hi welcome back to garden ninja today's a really exciting day here at garden
into HQ because the gabions have arrived to the exploding Atom garden now I know
it's been a while since I've done an update on the exploding atom garden
that's mainly due to bad weather winter and a little bit of a ninja fatigue but
today's video is going to be about Gabions!
and how I'm going to use these wire mesh boxes to provide a real structure and
focal point for the garden so come on let's get cracking now they arrived
usually different panel sizes and then you've got connectors which connect them
together it's basically like adult version of Lego you have to put these
together so I'm going to show you how to do a basic rectangular one now on the
floor and then I'm gonna build the other five and a move them into position before we start to fill them
Now the connectors for gabions are really interesting I've opted for these spiral
ones mainly because they're really simple to use
there is an alternative when you get these clasps that clip around corners they're
a bit more fiddly and these are really robust it's dead easy don't be what you
do with these once you've laid out correctly
she's threaded through the joining parts as you twist it will then connect
different parts together and they're really 'Hellp barry!' So I'm going to lay these out on a stable surface and work out
which piece goes where
so it can feel like a bit of a brain melt trying to do this if you lay it out
to them pull up the sides at the top you'll be able to visualize the box so
these two pieces here I've got this right are the bottom where gog the top two pieces over there got
the ends there's two more pieces this size did a good a big deal other side
this one's gonna be flipped up on its side it's a long skinny back to
hopefully now it's worth noting at this point probably going to have an extra
piece that has much bigger gaps between the metal this is a brace
so once you've laid out your box we've started to construct a brace it's gonna
go in the very center again hard to visualize but check the instructions
what this will do is through it then sit the middle of the box away to put braces
which are like hooks onto each side that the Box
doesn't bulge if you didn't have this you've got a big rectangular box full of
stone the chances are pressure for the middle to the four sides apart this is
key so I'm just like the Keystone in a bridge you need this big box
so the gabions are going to form an intrinsic part of a garden in the inner
core so this is only real sort of hard landscaping structure so what I've
just walked from but here's one of the gabions here's all the gabions I've
just made now and I'm gonna move it into position so if you can see here in the
inner ring this first one is gonna go right on the edge up against the edge
and that's for drama so what you'll see it
hi impact gonna fill them with the reclaimed bricks that have been used in the
surrounding house and paths so it all fits together. So when you see it you think connection. Bing Bing Bing draw your eye
into the house in the background and from your house into the garden so it's
like a symbiotic relationship that's a big word isn't it right so I'm gonna
finish building the other five of those just gonna take a few hours and then I'm
gonna lay them out so I'm going to ensure that I've got my levels right so
I've got a break here the spirit level the grounds and recently cultivated and
then gonna tamp it with my feet by walking along where the gabions are
gonna go put them in first making sure the level and then
so I made the gabion cages out and I've got some foundations in the form of
flags that put down they'll put a foundation down and we put them directly
onto soft earth like I've got here what you'll find is over time they'll move as
they settle and then you have a whole heap of trouble emptying them to be
loving them so stitch in time saves nine get your foundations in whether it be
flags or a concrete base or compacted hard core and make sure that's level so
I'm gonna get the others in now and then start to fill them and I'll show you
that next so all I'm doing is literally repeating the same layers again and
again so I'll get to the top and I'm going to finish my gabion with the cost
of slate tiles that I've reclaimed its final big box then I'm going to cover them
really nice dark grey blue the slate have distressed block these reclaimed
bricks that must be at least 60 70 years old and then you've broken flag so
completely recycled hopefully
so whilst you filling the gabions if you're doing it this way which is I'm
filling them by the size of it my little hands can reach in and arrange the
bricks you can usually just fill them from the top if you're using gabion
stone but I can't do that because I'm just not tall enough so you're gonna
have to use a spirit level as these stacking them to make sure that if
they've moved or migrated you can make small micro adjustments so that you
don't end up with a wonky donkey gabion if you have a look inside here
you'll start to see the kind of air gap that I was talking about before in the
center now you can feel the middle of the crates sorry the gabion is with
plastic crates or anything to fill the space you don't have to keep using the
expensive materials or you bothered about is the external
there is the slate that sound about so I had a pallet full secondhand sort of
broken slate that's brilliant can use those to top it off and it just sort of
makes it look neater and tidies up the interspace because there's quite a few
sort of books I'll be able to crawl around it and water the other drain
through so without the lid and you'd be able to see sort of the air gaps I think
that's a nice finish I'll show you the edge no it's gonna look so you want to
do the crack on so just finish the game you know showing you behind me and I've
got the slate roof on if you can see that there so you've done one two three
and now on the fourth now this is a bit of a labor of love I could have just
used gabion stone but it's expensive and I wanted to recycle all these
materials that I've managed to salvage and see I just think it's nice if you're
using things that are quite brutal to add a subtle design technique so with
the brickwork pattern you can see they're interlaced with the broken flags
it links back to the house in the background and I just think it just
looks a lot nicer the aesthetic if it works but obviously it's up to you you
could fill them full of gabion stone bricks like I've done, slate, logs debris
whatever you want to put in there and they do also act as massive bug hotels
and I'll talk a bit more about that later on so I've got to get cracking
because a Sun is about to set and I really want to finish this floor for a
finish
so the next stage for the exploding atom garden is to start planting up the
inner ring with all the hot herbaceous perennials now rather than buy these the source them from nurseries this year I decided to grow
them all myself in my greenhouse from seed now I'm gonna
be gardening without plastic this year when I grow these seeds and if that's
something of interest for you then why not check out the garden without plastic
vlog series of plastic free gardening so all the seedlings are being grown
without any plastic in biodegradable pots and containers I'm gonna document
exactly how that pans out good and bad this year so I've been Garden Ninja if
you've liked this video on the exploding atom garden and gave me why not
subscribe to my youtube channel have a comment in the bottom if you've got
questions or queries I would love to hear from you I'm off inside for a nice
cold drink!
you