On our road to self-sufficiency, recycling and upcycling go with the territory. A disused tree hut in the branches of the grand-daddy plane tree was dismantled and transformed into steps to our wetlands.
One corner of our property falls dramatically as it descends towards the stream and wetlands. When we moved in it was a bit of a ‘no go’ area as it was near impossible to navigate a safe passageway.
So for weeks we have stood and ogled the view from the top of the bank. Ducklings and pukeko paddle in the shallow stream, hawks circle the valley in search of tasty morsels and hares run races along the flats. It was time to explore our empire.
In places the bank resembles a gently rambling meadow and in others a sheer drop. After strimming the long grass we began to see natural pathway along the fenceline.
Our steps didn’t need to be pretty but they did need to be functional. Inspired by DOC steps in the bush we were determined to do whatever it took to make the impassable passable!
We went for practical steps that suited the gradient – some wide and comfortable, others short and steep, and some at peculiar angles to accommodate some awkward drops.
There were two ways we could go about it: digging steps into bank or ‘setting’ steps and back-filling with soil. We decided on the latter as we had plenty of soil at hand and it seems we had more control over placement.
While any wood coming in contact with the ground should be H4 or H5 (level of treatment against rotting) we just upcycled extra large sized fence palings from the tree hut which are usually treated to lower standards.
Those lengths were cut to around 60cm plus we nailed shorter ‘wings’ for the sides to stop the back-fill soil from escaping. Rocket science? No! But this was one heck of a day’s project: digging, chopping lengths of wood, hack-sawing steel rods*, driving, bashing, back-filling, drinking copious amounts of tea and trying not to fall down the bank at any given moment.
*We used long concrete reinforcement steel rods (10mm) cut into one metre lengths, 800mm of which was staked into the soil to support the step. Using U nails around the top of the rod it helped draw the bar to the face of the step for extra stability.
Initially we set out to finish each step with sand but decided we’ll let nature take over. Hopefully grass roots will help bind the soil so it doesn’t wash away come winter.
Not pretty but practical. We get up and down the bank with more ease!
Now a disclaimer: throughout this post I do say ‘we’ and I do MEAN ‘we’. I am the photographer, hole digger, provider of soil, buckets, morning tea, general motivation to waning enthusiasm in the heat of the day, and general management consultation services!
