Private Client, Hampshire

MJ Abbott Limited were approached by Willerby Landscapes to assist with the specialist earthworks, shaping and re-soiling to the grounds of a new private house near Petersfield, Hampshire.

The situation we faced was that the site had a shortfall of the topsoil required to complete the project, and a large surplus quantity of subsoil to be disposed of. All parties wished to minimise import and export of materials to and from site, so a viable solution needed to be found.

We worked closely with Willerby Landscapes, under the guidance of soil and landscape consultants Tim O’Hare Associates, to find the best solution to this problem. The proposed method, which we successfully implemented, was to strip and store the required topsoil from an adjacent field owned by the client which had a very good depth of existing topsoil, albeit very stony.

The existing vegetation was shallow rotovated and stripped prior to the remaining clean topsoil being stripped to its full depth and stored in a sealed heap on site, prior to the area receiving the surplus subsoil. This surplus subsoil was pushed out with our D6 bulldozer over a large area to allow for the spoil to follow the existing contours, and shaped to blend in smoothly with the surrounding features so that the newly shaped area looks entirely natural.

The surrounds of the buildings were softly contoured to blend in more naturally with the surrounding landscapes, and the new ha-ha was softened to improve the look of the site.

The stripped topsoil was then taken from the stockpile to the newly shaped areas and building surrounds, and spread to approximately 150mm depth. The previously stripped vegetation was then spread to the subsoil field area at 50mm depth prior to the remaining topsoil being spread at approximately 100mm depth.

While on site we installed drainage to the new tree pits, and created a turfed formal area with Golpla grass reinforcement for vehicle access.

We worked closely with Willerby Landscapes on the installation of the new trees, the new access driveway and the Golpla area. The remaining working areas were cultivated, stone picked and grade rolled prior to seeding with a low maintenance Pro Master 25 seed mix from DLF.