold but otherwise suffering no inconvenience, our office in Capel-le-Ferne was sat in blizzard-like conditions all day long.

By 4pm roads were being shut due to drifting snow, high wind and ice. We all had good fun trying to get either back to the yard or home to our families.

The picture above, taken today, shows our Tipper Truck abandoned as it tried to get back to the yard. To be honest, the driver did well to get it this far (this is a back way to our yard across the farm) as all the surrounding roads were closed!

We hope that all of our clients and blog followers are well and did not suffer too much from the bad weather.

Orchard Priory - Design Services

Orchard Priory offers comprehensive and high quality design services alongside our landscape construction works.

Rupert Davis CMLI (Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute) is responsible for the design side of the business and can be seen in the picture above working on the sketch design for a 2 bay Oak Car Barn.

Old Wives Lees - Turfing the Amphitheatre

Today has seen turf being laid on the amphitheatre in the side garden at Old Wives Lees. The picture above shows site manager, Mark Prentice, tamping down the turf.

We will bring you some shots of the finished amphitheatre next week, hopefully with some sunshine rather than the thick fog we had today!

Old Wives Lees - We love seeing the boss at work

Cladding the 2-Bay Oak Car Barn is the order of the day today, so much so in fact that even Orchard Priory's Managing Director, Ross Gandon, is on site to help out.

The cladding is the final stage of the Car Barn and the aim is to have it completed by the end of this week.

Old Wives Lees - Granite Cobble Bellmouth completed

Another day of pleasant sunshine has seen the drive bell-mouth completed with the pointing being finished, by hand, to various depths for an authentic, aged appearance.

The photo above shows the bell-mouth and you can also see the car barn which now just needs the cladding installed to finish it off.

Old Wives Lees - Finally some sunshine!

Finally, a day with some sunshine. There was a definite sense of relief on site this morning, perhaps it wouldn't rain, perhaps hands would not be numb before the morning tea break!

Well, the sunshine has witnessed a very productive day at Old Wives Lees. We have now completed the installation of the reclaimed nib tile roof on the 2-Bay Oak Car Barn (as you can see in the top picture, above) and also finished work on a small, hand knapped, flint wall at the rear of the Oak Car Barn. This wall was required to  match into an existing wall (which you can see on the left of the lower picture, above). Whilst it is clear at present that the new section of wall is just that, in time it will weather down nicely and match into its surroundings.