When it is OK to bury plastic!

Faced with a structural problem of adding top soils behind a dry stone retaining wall – we were advised by our structural engineers ( Brenda Marsh at Hannah Reid ) to build up the levels in polystyrene blocks, designed for the purpose. The hole has been dug and blocks of polystyrene 610mm x 1200mm x 2400mm ( the size of a baby elephant! ) have been laid in. These blocks will be buried and a Spanish terrace built on top.
My only question remains as to what our successors will think in later archaeological digs when they strike polystyrene?

Posted by Liz Nicholson

The Beech!

After nearly two weeks of cutting this beech tree in the heart of Oxford is now down! The tree was in a state of terminal decline because of root compaction which had happened by the builders.

We tried the previous year to rectify this by teraventing the area around the tree and fertilising the tree.

We reluctantly took the decision to remove the tree when it did not show any signs of improvement and a root rooting fungus Meripilus giganteus appeared in Autumn 2009.

Each piece had to be lowered in a controlled manner to the ground avoiding the expensive up lighters. The tree was estimated to weigh in the region of 50 tonnes. The timber was taken away for Firewood and the chip brought back to our yard and sent off to a combined heat and power plant to be turned into green electricity!