Saturday, August 21, 2010

Landscape For The House


The soft landscape that is the planting of flowers and shrubs around the house is my wife's domain. She will decide everything as to the choice of plants and the arrangement. Since she finds immense joy and satisfaction in doing it, I am only happy to watch. My only involvement is only for the occasional advice whenever she chooses to ask and other menial job which requires more muscular power such as re potting, moving the larger pots around and filling the larger pots with soil.
Of late I became more involved in the landscape work both the soft landscape and the hard landscape. Now I am more interested to produce some potted seedlings for sale to the local nursery. This I will dwell on in more detail in my future posts. For now I would like to share with you all some of the hard landscape projects which I did for the house.
Fatthiyah has been getting ideas for the hard landscape projects from such magazines as Laman or Anjung Seri which she buys regularly and read them from front to back. With quite a stack of sawn timber left over from our house renovation job which I have been reluctant to dispose off lest they become necessary later, Fatthiyah asked me to do something with it so as to reduce the pile from being used as rodent's nest or even worse from being used the breeding place for snakes.
The first project started off with the making of a simple fence using 2" x 2" wood as poles and nailed with 1" x 2" laterals.
To start off I will show you some of the tools I used for the job.


A Black & Decker folding bench, a Makita 7" hand held circular power saw (not really necessary for the first job but was used due to the fasting month where energy conservation is of paramount importance), a Sandvic cross cut saw, a hammer and some nails. The power drill is not in the picture but it was used to drill some holes before nailing the wood together. The wood being old and dry will split without the holes being drilled first.

This is how the wooden decorative fence look like after being given several coats of ICI's solar screen. This solarscreen product will keep the wood from rotting due to the constant exposure to water and sun.
Fatthiyah was so happy with it and pretty soon she came up with another idea albeit much more harder to do due to larger pieces of wood used. For this job I should be using at least 5" x 5" posts which I don't have. What I did was to use 2" x 5" pieces together to form a 4" x 5' blocks. For this job I am thankful that I have the hand held circular saw as it really helped me with the cutting of the larger pieces. The project is for a flower pot stand.

This is how the contraption looked like when completed. A flower pot will be placed on each posts which ranged in height from 12' to 24".

After several coats of solarscreen application, this is how it looks. So as not to waste space I placed some 2" x 2" rafters on the rack which could be used to place more pots.

The next project was my own project. It was a bench to complement the pseudo marble bench and table which I sometime use to work on my notebook whenever I want to be outdoor. Since the benches which came with the set were made of concrete, they were too heavy to move around and the distance was not conducive for working on a notebook when placed on the table.



A closer view of the wooden bench. The bench was later given a white coat of paint to ensure it will last longer and and make it aesthetically pleasing to the eye since it matches the colour of the other furniture.
The last project was another flower pot stand since I still have ample sawn timber left overs. This time it was for a three pot stand.


A flat piece to cover the post and provide a larger surface for the pots.

The rack after painting.


The three pots rack with flower pots placed on it.

With this idea why not do your own? They are really quite simple to do and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to do it. A saw, a hammer, some nails and some sawn timber are all that you need.

26 comments:

Unknown said...

Awie,

Your new hobby ek? Good, but it involves money esp to get exclusive plants and flowers. They do brighten up your home... mencari damai.

Puteri said...

Good job with the landscape!

Uncle said...

Salam Pak Zawi.
Salute la.....memang creative dan sangat innovative. Kalau sayalah yang buat, mungkin tak kan habis!

Pak Zawi said...

Tuan Haji Azmy,
Most hobbies cost money but in my case it will be money worth spending by the satisfaction I get from it. yes mencari kedamaian is the word.

Pak Zawi said...

Puteri, thank you!

Pak Zawi said...

Uncle,
Stole the idea from the magazine. Give it a try and you too can do it!.

Zendra-Maria said...

Painting, woodwork, photography, babysit.... waaah what can't you do Pak Zawi :DDD

Pak Zawi said...

Zebdra,
I am only human and there are many things I definitely cannot do such as giving birth to a baby which I don't really want to hehehehe. Anything else humanly possible I can learn to do it.

Unknown said...

another good way for exercise. glad that u r filling up your time with healthy life style. I wonder what I am going to do once i retire...

Pak Idrus said...

Zawi, Landscaping is an art. One can learn it from books/magazines that are aplenty in the book stores. I did that from time to time. Take care.

Pak Zawi said...

Lim,
Yes, I do sweat quite alot whem doing such menial jobs.
Start doing something before you retire so that you will be adept at them when you finally have the luxury of time like me.

Pak Zawi said...

Pak Idrus,
I will get to the bookstores and get some books or magazines on hard landscape as that will give me loads of ideas on what more to do with my small yard. Thanks for the tip.

Unknown said...

Saya suka flower pot stand tu...kalau ada kolam ikan kecil dengan fountain lagi cantik...

Pak Zawi said...

Sripekan,
Terima kasih kerana meminati hasil kerja Pak Zawi. Kolam ikan tu akan dipertimbangkan dulu kerana laman rumah saya kecil sahaja.

Unknown said...

DIY memang jimat..nice job,i liked.

Pak Zawi said...

Awang,
jimat satu hal, kepuasan yang paling penting bagi saya.

en_me said...

rajinnyerr.. ehehe

Pak Zawi said...

en_me, hobby la katakan. lagi pula permintaan dari isteri, kena la buat.

Tommy Yewfigure said...

Pak Zawi, i like those before & after photos; really give u that sense of achievement, but please arrr u r really beginning to make us look bad & inadequate...hahaha

Cheers,
Tommy

Pak Zawi said...

Tommy,
I am so happy that u like my presentation of things. Plese don't feel inadequate cos my intention is to share what we can do if we try. Anyway I have invested quite a bit of money on the tools to make it possible to do things. So my guess is if you want to DIY you must be willing to buy the tools to do it. Without them I won't be able to do it too.

Tommy Yewfigure said...

Good on you PZ, just pulling your leg on the inadequate part, i'm hopeless when it comes to DIY, create more bigger problem & very injury prone too :)

JALAN REBUNG said...

salam pak zawi,

memang hebat la , boleh ambik inspirasi ni. nampak blog pak zawi pasal t/mill takashima tu ..tahniah pak ..terus kan work out tu

Pak Zawi said...

Tommy, DIY is on for those who enjoy doing it. Otherwise just get others like me to do it for u and you pay us for the effort hahahaha.

Pak Zawi said...

Jalan Rebung,
Sekarang bulan puasa Treadmill kurang berfungsi sikit. InsyaAllah lepas puasa nanti aktif balik.

Anonymous said...

Hi Pak Zawi, I find your designs to be very good. It creates a very nice ambience and 'mood' to relax after work. Which is what a garden should be for. I'm definitely a fan of your designs. Meanwhile, my father and I am looking for a nice stone bench for our garden too. Would it trouble you if I inquired where and how I can get my hands on those marble benches you have in your photo? The pseudo-antique kinda look. Thanks, my e-mail is davidchiang@hotmail.com. Appreciate it!!!

H J Angus said...

zawi
great job on the landscaping!
It's a good way to buy power toys or tools.
I bought a Bosch hammer drill to install teak planks in the staircase of a new house and I reckon the project payed for the power tool.
My wife too is in charge of the garden but mostly she says, "I think we must......" and guess who get to do the tasks?