Abbotsley Wheelchair Access Landscaping Project

The wheelchair access landscaping project is finally finished!

It’s taken a couple of months, six trailer loads of weed trees disposed of and a ton of future firewood wheelbarrowed up to the back of the house, fourteen trailer loads of mountain soil, five trailer loads of Coldstream topping, four trailer loads of mulch all brought in and spread by hand (with a shovel and garden tools of course.)

Two drystone rock walls were pulled down and rebuilt to form the new sloping path and the six sleeper steps to the right of the front door sleeper steps removed, filled with soil and rock wall border built.

​Three tree ferns and a bunch of other plants were transplanted to clear the area and border the path and we took advantage of last week’s sale at the local nursery to plant it out.

The project came about earlier this year when it became clear that we needed to provide wheelchair access to the house where only sleeper steps existed - one set to the front door and then other set, next to the first, up to the brick patio leading to the kitchen/dining room doors and around the side of the house.

​Over the years, the cotoneaster and pittosporum trees and other leafy shrubs had gradually taken over the area outside the front of the house too, and the garden path through them had all but disappeared.

One of Abbotsley garden's signatures is its drystone rock walls and borders and one of the significant rock walls is along the front of the house supporting the embankment. To create the new sloping path, half of this wall needed to be dismantled and rebuilt further out from the house and then the whole area backfilled with mountain soil.

But first - those cotoneaster and pittosporum trees and the other unwanted plants had to be removed and the tree ferns and other plants that we were keeping were transplanted elsewhere in the garden.

​Bit by bit the project inched towards completion and now we're there.

​The landscaping has opened up the front of the house beautifully - we’re delighted with the result and are looking forward to seeing the plants settle in over the next few months.

​And it ready now for our daughter, Becky, to visit us again!