Going the extra mile in the Gorsedd Gardens for Cardiff City Council
Posted on: March 6, 2009 by rosemarierees posted in News
The bmi baby Winter Wonderland event in the Gorsedd Gardens Cardiff is one of the highlights of the year for young and old alike. Restoring and improving the gardens after the event proved, thanks to atrocious weather, to be a major challenge.
During the event an ice skating rink extra lights and a huge ferris wheel are erected in an area which is one of the main focal points of the City, but it means the grounds themselves are left in what can only be described as a mess. For many years it has been out job to undertake the restoration , but this time because of the heavy rainfall, we were asked to supply and install a concrete soak away to deal with considerable water that was standing in the area. We also installed lateral drains to feed the water into the soak away.
The biggest challenges here was the weather as the area was badly poached from the de rigging of the area after the wonderland. After so many years of being returfed the water was just not draining away and a decision was made to cultivate this to break up any layering and give the water the opportunity to drain away. We were not paid for this extra work but felt that it would improve the finished result and we wanted the best result possible for Cardiff council with whom we have a long term relationship. The added benefit was that it enabled us to get on to the ground to finish the main work.
After the cultivation the area was prepared using our harley rake to achieve suitable levels for turf installation. 6000m2 of standard turf cut in 1.2m wide rolls were used. The wide rolls allowed us to lay as much as possible on days that the weather allowed work since it was always a challenge finding enough dry days. We usually try to complete the job by late January or early February. This year, thanks to the constant rain, it was completed just before St Davids Day March 1st – just in time for the parades and other events being held for our national day.
