Finally, after a long period and lots of work hours, we’ve managed to bring the side garden big jobs near the finish. After demolishing the worksheds, removing the demolition material, building a new veggie garden, and filling it with soil, the steps are almost done. 

The side garden area has been abandoned for a long time, a few years back we made some brick/concrete steps to soften the slope. The steps worked great for a decade, but due to the constant usage, ice during the winter, and normal subsidence of the soil, the steps started falling apart. Every year the situation was worse until last year we decided that it was time to deal with the side garden.

Removing the buildings around the slope opened up a great space for relaxation and gardening, all we needed was to fix it up and add some kind of step solution. The easiest way would be to do concrete construction, but we weren’t allowed to do that. The gas pipes are directly under the slope, and they need to be easily accessible. We, technically, could pour concrete over the slope, but we couldn’t use any kind of metal framework so that the concrete could be easily broken if the pipe access was needed.  Building something without a metal framework on the slope is just stupid and a waste of time. The heavy concrete would start slipping in a couple of months and we’d have an even bigger problem. So we went for a less permanent but affordable solution that we could do by ourselves without the need to hire any workers or additional help. Sure it took some time, but hubby managed to finish building all of the steps on his own.

While we were working on building the garden and small beds, I was there to help him, but now it is the middle of the gardening season, and there are just too many things to do. While he was working on the steps I was in the garden most of the time. Still, after a couple of weeks hubby managed to build the steps all the way to the top. Luckily Srećko was here to help work and dig.

We had an issue with the step length, as it is visible in the photos, not all the steps are the same length or size. Most of them just follow the terrain. The slope on the upper side is much bigger, and making bigger steps would mean that the size would be way too big to walk comfortably down the slope. The steps are now different sized, but at least it is very easy to walk down them. We can connect the footsteps while moving down, which is especially amazing for me since I’m short, and have a problem with high steps. 

The steps still need a drainage system. Hubby left a hole next to the house where the drainage should go. The only part where the drainage is done is the small basement entrance. Once the drainage system is finished the hole will be closed with something similar to a window sill, where I’ll place more flower containers.

There’s also a terrace wall missing from the right side, which hubby has started working on this week. The second terrace will be made out of boards, and we’ll fill it up with all the leftover demolition materials. If we’ll ever need the materials, and we need them all the time, we’ll just remove one of the boards and pull them out. The second terrace floor will be covered with gravel, and during the summer it will be covered with additional cover and a removable pool. The pool will not happen this year, there’s still too much work that needs to be done before buying a pool. We need a place to keep it during the winter, and both of the basements are still a mess. Once we finish renovating the basements, we’ll buy a pool.

Removing the demolition materials that were used in the step building opened up a whole empty space on the south side of the side garden, and we’ve realized that there’s a bunch of space around the garden steps that can be used. 

So, the next project will be a small flower garden around the garden steps, but that will be done once we finish the second terrace, install the anti-hail net and finish working on the front yard drainage system. There’s still a lot of work but we’re getting there.